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/1151987
THE STATE OF MOTOAMERICA P88 Feature rules and the expense of building such a bike, with the aim of getting an American back into the world championship—be it in Superbike or Grand Prix competition. "We follow what the FIM does," says Wayne Rainey. "When we made an agree- ment with all the manufacturers, that's what they preferred. It was easy for us. We know the BSB (British Superbike), Australian and Japanese rules (are different), but we want to develop riders to go to the world cham- pionship. With electronics being such a big part of that, if there's nowhere to learn, they're going to go over (to Europe), waste a year trying to figure it out, and then pos- sibly blow their opportunity. Their results won't be good. They'll have one shot, and they won't be familiar with all that stuff, and then they'll get kicked out and come home. [The rules] will help the riders at the end. Hopefully, it will bring more manufacturers to our paddock as well." That last point is a sore one for not just KRAVE but U.S. racing as a whole. The last time we had an American series with factory teams other than Yamaha and Suzuki was 2013 with KTM and EBR. Ducati hasn't KWR's Kyle Wyman Kyle Wyman is a man seriously invested in MotoAmerica. He runs his own team, chases his own sponsors and races in Superbike—much like Australian David Anthony—and wants to see the series grow to be a sustainable entity. "The biggest thing for me that's a positive is the Premier Entry," Wyman says. "Not just posting a purse based on how you finish, but actually allowing teams that have it together and have a nice presence to have show-up money that they can plug right into the budget. "That's huge for me, especially early on. Now it's becom- ing a smaller and smaller percentage of the budget just because I don't know how I've gotten to this point, but we're spending a lot more money now and finding it somewhere. But MotoAmerica seems to be receptive to anything we ask for. They're willing to try different stuff. Not just trying to copy what other series are doing or whatnot. With the rules, especially for Superbike it gets really tricky, but I'm happy. "I like that we have World Superbike rules. I'm not really the guy that's going to say, 'This would be better for me and me only, so this is what I want.' I see the big picture. I want to be on the coolest, best shit. Maybe I'd like to go race World Superbike. It's a lot more likely that I'm able to do that since I'm on the same electronics system as the World Superbike team, and we're getting experience with the same spec motorcycle. We're adding parts as we go and we're sneaking our way towards that, but for me, I think it's the best thing for our series." Wyman is the epitome of the addicted racer, forming a professional team and investing huge capital to make it all happen. Chuck Aksland (left) and MotoAmerica Physical Therapist James Buskirk in a discussion.