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/128327
-" , hand, everyone stops. Full stop. That's the trust that's got to be, and it's something the AMA's going to have to accept. The bott om line is with fIVe laps to go, with three laps to go at Fontana, if I knew everyone would have stopped and the AMA wo uld have backed me up, I wou ld have stuck my hand up with three to go. I would have said, "that's it." No more. I mean I had a 10-second lead. It wasn't a big deal as far as the race win or the rest of it. The botto m line is safety fo r everyone was down, especially for the slower guys who don't the experience of us. DUHAMEL: If we really have a way of getting the people, the racetracks, the promoter, to make their tracks safer, spend $2-3 million, whatever they need to spend , whether it be re design the corner or move the walls, I wou ld think they wo uld get a lot more serious about promoting their event because then they're like, "I've got to pay that $3 million I just put out ." $400, which is the same as if you got 30th in the race, let's say. The grid shou ld be compacted and more rewarding to make the main. BUCKMASTER: If you're going to start talking about grid numbers and stuff, you can watch any MotoGP. There's no one on it, but the race is awesome. The race is great. Filling the grid and all that kind of crap, I just think that's a load of crap. It' s just about making the entry money. No one watches the back of the races. Lapped ride rs are essentially spoiling the end of a lot of races. It's not their fault. They're just coming into play. MLADIN : They know they can make money, enough so they can get home and pay for their tires, so that's why they do it. BO STROM : If they cou ld make that --- to be on the racetrack. PRIDMORE: Understand, I don't think any of us are ripping on these guys because we 've all bee n privateers; we've all struggled . What we're trying to say is the " We dDdt have anybDdy tD gD t D. We dDdt have a r-ide"'. uniDn. and the RMR dDdt have anybDdythat we can gD tD." - Miguel Duhamel That was t he point I was g o ing to make. Th e GP tracks k now that they 'll lo se their sa nction. If Je rez lose s the ir sanctio n a nd they don't have 160,000 people t here, tha t me a ns so met hing. BO ST ROM: The AMA still likes the dollar, and they still get their sanction fee , and I do think they hold that dearly becau se everything I see is that they're all about making that dollar - the sanction fee . MLADIN : Road Atlanta, Virginia, Barber, a few of the tracks with bigger crowds, Mid-Ohio, Road America, if those guys can't make changes. Those guys are making money on Sundays - I don't care what anybody says. PR IDMORE: You look up there right now, and that's about as many fans as you're going to see in the stands here [at Pikes], and it's $8000 to w in the Superbike race here, and Sears is $2500, 3000 . I don't understand how it works. MLADIN: I'd give the prize money back. I don't want prize money for the next five years or as long as I'm racing as long as they spend it on the racetrack. PRIDMORE: There're a lot of us who feel that way. MLADIN: Because for a lot of us the bonuses are a lot better than the prize money anyway, and I don't think anyone would miss it. BOSTROM: You might not want to write that because the AMA would put the money right in their pockets. MLAD IN: But I did say as long as they spend it on the track . DUHAMEL: If you bring more money into it, it would help what the AMAcherishes more than anything - is the privateers. They always want to help the privateers. One way you could he lp the privateers week in and week out, instead of them making $1200 for finishing II th or 10th (editor's note: 10th at PPIRpaid $2900) or whatever, if you make $5000, we'd get a better crop of privateers. We wouldn't have guys going four seconds off the pace at the end . And we'd have happier guys. The race would be much more competitive. BOSTROM: I still think there's a big philosophy problem. If you take motocross or dirt track , it's difficult to make the main event, and there's a big sense of accomplishment to make it. And if you don't make the main event, you still get paid, but you're not in the final. Youget third place in your semifinal and you get $300 or same money for not making the grid, everyone wou ld be farther ahead because they wouldn't have the wear and tear on the ir bikes. PRIDMORE: One of the big things I kept on hearing at Daytona this year is everyone is using qualifiers, is that's eliminating the I 12 or I 14 percent: it's eliminating those guys. The point is a qualifier should be good for a second, a second and a half. The difference is that's all it is. The race pace is 49s and 50s. The guy that qualified at I :58 that hung it out for that one lap, he's going to do 2:02s and 2:03s and 2:04s for the race . And they don't think about that. And that's the thing that frustrates me. You've got all these guys that cry about not making the grid because they've got qualifiers. There's a safety issue there about speeds. And where the problem really comes into play is when you're out there for 57 laps. Because you've got guys that, even though they did that one lap time that they did, they're going to be three, four seconds off that lap time . Where the AMA top guys are only going to be a second, a second and a half, two seconds off that lap time. MLAD IN: The racing line that those guys take is the biggest danger. The guy at the back of the World Superbike grid or the MotoGP grid Is still going to take the same line as the guy in front. DU HA MEL: So you can commit to a more aggressive pass or a more assertive pass. Some of these guys I'm coming up on I'm so much mesmerized by like, first of all, he's not supposed to be there. Now where is he going? Is he going up or is he going to make this ape x? BUCKMASTER: That there, that whole train of thought probably cost you a couple of seconds, which cost you to catch Mat or catch Eric. DUHAMEL: In the Xtreme race it totally screwed me up for sure last weekend [at Barber]. It happens a lot. You don't have to have an example immediately. It always happens. Those guys, they just don't know. That's another thing - I don' t know how they get policed organizing body 's got to say, "Enough's enough." If a guy's getting lapped three times in a race , you can't go to the race the next weekend and just expect to pay his money to get in and all of a second he's that much bet ter. BOSTROM: And it's a continuity issue again because one race we go to they have blue nags. The next race , there's no blue nags. It just changes . You never know what to expect, and it's not professional. DUHAMEL: The guys that don't make the grid should get a discount at the Jason Pridmore riding school . PRIDMORE: And Miguel will be there teaching all day. All day for nothing. Golf lessons. Let's talk about the ru les stability. MLADIN: There 's not much to talk about. Remember this ser ies three years ago [200 I], the last year Harley was in. There we re 16 factory bikes in this series. It was a gre at ser ies. BUCKMASTER: From my perspect ive, I race for Yamaha, who don't contest the class, and I do n't care what any manufacturer says or even if I offend anyone, but Superbike is the premier class. It will always be the premier class, and there's no way of changing that ever especially in this country because it's tradition. The rules stability has to be there for years down the trac k, because then they would comm it to it. Look, if we lose television time, we 're screwed , totally. Salary, sales, everybody. And CYCLE N EWS • JUNE 9, 2004 45