Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·T AR O N E DW BYPAUL CARRUTHERS L et's get right to the points. Although it's a po int that's been brought up in th is space before, it's obvious ly a point that needs to b e brought up again. Telling the AMA it needs to change the points-paying structure for its National Road Race Series is a lot like telling a small child not to run by the sw imming pool: They slow down for a few s teps, th en they start running again o n th e wet concrete. The chiJd doesn't lis ten and he eventually falls down a nd bangs his head . The AMA doesn't listen and we end up with something much less than a thrilling final e to a cha mpionship . Doug Chandle r a nd Miguel DuHamel s hou ld be he ading into the Las Vegas round of th e AMA /MBNA Superbike Natio nal Cham pionship com pletely even on points. By virtue of his one victo ry and his worst finish of fifth, Chand ler deserves to be at the top of the standings. With four wins and a crash, DuHamel is equally as deserving. If the AMA would sim ply adopt the pointspaying sys tem used in Grand Prix and World Superbike racing, DuHamel and Chandler would each hav e 158 points. And Mat Mladin would only be II behind those two. Instead - thanks to a system that is simply laughable - this one is all over bar the sh outing. The fat lady has sun g. Chandler will certainly coddle his 20po int lead all th e way to the title when th e series resumes in Las Vegas com e October. And why should n't he? Plain and simple, Ch andler nev er put a wheel wrong in the nin e races that have been held in 1997. He'll march into Las Vegas Motor Speedway knowing that he only has to finish in the top 13. Doug Chandler co u ld fi nis h in th e top 13 on hi s new Vulcan. DuHamel, on the o ther hand, is 20 . point. behind. He knows he is capable of winning at Las Vegas, mu ch as he's 30 Y SAGO EAR ••• SEP TEMBER 28, 1967 n done in the previous four rounds of the series. And he'll likely do jus t that, espc- · dally with Chandler co mfortable w ith doing only what he has to do to win his third AMA Superbike crown. DuHamel will go like a bat out of hell, Chandler will cru ise. And th e racing will suffer for it. The current AMA sys tem just doesn't work in a serie s that co ns is ts of 10 rounds. If you win a ra ce, you certainly should gain more than three points ove r th e racer who fini shes second. And if the second-place rid er happens to ha ve qu alified fastest and led th e most laps, you 'll onl y gain a sin gle po int. You won , he got second a nd you gain only one po int. If he finishes fourth and you win, you ga in a whopping seven po ints. Tell me, are yo u going to bust your ass for se ve n points? How about for 12 points ? If you win a G rand Prix and your rival finishes fourt h, you make up 12 points. If he finishes fourth twice in a row and you win two in a row, you 'v e all but made up for the lime you r motorcycle fail ed yo u whil e you w er e winning, or the ti me you crashed while racin g for the lead. The current AMA s ys tem d oesn't reward risk-taking. You're definitely not going to put it all on the line to make up seven points when you know that yo u can never make up for a mistake. If yo u cra sh or su ffer mechanical failure just o nce under the current system, you won' t be champion . Not , at least, when you're up against the likes of Chandler. DuHamel cra sh ed at Loudon, dash ing his championship hopes on the spo t. One simple low-side in a relatively slow co rner from a man who was w orkin g hard to better his pos ition (isn' t this raeing? ) - and he can no longer be champion. Is that right? Mladin' s ta le is similar. His Ducati failed him in the Daytona 200. The rest of the way, he was both fas t and cons is- tent. Still, he' s nothing more than a nohoper at this po int. He wo n' t be superbike cha mpion in 1997 and he knows it. He probably knew as much on his plan e rid e ou t of Florida- in Mar ch! And I'm n ot picking o n C ha ndler here. In fact, like the majority of the rid ers in the series, Ch andler is in favor of cha ngin g the current system. He knows tha t ne xt year th e posit ions co u ld be swa p ped. He knows that next yea r a mechani cal problem could wipe out his chances at title number four . He kn ows he could win mo re races than anyon e in 1998 and still no t be champion. J can' t see an argu me nt for the cu rrent system. Rewarding med iocrity will onl y get you mo re med iocri ty. Reward ing risk-ta kin g wi ll bring yo u a high er level of racing. . C ha nd le r m a y not ha v e had th e setup he needed to ru n with DuHamel at Sea rs Point last week. But I'd be willing to bet that he had the setu p to run at third -pla ced Pascal Picotte's pace - if he was fa ced with losin g 12 p oints to DuHamel, rather than just seven. But all he had to do wa s finish fourth. Hey, he could have fin ished fifth and only lost ni ne po ints to DuHameL Hell, he could h a ve fin ished 10th a n d only lost 14 po ints. Tenth! Not only is the sys tem foolish , it's not even fair. DuHamel cr a s hed o u t at Loudon, but wa s still credited with 30th and thu s earned a single championship p oint. Mladin happened to ha ve hi s non-finish in the Daytona 200 - with 80 riders starting the race. So Mladin gets cre dited with 66th place and gets no p oints . ei ther of th em finish ed th e race, so neither of them deserve points no ma tter how ma ny riders a re in the race. Paying