Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~It was just one of those things that can happen When people do what we do." Of Co rse r a motorcy cl e enthusiast for more n 40 of my 57 y ears. I fee l I must ite to express my adm ira t ion f o r e fort itude and in t eg ri t y of Troy rser, as described in your sidebar sue # 17. May 2 ) in Cycle News. It uld have taken guts to race in the nditions prevalent in Austra lia that y . It took even more guts for Corst o stand up in the face of the race ganizers and say , " E n o uqh is oughl" I w atched th e Sp eedvisio n pre senion of Co lin Edwa rds' superb perrmanc e in the first race. and I w as n k l y am azed that the organi zer s lowed that race to proceed . For the ers to race in even more miserable nd it io ns in t he second leg would ve been fo olh ardy . I have t ak en pa rt in my sha re of sky endeavors - incl uding a fourar stint as a U .S . Navy Explo sive rdnance Di sposal Officer d uri ng the etnam e ra - but my hat is off to oy Corser and the rest of the World perb ik e Rid er s fo r saying "No" to insanely ri sk y situation . Tro y . whe n yo u 'c o m e to Lag u na ca th is J u ly, this old b iker w ill be o ti ng for yo u in more ways than e. When you carve your way ound the circuit at Monterey , aned over at a 45 -degree angle with e front tire just barely kissing the vement as you accelerate out of rn three. we 'lI be there watching d saying to ourselves. "T here' s a an with the ' r ig ht stuff.' .. To me, u represent the best there is in otorsports today . Ralph Jacobs Long Beach, CA Richie Morris On Daytona h av e read m an y ar t icles. e - rna ils , d stories about what different peo Ie th in k happened in the Da yton a ash in vol vi ng D ean Mi zd al , Sc o t t ussell and myself. I want ed to tak e thi s opportunity to t the record straight. Unfortunately , I ell have that right. since I had a bird 's e seat. I can describe th e crash very mply. The green flag fell on a profesonal motorcycle race at Daytona temational Speedway and there was a cing accident. End of st ory! It w a s n 't Dean 's , Sco tt 's , th e AMA's or my fau lt. It was j ust one of th ose things that can happen wh en people do wha t we do. W e are m oto r cycle ro ad ra ce rs and th ings happen in a blink of an eye. We a ll know ev ery time we suit up and strap on a helmet th ese things ca n happen . You just have to pray for the best. I truly thank God it wa sn 't worse. Su re Scott and I were hurt , but our fri ends and famil ies are not dea ling with a death, such as Dirk's pass ing. That was the real tragedy. I am sure you will see Scott and I back on the track . But if that does not happen for me. I am okay with it. Although my career doesn't compare to Scotts , I feel fortunate to have done what I love for a li ving . And th e fr iends I have made over the years is something you cannot replace . In closing, I would like to thank all of the peop le who visited , sent flowers and ca rd s, and phon ed me while I was in th e hospita l. A big thanks to all of the racers who stopped by. and a special thanks to the Russell family , Mike Smith. and Bret and Tony from Motor Racing Outreach . They spent many hours with my wife and were a true help. Tha nks and ham m er down. spanked eve ryone on , yo u guessed it , a Kawasak i. Ho nd a may do what they alwa ys do and bu y th e number-one p late, but if RC is reall y no t all tha t concerne d about money . th en what's up with the rum o red $6 m illion c o nt rac t ? We 'll see w hat k ind of green attracts him the m ost. Rlchle Morris Via the Intemet :JIm Whfften Via the Interet Carmichael And Honda Da vid Bai ley lends a level of profes sionalism to the ESP N and ABC bro ad c ast s that is un matc he d. but I m u st take um b rag e with one of h is comments from the D a ll a s Supercross on A BC . He commented on the Kawasaki vs. Honda battle for Ricky Carmichael's services in 2002 and I thought it was a little bit of a slam against Kawasaki. Bailey said Carmichael was look ing at the various options open to him at the end of this year and that he was testing the race bikes available to him along with reviewing all the deals on the table. Okay , fine. But then he said it wasn't about money. but about being on the best prod uct out there, and th at we co ul d very well see RC riding red . Now we can go into the various merits of all the bik es out there, but everyone k