The next line we said in unison. "It's stupid." Jinx.
In defense of Dorna and the other powers
that be (if there are any), I can get up on Sunday
mornings at 5 a.m. and watch MotoGP live on TV.
That's a good thing. The fact that I have to explain
too many things on a Sunday afternoon… well,
not so much.
Put it this way, when I sit down with my non-mo-
torcycle friends on a Saturday night to watch Su-
percross, the biggest question I have to answer
is: "Is this the 250s or the 450s?" And now they
pretty much have that figured out as well – even
with the 250 East class just starting.
But I can already hear the MotoGP questions
and the season hasn't even started yet. And I
thought AMA Superbike, AMA SportBike, AMA
Supersport were difficult to explain.
"Okay, Crutchlow's in the Open class but rides
a factory Ducati, right? And Bradley Smith is on a
satellite Yamaha that's in the factory class? Can't
Nicky Hayden's team just download some soft-
ware update to make his Honda faster?"
And it may get worse six races in. If an Open
class bike makes getting to the podium a bit of a
habit.
"Okay, Dovizioso got third and now they've
moved him to the Factory 2 class? Paul, you told
me they did all this to even the playing field. So the
guy on the Ducati gets third, showing that the new
rule works, and now they penalize him by taking
fuel away so that his bike's not as fast at the next
race… so he can't get on the podium again?"
Well, that's because that's Ducati's third third-
place finish and Ducati really wasn't supposed to
be in the Open class and there're two levels of
software available for the "Open" class bikes, but
Ducati is the only one who can make the better
software package work because it was actually
pretty much programmed by them and the oth-
er teams don't have the manpower to figure out
how to make that level of software work on their
bikes…
"Whatever… is Dean Wilson still riding Chad
Reed's bike next weekend?" CN
VOL. 51 ISSUE 10 MARCH 11, 2014 P115
LOOKING BACK
40 Years Ago
March 19, 1974
All the happenings at Daytona were featured
in Cycle News 40 years ago and Daytona
200 winner Giacomo Agostini was pictured
in action on the cover. Pat Hennen won the
50-mile Junior Race, and Don Castro won
the 250 Jr. Expert… Roger DeCoster won
the 500cc class and Pierre Karsmakers the
250cc class in the Daytona Invitational Moto-
cross, the first of a two-round series that con-
cluded in Houston and was worth $24,000 in
prize money, the most ever in U.S. MX history… More than 1000 riders
turned out for the Candy Ass Enduro in Bar-
stow, California.
30 Years Ago
March 21, 1984
Kenny Roberts was pictured on the cover af-
ter winning the Daytona 200. Roberts, Fred-
die Spencer and Ron Haslam went 1-2-3;
Wayne Rainey won the International Light-
weight division… David Bailey won the Day-
tona Supercross, with Rick Johnson taking
second just ahead of Johnny O'Mara… Ted
Boody and Rodney Faris were tops in dirt track action… In California,
Dan Smith rose to the top at the King of the Desert race… We tested
the new water-cooled Husqvarna WR400.
20 Years Ago
March 16, 1994
The opening round of the outdoor National MX
Series at Gatorback was highlighted on the
cover 20 years ago. Mike LaRocco claimed
victory in the premier 250cc class; Jeff Emig
won the 125cc class… Danny Hamel and Ty
Davis teamed up to win the SCORE San Fe-
lipe 250. A day later in California, Hamel won
a round of the AMA National Hare & Hound
at Lucerne… We interviewed Jeff "Chicken"
Matiasevich whose career was winding down at the "old age" of 24…
We also interviewed road racing's newcomer Troy Corser.
10 Years Ago
March 17, 2004
Mat Mladin was featured on the cover 10
years ago for taking top honors at the Daytona
200… Chad Reed did the deed at the Day-
tona Supercross, as did James Stewart in the
125cc class… J.R. Schnabel was the top dirt
tracker… Barry Hawk got the GNCC Series
started with a win at Palatka… Jason Raines
zeroed in on the Alligator Enduro win... Da-
vid and Nick Pearson teamed up to win the
Laughlin Hare Scrambles.
Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News
Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives
