Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

or formula for your racing, but we're racing productio n equ ipment here , We need to know what's in the product line and in the mix, We have to make rules accordingly. So there's always a lag time on us gett ing information and us being able to take everyone's input and working that through a process of getting good ru les. Now yesterday, as you mentioned, we also said in 2006 it looks like we're going to have the same technical regulations. So we are trying to get out in front of this thing and le t everybody know that there will be stability going forwa rd . So we are trying to give them lead times . How much input do you generally ge t in t ha t 30 d a ys? VANDERSLICE: We get some. It's nothing on the magnitude of 2S to 30 percent of the credential holders , but it' s significantenough to get a judge of the public attitude, the race community's attitude toward something. HOLLINGSWORTH: Some people rea lly take time and think about it and put down some quality thoughts, and some people just use it as an o pportunity to vent . FARRIS: When we developed the current rule structure that we launched for this seaso n, there was co untless interviews with OEMs, board members, guys in the paddock, team owners to make sure we were on the right path with the 1000s and 600s, and what was going to be mod ified and what was going to be stock. I think we have do ne a lot of the heavy lifting over the last year and a half to come to the rules we launched this year, and they are going to extend into '06. What was t he ro ad-r ac e advisory bo ard's po sitio n on t hro ttle bodies? BARRICK: There was no unanimous decision on that . It was one of those things where some of the man ufac- By of the machines. And we thought that the whole thr ottle- bo dyand-airbox package was o ne way of helping to control how much air the things cou ld take in and ultimately the power that they're going to produce without having to go to the extreme of everybody having to run some kind of restrietor and then trying to figure out a formula o f what size restrictor is appropriate for this model compared to that model. In t he end, the a dvisory board feel s ignored , BARRICK: On t he other hand, there has bee n a history of many, many ot her things that the advisory board has come up w ith as ideas which we've discussed and discussed w ith them that have gone and gotten passed th ro ugh. Can you give us an e xa m ple ? BARRICK: Qua lifyi ng percentages. Qualifying percentage from I 12 percent to I 10 percent . BARRICK: Well, we originally started out at I IS percent. PAUL CARRUTHERS AND HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAy ABRAMS turers of the four-cylinder machines were protecting their own best interests, and we were trying to find a way to make it possible for the tw ins to be competitive with the 1000cc fours, and eve ryo ne in the room, including the manufacturers o f the four-cy linder machines, were perfectly aware that, under the exact same technical rules, a V-twin is not going to be as efficient as a four-cylinde r. They all knew that there needed to be some con cessions. They were n't all in agreement with what those concessions shou ld be . FARRIS: At that point in time, it was unclear on one manufacturer whether they were going to race a twin or a four-cylinder too , so I think even by the folks on the advisory. So I think it was pretty objective. Wha t we w e re told is th a t t he advisory bo ard was more o r less un animous. BARRICK: Again, I'm not sure which part of the rules you're talking about for the throttle bodies . As far as allowing aftermarket throttle bodies for everyone? Yeah, I think obviously Suzuki, having gone down that path already, were in support of maintaining the rule . But from our perspective, one of the objectives, among many others, was to try to control the ultimate speeds Bu t t here a re a lot of people who would rat he r see it at 107 percent . BARRICK: T he re are, but the re are a lot of facto rs that go into those decis ions as we ll. O bviously, some of the to p teams that are involved with the advisory board have their inte rests at heart , The big picture has to be looked at as well for the pro mote r's sake, the number of bikes on grid. HOLLINGSWORTH: I th ink that's a good point . When you look at the throttle-body issue, when you look at it in the context of safety, can you really argue that that wasn't a good decision, to eliminate the aftermarke t throttle bodies from 1000cc bikes and contain the speed and performance? It didn't, which many people were concerned about, throw our competition out of balance so in favo r of the twins that we had Ducat is running away with it, which your magazine published too at some point in the last year. So we came out with competitive, balanced rules that limited technology and speed . That 's a good example of how we are making decisions that may not be pop ular in some cases, but are the right thing to do and are safety-conscious along the way. Cost issues. www.cyclenEWs.com AMA Pro Racing chief e xecutive officer Sco" Hollingsworth What about the size of the field? Why is Superbike the only premier class where virtually anyone ca n get in? And every race, there's a problem with lapped riders. HOLLINGSWORTH: I'd say every week in every motorsports event anywhere in the world, there's a problem with lapped riders or drivers . You rarely see t hat in MotoGP. HOLLINGSWORTH: Watch a Formula One race and see how many laps it takes to get into lappers in a Formula One race , the pinnacle of motorsports in the world. It's probably seven or eight laps. But t hey still have a limited-size field. Anybody w ho sho ws up can't get into the field. HOLLINGSWORTH: For a lot of different reasons. VANDERSLICE: We have a limited-size field as well by percentage and track density. HOLLINGSWORTH: So you do have limits. You do hav e limits, but th e limit is p re tty lax w hen you see how quickly they get into t raffic a nd ho w slow a lot of the r id ers are. Ben Bostrom said it decided t he o utcome of t he race at Mid·Ohio, and that race wasn't the only one. Who's watching the back of the field ? Who wants to see the guy s in 30 th t o 40th? HOLLINGSWORTH: It's easy to say that nobody 's watc hing the back of the field, but from our pe rspective , you have to try to kee p the health of the entire sport growi ng. And people need the oppo rt unity to com e up and test the waters, and if they mee t the criteria that are on the table, then they get to go racing. That's the bottom line. And you need this inflow of participants to ensure that you do have fullgrids. Y could squeeze the ou grid down to 20 bikes, and that's not going to be a great, show on a 4-mile racetrack because every two minutes there's going to be a group of bikes come by, and the n you're going to sit there and wait. But the fact of the matter is that it's a bigger picture tha n that . You have to have participants willing to come up, compete. try, and continue to build and draw your talent up through ama teur ranks and into professional to try to make the show. The point of th e r id ers is t ha t Superbike should be th e premier class . HOLLINGSWORTH: And it is... But when th e r id e rs get there, they should be a t CYCLE NEWS • A UGUST 18, 2004 27

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