Markel American Insurance Company Invites Motorcycle Enthusiasts to Vintage Bike Restoration Competition on Thursday, June 2nd

WAUKESHA, Wis., May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorcycle enthusiasts will want to mark their calendars for June 2nd. Six area high schools will showcase their vintage motorcycle restoration talents at the Iron Horse Hotel on 500 West Florida Street in Milwaukee through BUILD Milwaukee, a Moto Mentor program sponsored in part by Markel American Insurance Company.

The program is a new initiative by The Iron Horse Hotel that offers high school students an opportunity to learn motorcycle restoration while developing important business, trade and interpersonal skills. Each team was given 90 days (February 15th - May 15th) and a budget of $2,000 to restore and customize a vintage Honda BC or CL 160.

The bikes will be judged based on five sets of criteria: Fastest (dyno competition on June 2nd), Art Bike (panel of judges), MilVin Moto Best of Show (voted on June 2nd), Crowd Favorite (social media driven voting), and Best Documentation (presented to the team that captures the best documentation process).

Enthusiasts can vote for their favorite motorcycle on www.facebook.com/Buildmoto from May 23rd to May 31st and then see the bikes in person at The Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee on June 2nd.

After June 2nd, the bikes will be raced at Road America's Vintage Classic Weekend in Elkhart Lake (June 10th -12th), and showcased at Mods vs. Rockers in Chicago (June 18th). Discovery World will serve as the official museum display for the program, where the bikes will be on site from June 21st to July 29th. The final viewing of the bikes will take place at The Rockerbox Street Festival in Milwaukee on August 6th.

"This is a great opportunity not only to help build some great motorcycles, but to help introduce local high school students to the art of motorcycle restoration," said Ted Wentzel, Markel American's Director of Marketing.  "We're so excited to watch the progress and to see all the bikes when they're finished."

Markel American Insurance Company (part of Markel Corporation) specializes in powersports insurance such as motorcycle insurance, boat insurance and ATV insurance. For more information, visit www.markelinsuresfun.com.

Markel Corporation markets and underwrites specialty insurance products and programs to a variety of niche markets.  In each of these markets, the Company seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader.  The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value.  For more information on the Markel Group of companies, please visit www.markelcorp.com

SOURCE Markel American Insurance Company