Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

eight laps. The top five in each race advance to the semi finals. Riders in the bottom five positions are eliminated. Pro'semi finals Fifteen riders make up each semi final race, which lasts eight laps. The top 10 riders in each go to the main while the last five are eliminated. Pro main The grand finale: 20 riders competing against each other for 20 laps! Pro Production racing . This is the. new twist in this for- mat, the twist the current supercross format needs. I will e.xplain how it works here, then back up my reasons for the change. Production class This class consists of 40 riders who are American Pros. Only Production bikes available at the beginning of the year can be used and certain rules must be followed as to what changes can be made on them. Riders may be on factory support. Production heats There are twO Production heats, each eight laps along, each with 20 riders. The top seven riders advance directly to the Production final. The next 10 po itions go to the Last Chance event while the last three rid-. . ers are eliminated. Lest Chance event Twenty riders make up this race, which is another eight-Iapper. Only the top six make it to the Production final; everybody else is eliminated. Production final Twenty riders dice it out for 10 laps! Supercross fact sheet This chart shows the number of riders who made it to the main event in the first six events from the 1984 Insport Supercross series. It also shows their status,jactory or privateer. Shaded spaces show us riders who didn't make the main event at that particular event due to injury. As you can see, most factory riders made it to the mai n event in all six events. Kent Howerton and Keith Bowen are the only two who didn't and were not injured. All other factory riders who didn't were injured. More than half the riders in the main event are factory riders; the rest are privateers. The chart shows who qualified for the main event. As you can see, only a couple riders were very consistent. Alan King and Clint Hardick were the only two privateer riders to make the main event in five out of six events. The other 18 privateers did not do as well. Only four made the main event four times out of six. Only four made it three times out of six, and five made it twice out of six events. Six privateer riders only made it once. Now I'm not sure how many times these riders tried and didn't make the main event at which events or which events they didn't even attend. I am sure, had the factory riders who were injured (in events five and six) not been, there would be fewer privateer riders on this chart. The facts speak for themselves. Also, there are markings showing which rider made his way to the main event by way of the Last Chance Qualifier. Out of the six events on the chart, only twO riders placed as high as sixth. None broke into the top five. (Note: 1 don't think there has ever been a rider to qualify for the main event by way of the Last Chance who has gone on to win it.) Format cons I. Too much time needed to run this many events in one night. 2. Too many riders and bikes and not enough space for adequate pits. 3. Too much wear and tear on the track for one nigh t. 4. Too many riders in the Pro Production class events at one time. 5. Too hard for Pro Production class riders to qualify In such a hort number of laps. 6. Too hard to check that the riders In the Pro Production class have legal bikes. 7. 0\ enough money for pur es for both classes. 8. ot enough riders to make up two cla ses. 9. Pro Production riders would be inexperienced upercross riders, and with 0 many riders on the tra k it would become a demo-derby. 10. ot enough riders competing in the Pro class. 11. No Last Chance event for the Pro class. 12. What if a factory puts a seasoned veteran in the Pro Production class to clean up? Answers to cons I. I did away with the Last Chance Qualifier and the .second intermission to make room and time for the Pro Production class. Both of these parts of the current supercross system are not needed and waste time. 2. There are already riders at stadium events using pit pace who never make it into the program. These arne riders would now have a beuer chance to make it and not go home without a chance to gain valuable stadium experience. 3. If there became too much wear to the track, less riders could be used to make up the Pro Production class. With less riders in the Pro and Pro Production classes, you would still have a many riders using the track as you do now. There would be more chances for riders to make a living at '. raang. 4. If there were too many riders in the Pro Produciton class events at one time, just have less rider per heat. Pro Production class riders could still qualify during the day as they do now, before the official program gets underway. They would still be beuer off with this new format than they are now. 5. The same goes for this problem as above: Have less riders in the Pro Production events that are run during the official program. 6. There could be rules made up that deal with protesting a rider's bike. After each Pro Production final the winning bikes is impounded for a limited amount of time. If no one protests, it is then released. 