nows tha t o nce yo u reach the factory level, the bi k es are all very close. We al so know th at Bail ey is a fo rmer Hond a rider and frie nds with J ohnny O 'Mara , a former Hond a r i d er and p erso na l fri en d w ith RC. That' s a lot o f infl u ence. My m a in gri pe is Bail ey (as a neu tr al anno uncer) shou ld leave supposition to th e magazines and not show thin ly veiled favoritism toward machine competing on th e track. After all . RC began his career on a Kawasaki . won all h is amateur titles on a Kawasaki and just Rlck Qemence San Juan CapIstrano, CA Class Act Watching the Da llas Supercross and seeing Ricky Ca rmichael clinch the ser ies ov er Jeremy McGrath was diffi cult as I am a Jeremy fan , but kudos to Rick y and majo r k udos to the way J eremy handled the defeat. I watc hed Jeremy sign autographs fo r hours before and after th e ra c e. He has a spec ial re la ti onship wi th h is fans and they lo ve him whether he is on the podium or no t . He is one of the reasons the st adiums ar e full an d the riders are m ak in g m ore m oney from sponsors . What he has done for the sport is what Tiger Woods has done for golf. I wish him continued suc cess. and watch out fo r him next year - he will be a hard person to keep down. nee di ng on ly to toddle aro und in the middle of the pack in order to win the title. For my money, I'd rather see the rider w ith th e most wins cl inch the championship with a race or two t o go. than have it go to a rider who set tles for " c onsistenc y. " By the way , Ron , Formula O n e allows a d river to switch cars only if the race is red-flagged before the end of the first lap, and only if his original car is da maged. Dan W1ldhlrt Longmont, CO Are We Stupid? More On The Points Does AMA road race manager Ron Barrick think we're a ll stupid? He claims that " there is little difference between the FIM and AMA po in ts systems," bu t shows he is incapab le of evaluating them co rrectly . The on ly way to acc urate ly com pare the two sys tems is to express the points differentials in percentages . not the absolute number of points. as Barrick does. For example. the FIM system awards the winning rider a 25 percent bonus over second place (25 points vs , 20). while in AMA Superbike the differential is only 12.5 percent (36 vs . 3 2 ) . Even if an A M A rider earns th e addit io n al two points for pole and most laps led , the differential only increa ses to 18 .75 pe rc ent. By mini mizing the perc ent ag e differential between fini shers and awarding poi nts 30 places deep (vs . the FIM 's 15). the AMA system puts a higher priority o n merely finishing well than o n wi nni ng ou tright. While th is might ha ve "led to many cha m pions hips being cl ose at the end of th e sea son ," as Barri ck cl aim s. it also m ea ns th at it's entire ly p o ssib le to w in a championshi p without w inn ing a race ( see 1998. when neither of th e top two in AMA Superbike po ints had a single vi ct ory). Or wors e, it lead s to a situation (as i s often the c ase in NASCAR ) where the champ ionship leading ri d er goes into the final race c ue I Yes, the last few AMA seasons ha ve been close in title. usually between two ride rs . Althoug h. between fi rs t and second it is close in structure to the FIM po in ts. there is a bigger d is pa rity from fir st to third and down the line. One non-finish and you are 38 points beh ind - that is a lot to make up in a 11-race series. even if you are truly dominant - compar ed to 25 points with the FIM structure. With the FIM system, if you win a race and your rival finishes third you have already gained half your deficit back. Now, if the AMA ran two Su p er bike rac es on Sunday, making it a 22-ra ce series, the 38 points could be made up befo re the end of the season . Also, if you are sitting 38 points ahead and you know you r rival has to win every race to catch up. yo u ca n sit back and not pus h it - th us we get less exciting races . T wo years ago. w hen Gob ert wo n seven ro u nds com pared to Mladin 's one . he should have been the champ. So if yo u k eep yo u r po ints. at least give us the two legs o n Sunday so one DNF doesn 't rui n a season . Greg Colyer San Leandro, CA A nt hon y Gober t won five times to Mladin's single vic tory in 1999 - not seven times as y ou state in y our letter... Editor e n e _ S • MAY 9 .2001 5

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