Racing Is at the Heart of Top Pro Motorsports

Alex Arango, the owner of Top Pro Motorsports in Coral Springs, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale, is a busy person who wears a lot of hats. Over the course of one week in June, he ran his dealership, which currently sells and provides service for used sport-oriented motorcycles, parts and accessories, traveled with his Top Pro race team to the MotoAmerica races in Minnesota, signed a new title sponsor for the team, raced in the MotoAmerica Superbike class, did trackside support for his Top Pro team, rebuilt a teammate’s BMW motorcycle after he crashed, built two engines for another race team, and started on an engine for an anonymous celebrity. Sounds exhausting? Arango likes what he is doing and wouldn’t change a thing.

Arango’s father was into motorcycle racing, so of course, Alex was competing off road by the time he was 14 and road racing by the time he was 18 or 19. Road racing on a budget means you have to learn how to troubleshoot and repair your motorcycle (or motorcycles) effectively and quickly, and in the course of wrenching on his own racers, Arango learned how to build competitive engines. After he graduated from school, Arango soon found employment at several different motorcycle dealerships. However, he was not happy.

“I got tired of working for dealerships,” Arango says. “I really like motorcycles, and I felt the people in charge did not share my passion — it was just a business to them. A friend helped me, and I started my own operation in 2019.”

In addition to the Top Pro dealership, Arango runs one of the largest teams on the MotoAmerica field, with entries in every class except Super Hooligans and King of the Baggers. The Superbike team runs BMWs, while the two Supersport riders are on Suzuki GSX-Rs, and the Twins racer rides an Aprilia — Arango works on all of them. This year, Arango was proud to announce the return of Sean Dylan Kelly to the US. Sean had been racing in Europe after winning the 2021 MotoAmerica Supersport championship.

Although Arango enjoys and is good at road racing, and is in demand as a race coach at his home track of Homestead near Miami, where he really shines is building racing engines and doing trackside support. The dealership is in some ways an extension of the racing assistance endeavor.

“I see my operation as a one-stop shop for aspiring road racers,” he says. Top Pro sells track-worthy used motorcycles, builds competitive engines and has a good selection of racing suits and helmets. Road racing wears out tires very quickly, and teams need to have a variety of compounds on hand to suit track conditions, hence the tall stacks of tires at the Top Pro dealership.

Top Pro is not exclusively race oriented, but the emphasis on excellent work done right the first time, which is the only time you have when racing, works for repairs and upgrades on the bikes the shop works on: BMW, Aprilia, MV Augusta, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, and Kawasaki street motorcycles. Customers appreciate the dealership on social media: “Great place! Alex and his crew are true bike lovers and riders. They understand your needs and will help you on anything you need,” says one customer. “Alex and staff are thoughtful, courteous and passionate about their craft. They will NEVER sell you on anything they don’t feel you need, and are the best at coming up with solutions, even if it takes them time,” says another.

Although Top Pro is only selling used bikes and accessories at the moment, Arango says he is in negotiations with a couple of OEMs and hopes to start selling new bikes in the near future. In order to help the negotiations along, he is in process of renting a larger warehouse.

Top Pro needs to market in two directions: first, to support the dealership, with its fixed costs, and second, to support the race team. Road racing is hugely expensive, and Top Pro has a relatively large group of racers competing in several different events. Due to contacts and marketing expertise gained over the years, Arango is able to run a profitable and growing dealership, while supporting his race team. He has recently gained a new team title sponsor, which has helped tremendously.

The Top Pro dealership gets its customer base from all over the U.S. and even abroad. In fact, Arango says 50% of his customers are from out of the immediate area. The dealership even has a branch store in the country of Columbia, South America. The customers there are similar to the customers in the U.S. — aspiring road racers. Arango has an extensive social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and gets many customers from sponsoring track days, but says his best marketing approach is his MotoAmerica racing.

“People really like the idea that ‘the guy who works on my bike works on MotoAmerica bikes,’” Arango notes. “They see us race and want to be part of it.” Since MotoAmerica races take place all over the U.S., people interested in a spec-built racing engine have a chance to see and meet with Arango and his associates, no matter where they live. The variety of motorcycles the race team is able to effectively field increases customer confidence that their motorcycle, no matter the brand, will also be well-cared for.

Arango’s projects for the near future are just as diverse as his current ones. Dissatisfied with his dealership website, he took it down and is now in the process of rebuilding it bigger and better.

“We are in the process of growing,” he says. “I am looking forward to getting my riders a win. I want to get more podiums. I want to do more builds. I am doing what I really like. It’s a passion.”