Cycle News

- - - - - -- - -- . .. bikes that have shown they can run as fast as the Superbikes for a certain amount of laps. DUHAMEL: They might have gotten their tires across the street at a local shop . The AMA has a habit of waiting for the second incident. The chicane at Daytona three years ago, they don't do anything, Two years ago it happens, then they react, Spies blows a tire up, They don't notice, DiSalvo blows a tire up . Okay, now maybe we pay attention, PRIDMORE: Ben [Bostrom] did it four years [ago]. Anthony [Gobert] did it two years ago, Kurtis [Roberts] did it, PRIDMORE: The people that are always getting the questions are not the ones that should be going and get ting the questions asked to. Because they make tires all over the world that people race and don't have any problems. MLADIN: 250 horsepower GP bikes don't have problems with the tires . BOSTROM: I can say now that between testing and racing there we chunked more tires than I can count on both my hands. MLADIN: You're talking about a lot of 240 horsepower motorcycles doing 340 kilometers an hour [21 I mph] and not having problems. But we're having 750 Supers port bikes chunking front tires at Daytona. PRIDMORE: I was chunking fronts on my [750cc] Supersport bike. You can't come back to Dunlop and go "What's wrong with the tires?" I didn't even stay around and watch that race . You know why? Physically, I'm sick to my stomach watching the 200. I cannot watch it. BOSTROM: You know all the tire guys are sick to their stomach watching it. MLADIN: Can you imagine being those technicians? PRIDMORE: I left Saturday morning. My first question when I got off my plane: The 200's over - is everybody safe? Then I went home and enjoyed watching it. I don't have any desire at being at that track when that race is going on. And that includes when I'm riding it. Every lap I do around that place, it's like, "Phew, that's another lap." MLADIN: Big changes need to be made . And, again, Daytona's history 's there, and let's go back and there and race . But let's make some major changes. PRIDMORE: Go back to the beach . It'd be safer. DUHAMEL: The thing is, they're in the moment now that they're going to be tearing the place up and changing stuf], I'm just praying that they're going to put their head down and say, "li sten, we have a real problem: we will address it and make a great racetrack" so that we won't complain. Not long ago, Kenny Roberts , Freddie Spencer, Patrick Pons, guys like that came over here and raced . Now you're thinking, ifthey would step it up and do a really good trac k. maybe we could invite some of those other guys again? There are guys out there doing I:58 to qualify for the show. He saw God that whole lap. I don't even warm up my tire that slow, and he saw God all that lap. And that's as fast as he ever wants to go around there. Once he's made that , he's not clicking 58s. He goes back to 2:02s. Even when he gets tired, he's probably doing 2:05s. MLADIN: The problem is ifyou talk like that , you're a whiner, you're a jerk, privateers this and that . DUHAMEL: But there are privateers who made the grid at I:54s. I don't have a problem with that . The prob lem that I have is that I:58 that makes the show, and you look at allhis laps, and that was the fastest he's ever gone around there. We're going to see this guy 10 times. Another thing we haven't discussed is consistency in applying the rules. One example was ---------------- .. when Damon's Formula Xtreme bike was declared illegal halfway through the 2002 season, and he had to race a different bike here, BUCKMASTER: During that year I tr ied to get a lot of answers myself, but no one could give me a definite answer. To me that was a major stumbling block in the cons istency of rules. If you remember, the race before Pikes Peak was Road Atlanta, which was that third race in a row that I'd won . We won that race and new directly to Road Amer ica for a test on Tuesday. That was where I turned up and there was a big team meeting between Graves and the factory guys, something I'd never seen before - a teann meeting at a test. And the discussion was that this bike had been deemed illegal, so we don't know how to approach this test and the remainder of the year. The only logical thing to do was to dump the test for the RIs. Ifyou remember, both the Goberts were injured. The Formula Xtreme truck just packed up and went to California to build a new bike. They turned up to Pikes Peak for the next race with a completely different motorcycle. What was the explanation for why your bike was suddenly illegal? BUCKMASTER: I got no