7. If there isn't enough money for both class purses, then use the entry fee money and have co-sponsors of just the Pro Production class events. 8. I know that at a couple of events in 1984 there were not enough riders to fill the program. I also know that there were more than enough riders at the Daytona AMA Supercross event, so many that they ran 40 riders in the Main after having qualifiers. With the added interest in a Pro Production class, I feel that riders would be more willing to make the trip to far-off events. They would also be able to pick up more support from aftermarket companies who had products being used on machines in this class. Also, the Pro class would be cut down to two-thirds of its normal size. This would put the other third in the Pro Production class where they belong. 9. Sure, the Pro Production class would be made up of inexperienced supercross riders. What beuer way for them to get experience without costing a veteran factory rider his chance in the main? It would also give factorie a chance to see riders perform in upercross events before signing them to high paying contracts, only to find out that the rider is a poor invesunent. Those fans who came out to see era hes will see them in this class, and they will also be exposed to great racing. 10. It may seem that there wouldn't be enough riders competing in the Pro class, but I feel it would make things better! Look at speedway: only a few rider race on the track at once. With fewer riders on the track, it would make for clo er racing. II. othavingtheLa tChan eQualifier is not that bad of an idea. No rider to date has won the main event after qualifying in the Last Chance. With les riders in Pro class events, there would be less reason to have the Last Chance. A rider in the Pro cia s wouldn't have to work his way through 0 many back markers if he crashed or just got off to a bad start. 12. No rider in the Pro Production class could be a seasoned veteran rider, not even if he is on the down side of his career. Riders would be limited to the number of years they could stay in this class. Like playing college football, once you move up to professional status, there's no going back. You can retire or try to make it. It is also more fair to the young, upand-coming superstar. He shouldn't have to prove himself against an aging professional who can't cut it in the big leagues anymore. In closing I still think I have come up with a better u percross forma t, even after looking at it from both sides. The way things are now, the current format i almost self-destructive. It seems to be discouraging instead of en- couraging young riders. Just look at my Supercross Fact Sheet: Th same top Pro factory riders a re a Iwa ys making it into the top 10. The only reason there are more privateers making it into main events is because there are less factory-paid riders this year. There have been cutbacks made by the factories beca use there is less money corrting in due to reduced sale of motocross motorcy Ie . Also, co ts are up for fielding a team. Top riders want higher salaries. With fewer jobs available on race teams, you again have less incentive. My format adds incentive. Factories could afford to pay young star less to ride their production bikes and keep a few topnotch factory riders for the Pro class. This creates incentive to buy production bikes to race in hopes of becoming the next big-name fa tory Pro. Supercross is different from any olher sport. In most sports there is a 50/50 chance of winning, not supercross as we know it now. There are 60 riders in the program at the beginni ng; and by tlie time the main is on the line, two-thirds have been eliminated. ot in my format: only half of the riders are eliminated. That means a quarter of the entries will make the top 10 compared to the urrent format where a sixth only make it. My format also gives rider more time between events to rest or have work done on their motorcycles. It also get rid of the extra intermission that wa tes time. My format gives more race excitemen t instead: This is what fans come to see. My formdtalso gives fans the incentive to go out and buy a motocross machine and give racing a try. • . Supercross fact sheet x :: Qualified for main ~t = Injured # :: Qualified for main by way of lelt chance. # il finiahing poaitiO" in main_ EVENT Johnny O'Mara Factory Rick Johnson Factory Jeff Ward Factory David Bailey Factory Ron Lechien Factory Broc Glover Factory Billy Utes Factory Mark Barnett Factory Alan King Privateer Bob Hannah Factory Goat Breker Factory Kent Howerton Factory Clint Hardick Privateer Scott Burnworth Factory - Kenny Keylon Privateer Keith Bowen Factory Jim Holley Privateer 123456 XXXXXX XXX XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX • XXXXXX XXXXXX • XXXXX XXXXX 79 XXXX X XXXX X xxx XX XXXXX XXXX xx ~8 X X XXXX 8 EVENT Rick Ryan Privateer John Whelchel Privateer 123456 X XXX X XX XXX Ross Pederson 1810 Privateer George Holland X X X 13 Privateer Jeff Hicks X XX Privateer Brian Myerscough XX Privateer Phil Larson X X Privateer X X A.J. Whiting 19 Privateer Russ Wageman Privateer XX Dan Storbeck Privateer Brian Manley X Privateer Pete Snorteland X 13 Privateer Rodney Smith X Privateer X • Eric Eaton Privateer Doug Hoover X Privateer X Don Turk Privateer XXX X 21

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