Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1019648
MOTOAMERICA JUNIOR CUP P108 Feature "Then right before the season, Kawasaki came out with their Ninja 400 which qualified as a bike that could be used. And KTM came out with their R-version 390. We were kind of in the dark of how capable the bikes were." The opening two rounds of the series saw plenty of angry faces as Morse and MotoAmerica admittedly went too heavy on the machine ev- eryone knew was going to be a contender—the Kawasaki Ninja 400. As the bike with the largest capacity and a rider of Ashton Yates' talent on board (Yates took second in race one of round one at Road Atlanta and cruised to victory in race two), the Ninja 400 came in for restrictions. For round three (round two for the Junior Cup) at VIR, the 400 lost 2150 rpm and Yates could do no better than a DNF in race one and ninth in race two as the top Kawasaki rider. CHRIS FILLMORE KTM North America Racing Manager F illmore has been part of the now defunct RC Cup and was one of two riders, alongside former MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams, who helped develop the World Supersport 300 race kit and RC 390 R into the bike Alex Dumas and Sean Ungvarsky race in the KTM Orange Brigade outfit. This is what he had to say about the current rules structure for the race-kitted RC 390 R. "For us, it's difficult because when the rules were written, MotoAmerica switched from a spec series with the KTM RC Cup to an open manufactur- ers championship in the Junior Cup," Fillmore said. "KTM strongly believes in the development of our products through racing, hence us creating the RC 390 R and Supersport 300 race kit. When we enter a racing series, we enter with 100 percent goals and effort to win, but the rules have changed on an ongoing basis and we have been restricted throughout the season. We now have different rules in MotoAmerica than what they run in the FIM World Supersport 300 class. "What we, at KTM, created was a global program. Every weekend we share notes with the FIM teams and they share notes with us. But all that stops when the rules aren't consis- tent for the season and they aren't consistent from a global perspective. As an example, now MotoAmerica has restricted the KTM 450 rpm more than in the FIM World SSP 300 class. At only 10,000 max rpm, our power range window is very small, and in addition to that our peak power is down by over 10 percent. At 10,000 rpm, we're 500 rpm under what a stock RC 390 comes with and the RC Cup bikes ran 10,500 rpm for the last three years. "What makes it tough is that we want to push product and rider development. We want to have a global package. Ours is probably the only bike that is a standard in every series across the world because it's a kit. We would like to see total parity between the FIM rules and MotoAmerica. We want our riders to have an opportunity develop and race both here in America and on a global level with FIM." BIKE ROAD ATLANTA VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY KAWASAKI NINJA 400 Weight: 150 kg/Max revs allowed: 12,000 rpm Weight: 150 kg/Max revs allowed: 9850 rpm KTM RC 390 R Weight: 136 kg/Max revs allowed: 11,000 rpm Weight: 136 kg/Max revs allowed: 10,000 rpm YAMAHA YZF-R3 Weight: 140 kg/Max revs allowed: 12,000 rpm Weight: 140 kg/Max revs allowed: 13,000 rpm. Also allowed airbox modifications THE RULES OVER THE YEAR Getting the parity correct between the machines has not been easy for MotoAmerica, as you can see from the graph below, starting at round one at Road Atlanta.