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/128316
on the banking. That's not going to happen . It's a miracle that already so many people have, and that's the sad part . Hopefully, I mean, there's more concern than ever, for sure, but I don't know where that's getting us:' What, then , should be done, and who should be doing it? Scott Hollingsworth is the CEO of AMA Pro Racing. Hollingsworth pointed out that the race was one of the safer meetings of recent years. It would take some time , he said, to digest all the data from Bike Week. "I'm not sure the speeds, after the introduction of the new Superbike formula, escalated as dramatically as indicated," he said. "I think we need to do more homework to see what 2004 Daytona 200 looked like before we make any pronouncements on 200S." He said it wou ld take two or three months to gather the information. "We have to look at a lot of things. We have to debrief with tire companies, and that hasn't occurred. We too want to talk to many of the riders , and that hasn't taken place. We have to look at the number of entries and what role the late rollout of equipment had in reducing the bikes on the grid:' The Honda CBRIOOORR wasn't available to privateers , and the Kawasakis were late in arriving . mind all week and even on the 600," Spies said. "The 600s are going so fast now." Yamaha's DiSalvo said it was an eyeopener to come to Daytona on a big bike. "It can be a completely different experi ence riding on a IaO-odd-horsepower bike and going Iao mph," he said. "It's kind of freaky." Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden said that the extent of improvement, other than by the manufacturers , was new tires, and "we don't really think there's a plan besides that. Say we get through here and everybody comes back next year, then we've got faster bikes. Then what are we going to do? It's a problem that we 're going to have every year. The sad thing Is, people are not going to keep walking away fro m crashing 42 MARCH 2.4, 200.4 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary "We routinely meet with the Daytona folks to talk about various issues - grid count , tire issues, all kinds of things of that nature," Hollingsworth said. "They're very engaged in that dialogue." Jim France, the CEO of Intern ational Speed way Corporation, the publiclytraded company that owns the Speedway, chose not to comment until he meets with AMA officials in the coming weeks. The meetings are currently be ing scheduled , and France, through a spokesman, said he would discuss his findings after the meetings . Hollingsworth said that alloptions are on the tab le for 2005, not only for Daytona but the rest of the series as we ll. "We fairly consistently look at a lot of issues, whether it's for Daytona or the entire series limit the performance of the Superbike class," he said. "The technica l rules that were just put into place we re done with extraordinary input from the teams in the paddock to slow the bikes down. That was the cause of the public outcry from a lot of teams - that we took too much technology away," he said. Hollingsworth said AMA Pro Racing worked on safety issues every day and that it often resu lts in visible changes; other times the changes are less visible. "We've made pretty good strides at a numbe r of racetracks," he said. Daytona isn't among them. Two changes were made prior to last year 's race; the chicane and the tum-six exit of the infield. The chicane was changed after catastrophic, multibike accidents marred the Supers port race two years in a row. Those are