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/128310
By CHICANERY HENNY RAY ABRAMS Playing The Percentages ua lifylng fo r an AMA Superbike race just got a little harder, but is it hard enough? In a word, no - a view t hat's shared by at least two of the most likely protagonists for the title. After years of inaction, the AHA recen tly lowered the qualifying time to I 10 percent of the fastest qualifier from 112 percent. A small difference that should have been greater. The 2 perce nt solution will do very little to alter the field or the outco me of the race. The mark they should have shot for is 107 per cent , the numbe r it takes to make a MotoG P field. At the 2003 Daytona 200, American Honda's Ben Bostrom too k pole position w ith a lap of I:4B.376. At 112 percent of Bostrom's t ime, a lap of 2:0 1.3BI was needed to make the fi eld. Theoretically, th ree of the 72 ride rs who rode in qualifying were out. (Many wer e just using Superb ike practice to work o ut setup for ot her classes and didn't take the grid, which numbered 59.) At the new standard of I 10 perc ent, six would be cut from the back of the grid. Going to MotoG P standards would cut the field exactly in half. Would that be a bad thing? Daytona's traditional BO-rider field is a thing of the past. But should it be half that? "Not 80 people on that grid. That's crazy," Bostrom said over dinner following last week's Dayto na tire test. "That's absolutely insane. It's dangerous ." Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom agrees . "I think if the re are 24 guys on the grid, that's eno ugh guys to go have a race," he said. "There's 20 guys on a Supercross grid, and that' s at least five too many. There are 18 guys on a [mile or half-mile] dirt tra ck, and it's prob ably too many, but it's a big track, so it usually works out." On a small t rack, like Pikes Peak International Raceway with its S4-second lap times, Eric Bostro m lapped his first backmarker o n the I Ith lap of last year's 40-lap race . Why? Because with the I 12 percent rule in place , everyone made the main though six opted not to start . This year' s I 10 percent mark would have eliminated a measly tw o riders . At 107 perce nt, nine riders would be out, and the leaders wouldn't catch the tail-enders until the 2 1st lap. The Bostro m broth ers are passionate about the safety implicatio ns of the ali-inclusive Superbike fields. The fields are too big, the standards too low, the back of the grid too slow and unpredietable. It's too easy to get into the main. Their concern s were well 106 voiced, and they offered sensible solutions, solutions they believe will improve the quality and safety of the racing. For instance, why couldn't the Superbike field be 24 riders , the same number as MotoGP? The World Superbike field at LagunaSeca was 23, with 10 finishers in race two and 13 in race o ne. No one noticed because the racing at the front was superb . Does anyone come to the racetrack to watch the batt le for 35th? They certa inly don't see it on te levision,where only the top handful of riders are ever shown . "So many of the races end from lappers," Ben Bostrom said. "The last I0 laps are a joke . It's like one guy gets through lappers and then another guy. Pretty soon it' s just one-tw o-three -four. The bikes are spread out." Ben knows this too well. Takingan inside line that was risky, at best, especially in light of his concerns abo ut lappers, his season ended in a heap outside of turn five at Barbe r Moto rspo rts Park. Four laps from the end of the year, he rear-ended a backmarker, who was propelled into another lapper, who too k out his team mate Miguel Duhamel. Eric wasn't trying to defend Ben, but he offered an explanation. He said it was the unpredictability of the slowe st lappers that caused the most anxiety. FEBRUARY 11, 2004 • CYCLE N EW S Ben's take on big fields is that "the AHA believes more people in a race, better action. That's not true . Less people, more of a race. If you watch any HotoGP or World Superbike, there's only very few riders , and each one of those guys is up front, pretty much. You lap one guy, and it never affects the race, almost ever." What Ben and Eric think the AHA should do is pay o n a sliding scale to many of those who don' t qualify for the race. The riders would get about the same purse as if they'd finished in the money, wou ldn't bum up equipment and tires , and wo uldn't change the outcome of t he race . And they'd have something to focus on for the next race or use the qualifying money to fund their Superstock efforts. "So why not qualify for it and make the same money, go get the money, and then they'll use that money so they can race Superstock?" Ben asks. "Let's go talk to the AHA about how to dist ribute the money so the privatee rs get money, and let's make this a strong field, make it good for television, safe for everyone." These are n't the incohere nt rants of a co uple of overpaid stars who were born to the manor. Both wo rke d their way up thr o ugh the ranks of dirt track and motocross. In 1994, Ben finished the 883 dirt track championship in ninth. Eric won 40th Anniversary the class title in 1996. They moved on to road racing, first on Harley BB]s, where Eric won the title in 1997 while finishing I Ith in 600cc Supersport and 19th in 7SOcc Superstock. Ben came in second in SuperTwins in 1996 and was fourth in 600cc Superspo rt and 22nd in 750cc Superstock. "Co ming fro m dirt t rack/m ot ocr oss background, I can reme mber guys never making the main event all year long," Eric said. "They would race 40 races in a year and never even make the final, and they'd come back the next year, and they might start making finals o r whate ver. But ifyou're a guy t hat's used to being in the final, how can you all of a sudde n not be in the final? You're going to be like, 'This is wrong.' But co ming fro m our background, that 's normal. Ifyou're not fast enough, you're not going to make the fi nal." With only the slowest of the slow not making the main, it' s a virtual guarantee that most riders will be in. They've come to expect it as a given, not something they have to earn, unlike in other racing disciplines. Lack of interest by the factories has left the Superbike field with six works riders . That's who the fans co me to see ; that' s who the viewers tune in to watch. They shou ld be the ones deciding the outcome of the race, not someon e getting lapped for the seco nd time. eN