Cycle News

Part two of the roundtable discussion on the current state of affairs in AMA road racing By HEN NY RAy ABRAMS PHoTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON oshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin, American Honda's Miguel Duhamel , Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom, Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster, STAR Suzuki School's Jason Pridmore. Y Those five riders gathered for an extraordinary conversation at Pikes Peak International Raceway on May 21, the Friday before the start of racing. The conversation was far-reaching with the mandate being that the riders offer solutions as well as questions. What stood out most prominently was the riders' collective frustration. It's clear the ir passion for the sport hasn't been matched by the action of those who administer the sport. They 're all aware they 've made the choice to make a living here, a very comfortable living. But they know it can be better. The first part of the interview was published in last week's Cycle News. This is part two . The themes are similar, and the conversation continues with the riders ' circling back to the their numberone concern - safety. Safety was the focus of much of the conversation, some of which was redundant. For that reason, the transcript of the interview has been edited . The essence of what the riders felt hasn't changed. MLADIN: As Miguel said before, track safety I think has to be number one . But to build the series, there needs to be continuity like Eric [Bostrom] said. And there need to be one class that houses the best riders in the paddoc k. Right now if you took the top guys out of Superstock and put them in Superb ike on competitive bikes, you've got your 16 fast motorbike riders. You've literallygot a bunch of guys that can race . BUCKMASTER: And that sells. Racing sells. Good racing. A lot of that comes back to a series sponsor. There's no one driving it. Chevrolet, we 're thankful for the money they put in, but it's an absentee landlord. Ifit was Target, just to use a name, there's a Target in every town we go to . They would have a stake in it. DUHAMEL: That's one of our problems, though . There're a lot of things to be fixed, but the hardest thing to do every time we get everybody around and we have these meetings . We have trouble staying focused on one thing. We want to get everything fixed, but that's not going to happen and a lot less if we bring one or two things in. Track safety's one and maybe increasing prize money. Those are the easiest way to help two of the biggest problems. BOSTROM: And again, on the lack of foresight thing, you bring out two 1000cc classes. It's easy for a manufacturer to take the easy way out . Yamaha, for example , they're like, "Hey, we don't want to spend the millions of dollars to have to come back and spend millions of dollars in development next year, and we can just as easily put our guy out there on the bike that we sell, and we can win that race, and we can advertise; we 've won the race ." BUCKMASTER: There're too many avenues for the manufacturers to go. MLADIN: It's making no difference to Honda if they win a Superbike race because they 're advertising Formula Xtreme on Monday, which, good on them . Smart advertising. What Eric is saying just leads straight down that path. Does the series need a benevolent dictator? BOSTROM: It needs someone to keep the series in check. But where would we get that guy? MLADIN: There are a lot of good people out there that have done it for years. But I think one person tried a few years ago but subsequently left before 12 months were up. He left because he be'lieved it was a no-win situation. Again, that's not quoting him, but that's what the word was around the paddock . Here's a guy who understands racing. We're talking about (former American Honda team manager) Gary Mathers. MLADIN: IfGary [Mathers] doesn't understand racing, who does? Another problem is that the rules are made by people who don't come to the racetrack. PRIDMORE: The thing is I'm on the advisory board , and that's been a big question. BUCKMASTER: What are you doing there anyway? PRIDMORE: It's been tough , because there have been times I didn't want to do it any more, because I have to answers questions like that . I've asked the same questions. Uke, why are we here? There are things that you say, everybody raises their hand if you want this or that . It's not a vote - it's an opinion. Because there are people you don't even see, that don't even come to the racetrack, and they 're going to make the decision ultimately. That's the frustrating part . I want to try to make a difference and try to help and make it better for all of us. But it's frustrating because you feel like your hands are tied when you see everybody agree on something that is at the racetrack every single weekend. Then it comes back, and it's thrown out the window like it's not a big deal. Then you think, "Well, why am I wasting two or three hours of my afternoon to come in and try to discuss any changes that we might want to make?" Uke Eric said, it would be a good thing if we did have one person. BOSTROM: Go ask Ron Barrick right now if we 're going to Daytona next year. He won't give you an answer. PRIDMORE: You won't get an answer. "We're waiting for the board to come back" or "We're waiting to see what the tires are ." It gets redirected. BOSTROM: And that's where I think that a benevolent dictator's just got to say, "It's not even an option ." DUHAMEL: If you can find one that works for free and is competent. I don't think all of the people at the AMA work for free, I think some of them make more money than most of the people in this room. The name Steve Whitelock keeps coming up. MLADIN: I think Steve would do a great job at the racetrack. He'd be 100 percent better than what we have now, which is nothing. PRIDMORE: I really thought the AMApeople would have learned something from Loudon. The scene that

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