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/128337
AMA Pro Racing Roundtable: Part I AMA Pro Racing road race manager Ron Barrick a ce rtain level, and clearly that's no t the case. HOLLINGSWORTH: Well, I guess it's their opinion that it's not the case . They're t he ones w ho are out there. HOLLINGSWORTH: We do n't ignore them. But there are a lot of people that have a sta ke in this game , and they 're one of them . The guys in the bo tt o m 10 have a far le sse r stake than the g uys in the top 10. LEISNER: I think also, even if you set the grids identical to , say, MotoGP or World Superbike , there's stillgoing to be lappers, because they' re dealing with the three top riders from every country in Europe, whereas we' ve got to take 30 riders from just o ne country. So there's always going to be a bigger spread in lap times from fi rst to whatever the grid size is here and over the re. BARRICK: It's not uncommon to see those guys lapping up into ISth or so forth. But they la p 30th twice. And at Daytona they were la pping guys, how many t imes? BARRICK: It's 200 miles. LEISNER: I think Daytona this year, the new qualifying percentage actually produc ed a really good show, because there were fewe r motorcycles on the racetracks, and the ability to follow the lead pack was much better because of not as many lappers mixing it up. You're making t he poin t , t hen, if t here are fewe r m otorcycles on t he track, you can follow the leaders better. 28 AUGUST 18, 2004 • CYCLE N EWS LEISNER: But still, there we ren't 20 motorcycles on the track. Twe nty is an arbitrary number. But as it stands now, you have to be awfully slow not to make that field. LEISNER: And t hat's a 3.56-mile racetra ck now. Was. BARRICK: What is it now? We ll, we don't k now do we? That's question number seven, BARRICK: The Superbikes are the pre mier class. Ther e is a difference in the qualifying percentage between the support classes and the Super bike, which holds that standard apart and does weed out some of the slower riders . HOLLINGSWORTH: It's not an issue we're unaware of. We have slowly but surely knocked down qualifying percen tages, and we 've looked at track densities and rearranged the way the grids start . We're aware of the issue, and we 've made it more restrictive and mo re restric tive over time. Again, it's going to be one of these things that you' re going to hear proba bly a good bit today. Change has co me . It may not come as quickly as every body wants it to come, but it has come, and it is going in the direc tion that you're suggesting. It is getting more and more restrictive. Getting back to the technical ru les. This will be the third year in a row for changes. You said that it looks like t hey're going to be the same for 2006. Why can't it be two or three years, so that the teams k now exactly... For instance, Yamaha and Kawasaki say that until they see rules, they can't make a decision. HOLLINGSWORTH: Iguess I'd ask you, what's you r question? Why ca n't you just say these are the rules for the next two years or three years? HOLLINGSWORTH: Tell me what the 2007 RI looks like . 2007 is... HOLLINGSWORTH: ...three years . Tell me what it is. " Is THE 2 0 0 7 GOING TO R 1 GOING TO BE A 9 0 0 c c IN windows of time where we 're comfo rtable eno ugh that the pro duct mix is stable enough that we can make a set of rules that stay consisten t. Ove r the past couple of years, we've had a transition from 750s to IOOOs that we had to work o ur way through. Not everybody had a 1000 at the same time . So we worked ou r way th rough 2003, w here some people we re racing 750s against 1000cc multis against 1000cc twins, and you have to come up with a formula that works for that to keep everybody in the game. Some of the same peo ple who say we change rules too much are the ones arguing for us to change rules in 2003 . We believed that every body would be on a similar foot ing, if not the same footing in '04, with 1000cc multis; that didn't really prove to be the case . Some peo ple were extrem ely late with equipme nt and not ready to go. But ifyou look at the 1000cc multi rule package that we initiate d in '03, it's now rea lly bee n in effect in '04, with the exception of throt tle-bo dy changes, which I'll still argue is a very good change. That package is going forward in 'OS. The re 's a three-year w indow for 1000cc rnultis, and we said we believe it'll be the same in '06. The only thing you don't know is the produc t that 's going to hit the table between now and then . So you have to leave yourself some roo m to adjust different engine configurations and those kinds of things. BARRICK: And our cre ating a set of technical rules from year to year does not dictate what product the manufacturers are going to lean towards in planning for the future. They have their ow n marketi ng decisio ns to ta ke and they build the motorcycles, but they do n't tell us what they 're building in the future. Why don't you go to Japan? MotoGP went to Ja pa n and aske d what they wanted to race. HOLLINGSWORTH: We have met with the Japanese guys as the MSMA as part of this whole rule-m aking pro cess. So we did get input directly from them and from America in this process. That' s how we arrived at the rules package that we have today. And that' s w hy we 've got a little bit longer window here that we 're looking at now. But it gets really hard w hen you start getting to '07, '08. They all know perhaps the general package that they're going to put o n the street , w hich is w hat we 're racing as opposed to prototype. But I don't think they would share those produc t plans with us. W hat's the d irection of 5uperbike racing in t he fut ure? Is it goi ng to be 600s? HOLLINGSWORTH: I think what we 're trying to do is create a stable window of time right now - wh ich we've hinted at where we're going for '06 - and I think beyond that we 're going to have a lot of discussions 9 0 0 c c BIKE BECAUSE MoToG P 2 0 0 7 , OR IS IT GOING TO BE A DON'T KNOW THAT. YAMAHA WON'T TELL ME. MAKE A RULE FOR I T ? But yo u've changed every year. So w hy not make it fo r at least two years? HOLLINGSWORTH: I wa nt to answer your question. Is the 2007 RI going to be a 900cc bike because MotoGP is going to 900ccs in 2007 , or is it going to be a 1000cc bike? Idon't know that . Yamaha won't tell me. So how am I going to make a rule for it? So you thi nk you need to cha nge it every year t hen? HOLLINGSWORTH: What we'd like to do is find 40th Anniversary IS 1 0 0 0 c c B IKE? SO HOW AM I I GO ING TO - Scott Hollingswor th about what we do, what' s the right formula for everybody. But that decision hasn't bee n made. Is the Dayt o na 200 goi ng t o be a Formula Xtreme race? HOLLINGSWORTH: There's been a lot of discussions with Daytona about the future, and those discussions cont inue and no final dec isions have been made. So it 's possible t he 200 cou ld be a Formula Xtreme race? HOLLINGSWORTH: It's certainly something we 've