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/128315
doS to AMA Pro Racing for turning the premier class in road racing into a plac e w here . in the sport's most restigious event , the fourthplace fi nisher is a credit -card racer who fi nished two laps dow n; the sixth-place finishe r can crash , re mo unt and finish three laps behind; and the seventh- place fi nishe r spent a grand total of $500 o n quick change gea r at Sears the night before the race, all this just as the AMA Superbike Cham pionship is bein g proclaimed as the premier prod uction race series in the w orld . Well done, lads. Drinks all around . This year's Bike Week turned into a referendum on the passing of Daytona International Speedway as a suitable venue for Superbi kes. May it rest in peace . There was a wide variety of ideas about what to do, ranging from making Superb ikes a ho rse power-restr icted class to building a world-class infield section. Regardless of the fix, the unanimous opinion was that somet hing had to be done immed iately. "Every lap you're out the re riding, ," you're terrified. basically said Eric Bostrom, shown in the accompany ing photo crossing one of the slick tar patches on the banking, after qualifying on the pole with a new lap record. "So you just want to get out of here in one piece, and you don't get to share that love and joy for racing that yo u typicallywould have at other racetracks ." No one had or wanted to know top speed times. "With a 'Q ' [qualifying tire), I was going at least 10 mph faster down the front stra ight," Eric said. Brother Ben did 192 mph on a shakedown run on his Honda CBRlooORR in December. Tires were the biggest concern coming to Daytona, Dunlops specifically But the . Brummies (those are the poor souls who live in Birmingham, England) did their job, and the Dunlops performed well. As did the Michelins, except for the unexpected appearance of the sock puppet who made a cameo appearance at the tread edge of one of Eric Bostrom 's fronts. That a company with the unparalleled MotoGP and World Superbike success of Michelin - the last premier class GP it didn't win was at Donington Park in 1998 - could have a front-tire failure says volumes about the demands of the Speedway. Might have ven caused someone to have a heart ttack. But t ires aren't the pro blem at aytona; the racetrack's the problem. he racetrack causes t he tire prob lems. e racetrack's a dinosaur in need of any things, repaving among them . Did a it of loose tarmac cause the oil radiator K puncture that put Eric Bostrom out? More to the point, the rules are a bigger problem . There are four classes, two each for tw o different bikes. Formula Xtreme, the alleged mini-Superbikes on slicks. are slower than Supe rsport bikes on DOTs. jason DiSalvo's best Supersport lap was half a seco nd faster than Ben Bostrom 's best in Formula Xtreme. Superstock machines we re faster than Superbikes after the first pract ice session. With Honda the only player in Formula Xt reme, the result is as pred ictable as an hour wait at Carrabba's. Superbikes and Superstock are essentially the same motorcycle. Same for Superspo rt and Formu la Xt reme. There are differences in brakes and suspension, but a suspension kit gets you close to wo rks spec. Tire size is different, and the re are some engine differences. In the end, it's splitting hairs. The Yamaha RIs and Kawasaki ZX I Os t hat filled the Superstock winners' circle wou ld've filled the top lOin Superb ike, dropping riders with career days farther down the pay scale. jack Pfeifer couldn't believe he'd finished fourth . Maybe because his best in 2003 was 13th. "Personally, I think that's ridiculous," now three -time Daytona 200 winner and four-time AMA Superb ike Champion Mat Mladin believes of the class structure. "They need to get rid of one of those 1000cc classes. Put it in one, even if we race Superstock bikes. They're still going to be 190 horsepower." AMA Pro Racing tends to be react ive rather than proactive. When news com ing out of Daytona of tires blowing up like party favors filter ed to Picke ringto n, so meone realized it might be time to get to work on that starter tan . How is it that everyone else in the world knew the bikes we re too fast, and they didn't? Are they the custod ians of our sport or just custod ians? It must be said; they are n't entirely to blame . It isn't easy to find a way to race w hat the manufacturers sell. What to do when Honda, Y amaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki sell 170-plus mph motor cycles that a hormone-crazed 16-year-old with no riding experience , bad vision, and the reflexes of a dead cat can pile drive into the side of a Hummer while trying to get to his first chat room booty call. Those are the bikes that Pro Racing has to make work at the increasingly outdated and unsafe tracks it gladly sanctio ns year after yea r. Explain again why we 're going back to Brainerd? Did someone in the Pro Racing betting poo l pick the snack bar as the next femur-snapping unprotected trackside obstacle? (Congrats to the last year' s winners who had tree trunk and 1Y camera scaffolding.) O r is it the 18 diehard fans? And for three days, no less, allegedly because the crowd likes camping for the weekend. Fine. If they want to lie in the dirt and sleep off a night of binge drinking while havingthe ir blood Hoovered by vultu re -sized mosquitoes, cool. But why make the teams , and Pro Racing's own woefully underpaid staff, many of whom are volunteers, spend for an extra night of lodging and food and bug spray? Of the I I tracks on the calendar, Daytona is the most extreme example www.cy cl enews .co m and may want to make changes, but not the kind the riders want . The Speedway 's rather arrogant and narrow-minded position, as voiced by a Speedway flack, isthat the track is t he one constant in the equation; ergo, it's not to be fussed with. That, in a very sho rt word , is poo . Changes to the chicane and turn six have shortened the time to reach terminal velocity. More time at full throttle, more tire problems. The surface has degraded so badly and bee n so patc hed up that neither race winner Mladin nor American Honda's Ben Bostrom could hold the thr ottle wide open on the banking. Those few brave souls who went full stick could o nly do it for a few laps on fresh tires . After that, the rear was jumping around like a barefoot drun k o n a lava bed . Erion Honda's jake Zemke had the rear of his CBRIOOORR step out ove r a foot in NASCAR four at about 180 mph. If that happened to you or me, we 'd have to burn not only our underpants, but our leathe rs, boo ts , socks, back protector, seat pad, tail section, sub-frame, and exhaust caniste r. Maybe the shock rese rvoir. Ze mke got away with changing his thong. Six factory riders from three teams is too few for the Superbike class. It is imperative that Pro Racing listen to the teams and re lease technical rules far sooner than it ever has. A crew chief told me Pro Racing had targeted May for next year's rules. Let's see how close to the target it comes . While we wait, we can hoist a cold one . After all, the y're paying. CN CYCLE N EWS • MARCH 17,2004 1 19