all the way back to 30th is just an other poor ingredient to a bad system. If you finish 30th, yo u don't deserve a point (especia lly if you didn't even fin- ish). And you definitely don't deserve I I po ints for finishin g 20th . If you want to ca m an FIM point, you have to finish 15th. That's fair enough. I'll give you a po int if you finish 15th especially since this can seem somewhat gracious when at a race like Pikes Peak th e leader lapped well into the top 15. So don't com e whining about not earning eno ugh points if you're not even on the same lap as the leader. In fact, there w ere riders a t Pikes Peak who were la pped tw o and three limes - and th ey still earned cha m p ionship poi nts. Tell me tlUlI'S righ t. The sys tem has to chan ge. And it has to cha ng e now. Altho ugh there a rc th ose w ho ha ve su gg ested a s ystem where a r id er' s worst score is tossed out, I don't think that's necessa ry. It's been tried in Grand Pri x racing before and it didn't work. Why try it here? How abo ut we jus t go wi th so me thing that we know works the current system used by the FIM . It's alread y in pla ce and the AMA and the rest of us won 't even have to learn new math. Right now you have to win races, or a t lea st a s ingle race, to win the ti tle . Chand ler wo n once and tha t's fine . He did what he had to do to take the title . But if th e points system were different, Chand ler may hav e been forced to win more. And he probably would have. The sys tem doesn' t rewa rd taki ng risks, so C ha nd ler didn't take any that were unnecessary. He's a smart man who has worked within th e current s ys tem to ensure that he wins his third title. Racing is all about winning, So all I as k is that the AMA tak es a good ha rd look at implementing a system that not only rewards winning, but makes it p0ss ib le to ca tc h up when you make an error while trying to do just that. And that's my point. ." ove r Cook Neilso n and Reg Pridmore... Eve n though Fin n Heikki Mi kkola had al ready w on th e SOOcc World Cha m p ions hi p a few weeks earli er at th e Belgian round and was injured , he still showed up for the final round of the series for the start money and the party afte rwa rd. The battl e wa s for second place in the standings, and Suzuki teamma tes Roger DeCoster a nd Ger rit Wolsink went at it, with DeCoster coming ou t on top. enty thousand spectators loo ked on as 20 Expe rts flew into the first corne r at th e Sacra me nto Mile. Geo rge Roed er won th e race, becoming the o nly tw otim e wi nner at the time and takin g over th e poin ts lead from Gary Nixon. Fe llow Harl ey-David so n rider Fred Nix finish ed second a fter going ba ck an d fo r th w it h Roeder on numerou s occasions during the 25-mile race . BSA's Dick Mann finis hed third. Jan Crawford wo n the 12-mile Ama10YEARSAGO .., teur final...After knocking o n the door to SEPTEMBER 2 1987 3, vic to ry all season long, Asco t's m os t he wi nning American us, Motocross im p rov e d first-year Expert, Shorty d e s Na tions team of Bob Hannah Sea bourne, beca me the nint h rid er in 1%7 (12Sce), Rick Johnson (25Qce) and Jeff to win a IS-lap mai n event at th e fam ed Wa rd (500ce) wer e on th e cover of Cye/ e Gardena, Ca liforni a, track. Mel Lacher fin- , News afte r topping the des ations ba ttle is h ed second on a Harley-D avid son a nd for Lhe seventh consecutive year, th is tim e Dan Haaby finis hed third on a BSA. Ron on a mud-infested Una dilla circuit in New Lacher won the Amateu r fina l o n a BSA A very young Doug Cha ndler is ob livous to 8 crashing Tracy Hays at t he Lodi Cycle Bowl Berlin , ew York. Th e N etherlands fi nIn Lo di, california. Now Chandler is on the verge of winning his third AMA Supe rb lke and Rick Du rkee won the Novi ce final on crown. Photo by "Big" Bill Spence<. ished seco nd and Belgium third ... Cye/e a Suzuki... Gary Co nrad rode his Greev es News co nd ucted an interview with desert 360 to his second desert championship a t ruse Mile in New York. Brothers Gary and Hank Scali race r-tu rn ed-pavemen t pilot Duane Summe rs , who had the Antelope Ramblers MC 0.37 Hare Scrambles Chamfini sh ed o ne- two after finishing tw o-three th e w eek ju st s ig ned o n as a Cagi va fac to ry road ra cer ... CN pionship in California. attend ed Russ Darnell' s Seven Day Advanced before... Yamaha's Skip Askland scored a first and a Motocross School. Darnell started his schools in 1%9... sec o nd in th e two 100km races of th e Cham pion 200 2 0YEARSAGO... .Tea m Kawasaki's Jeff Fredette edged out KTM's Kev in World Cha m pions hi p 1'750 round at Laguna Seca in SEPTEMBER 21,1m Hi nes to win the Ratt lesnake AMA National ChampiMonterey, Cali fornia , bestin g ne wly crow ned World ay Springsteen and Ted Bood y were on the cover onship Enduro in Iowa... Husqvarna's Dan Smith beat Champion Steve Baker (3-1) for the overall wi n. Ausof Cycle News and separated by only four points in o u t loca l riders Jim T ho mpso n (second) and Joh n tr ali an G regg Hansfo r d fi nis h ed third. Hansford the title chase after the two Ha rley-Davidson teamBruckbauer (third ) to win the Colorado ro und of the returned to win the 250cc Lightweight Expert class over mates finished third and fifth. respectiv!"ly, at the SyraAMA National Ha re and Hound series. '" Gary Nixon. Steve McLa ugh lin won the Superbike race T J 76

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