reason . That's a very good question that still remains unanswered . I never received a phone call or anything. I just turned up at the test, and it was illegal. MLADIN: Something that's come up this year in the melee of things going on is that Honda runs front-wheel speed sensors on their Superbikes. I don't care - personally I don't care. But the rulebook says that 's prohibited , [General Equipment Rule B .a]. But because a few years ago somebody said, "Fo r practice you can do it, but take them off for qualifying," then that over rules the rulebook. If Suzuki don't want to fix it or Honda don't want to fix the problems of someone else's rules, then there's nothing I can do about that . All I can do is ride. But this happens all the time . It says it there in the rulebook. Ah, but we 're just going to let that go this time . A rulebook's a rulebook. If you don't abide by it, go home. There's got to be rules that everyone lives by. And again I only bring that up because we just spoke about it an hour ago, and it was the last thing that was on my tongue. Whatever the thing is, a rulebook's a rulebook. If your fuel doesn't comply, you're out . If your bike doesn't comp ly, you're out. That's it. There's no gray area. Because the more gray area, mate , the more people are going to stretch the gray and the more problems you're going to have. But the AMA can overrule it with the catchphrase "in the best interest of competition," BUCKMASTER: Well, that overrides the whole rulebook. DUHAMEL: One of the situations the AMA probably needs to address is that they 're really stringent on the factory guys. They 're watching us like we 're criminals on parole. And then Isee a couple of bikes out there that are faster than my CBRI000. MLADIN: Don't even go there, dude. I had four Suzukis at Fontana that were quicker than mine. I'm not talking about Aaron [Yates] - I'm talkingabout privateer bikes. PRIDMORE: The re was a guy this year at the Superstock race at Fontana that had 6 mph on the field. He came by me so fast. MLADIN: You're talking about mentality. I've had a few pole positions in my career in America, and last year at Barber, Miguel, you know what an AMA official said when I got the pole last year? I had it by like .7 over Aaron [Ed. note: It was .446 of a second]. And the AMA official that was standing there, he says, "That's got to go to tech. You're nearly a second quicker than anybody, that's off to tech ." I've had 30 or more of these. It's not like I can't get pole position on a legal motorbike. That's what he said. This is the mentality of the people, just what you're talking about. PRIDMORE: Igot [drug] tested three weekend s in a row once . And I'm like, dude, I've never had a drink or smoked anything in my life, ever. MLADIN : I remember the times I've been done. It' s like it was done in a caravan, I'm walking out thinking, "Where' s that going?" BOSTROM: I had it done last weekend [at Barber] , and I walked in the rest roo m, took a piss and the n handed it to the guy. I could have had anything in my pocket. MLADIN: I think the most scary thing is when you gave it to the guy, what's going on?When Igot done, Iwas worried, because it just doesn't seem like it's proced ure. BUCKMASTER: This happened last weekend [Barber] with me . I took the test, gave the two samples to the guy, and then I came back to the truck , and Keith [McCarty], who's recently just had a bit of a sample problem with fuel, he said "Did you get your sample? Whe re's your sample?" Isaid Ididn't get one . He said get back up there and do another test. PRIDMORE: I got tested last year in Europe . When they came and got me, they got me off the podium, followed me, they wouldn't let me go change or nothing. I couldn't piss for an hour, so I had to sit there. When I did, the guy followed me into the bathroom and watched me do it. And it was like you were going into a full lab. I totally felt like this is totally clean. The way they do it here is they rent a van for the weekend and throw you in there for a while. BOSTROM : It's just continuity. And nothing is. DUHAMEL: I don't want them to get mad and start testing me every day. MLADIN: We shouldn't bring this up because that's going to happen . DUHAMEL: That'd be part of the track safety ifthey test some privateers for sure, they've got to pick some guys out of the field and try. BOSTROM: I don't want to leave and just think that we just wasted a couple of hours, but what can we do that will really affect us?The article's going to affect a lot of people, but the last people it's going to affect is the eN people it should.

• Cover