Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

discussed with them and other people. And whose idea was this! HOLLINGSWORTH: Lots of good ideas floating on the table from a lot of different places. Did Daytona come to you a nd say, "This is w ha t we'd like to see," o r did you bring it to them! HOLLINGSWORTH: It's been an ongo ing dialogue wit h Dayton a for quite some time about all types of race-ope ration issues and the Daytona 200 and its future . So reallythe re have been a number of good ideas that have bee n put on the table. GRAEBER: I think bot h sides have been very creative in suggesting ideas , and it's kind of hard to say where specifically so mething came fro m. Li ke a roundta ble co nver sation. Ideas just kind of com e forward. What would you like to see as the premier class at Daytona next year? HOLLINGSWORTH: I think we wa nt to try to mee t the objectives of the whole series and for Dayto na. We' re going to try to co me up with a solution that wo rks fo r the most people . Was this discussed at t he road-race advisory board meeting at Brainerd! VANDERSLICE: Wh at , the Dayto na For mula Xtreme? Yes. VANDERSLICE: Not as a specific. So how much paddock input has there been in thi s, t he manufacturers? VANDERSLICE: Th ey've definitely discussed 600type Superbike racing as a future concept. But specifically for the Da yt o na 200. Has t his been d iscussed with t he manufacturers? HOLLINGSWORTH: It has been addres sed w ith some of the manufacturers, abso lute ly. And hav e t he y ind ica ted t ha t they wo uld race, other t ha n Hond a? HOLLINGSWORTH: I don't think we 're going to share what's bee n discussed in private discussions with those guys. But they've had an opportunity to provide their thoughts o n the topic . T he people we spoke t o a t Mid-Ohio - Yam aha, Kawasa ki, S uz u ki - sai d they w o uld not build pu rp ose-built , very e xpensive Su pe r bik e s for one race. Do es th at wo rry you , that it could be basically one brand, guarante ed t o win the race? HOLLINGSWORTH: Does it worry me? It certain ly wou ldn't hit all of our objectives for the 200. But at the 200... there are certain brands I can't say whet her they' ll be in the 200 next year anyway or not. We've got a responsibility to grow this series and grow that event, and we 're going to try to make the best decision to do that . How does that gro w the event , changing it to Formula Xtre me? HOL LINGSWORTH : Nobody 's comm itted that we're going to do that yet . But you sa y t ha t 's your object ive a nd that's one of the possib ilitie s. HO LLINGSWORTH: But again, you have to look at what's in the best interest of this series, our participants, the fans, the 200, and the business climate that all of this is set in, and try to make a decision for the long-te rm growth, not fo r maybe what's most expedient in 200S or what works best fo r certain peo ple in that time frame . We're trying to plan with Daytona and their event fo r w hat's best over the course of the nex t three to five years . Why not Supersport, wh ere you have more factory involvement? HOLLINGSWORTH: Obviously, that's o ne of the issues that has bee n discussed also. GRAEBER: Again, each of these ideas that are in the discuss ion stage w ith the track has bee n discussed with the decision makers of the brands, the OEMs. HOLLINGSWORTH: The quick answer, if you want to play pros and cons to each one of those, is, yes. t he Japanes e manufacturers are all in and capable of building 600cc Supersport bikes they all have them . Maybe Honda's not in it this year, I guess, in a factory way. Is that correct? But it' s not that expensive to build a Form ula Xtre me bike, because of the new technical rules. It's very expensive. HOLLINGSWORTH : So all the Japanese manufacturer s can build one; whethe r they will or not , we would n't know. But you also have a bunch of other brands that are ca pable of running in Formu la Xtreme, like Ducati and Buell and others. But even for privateers... it would be a burden to try to build a very fast motorcycle with quickchange equipment. HOLLINGSWORTH: Yes, we agree. GRAEBER: These are all recognized. We're taking all that into consideration. Nothing's been announced. I think we're assuming this is a done deal. and it may not be. Speaking of not being announced, w ill the track be cha nged for 2005! GRAEBER: That has bee n discussed w ith Daytona as we ll. They have not committed to us yet . And we talke d to them, and they said that their renovati on is ongoing as schedu led and as announced. But given t he problems of t he rece nt years, isn't it imperative that t he AMA has a strong voice in th at decision? HOLLINGSWORTH: I think we do. And I think we 've had dialogue wit h them for quite a while. And we 're not ready to make any kind of announcement here today. I think the dialogue continues wit h Daytona. GRAEBER: Dialogue with tracks about that is always ongoing, never -ending. HOLLINGSWORTH: Not just Daytona. You're right. GRAEBER: Is it reasonable fo r the track to come in and co mpletely revise their layout and renova te or rebu ild it o r resurface it? Perhaps not. But we can focus on the things that need to be done, and we see that at a lot of the tracks we visit. A lot of incre mental changes, very importan t cha nges, have bee n made. Again, it's not like we 're at just Daytona. But Daytona is t he biggest problem, acco rd ing t o the rid ers who have t o rid e all these t racks . FARRIS: And we have more discussion with Dayton a than any other trac k because of that . Will there be a ny rid e r inpu t ? GRAEBER: Absolutely. At Daytona , there w ill be rider input. GRAEBER: I wou ld say that we wo uld propo se that, and I'm co nfident that Daytona would we lcome that as well. Should that be on the table, I wo uld think ride r input wo uld be very impo rtant. Th e GP rid e rs, every Saturday, go around the www.cyclenews.com AMA Pro Racing vice president/director of competition Merrill Vanderslice track and make suggestions. Why isn't that done in AMA? Why don't the riders have more say in a more uniform, regimented basis? BARRICK: Infi neon Raceway would prob ably be an extreme exam ple of that, whe re, when they we re talking about changes, obviously everyone - the ride rs, the track, ourse lves - were all aware of some of the area s that were of concern for so me of the riders. In co njunction with us, they invited a number of riders out there, and we spent a full day wa lking around the track and loo king at things. Within the co nfines of the canvas that we had to work with, I think some good , posit ive changes came out of that . I do know that of the four ride rs that were there, the re were many different opinions on w hat the co rrect way was to fix something. So so metimes it' s difficult, even when you have four to p riders, to get unified o pinions on modifications that are actua lly going to make an improvement. I'm not saying this in a bad way, but I've just see n so me of the ride rs making changes they thought wou ld make it more fun while maybe making it safer. And then other riders were str ictly looking at it as how can we can change this area strictly with the objective of creating runoff and so forth and not being concerned about whether it was more interesting or less inte resting. Tha t 's on e example. There a re I I trac ks. BARRICK: Sure there are. If you go back in history, it's not like we ignore this stuff altogether. No o ne's suggesting tha t . BARRICK: We have two tracks in recent history that we've complete ly wa lked away from because we felt that, after some mod ifications had been made to eac h of them - one in particular - over a number of years , we got to the point whe re there was just no further wiggle roo m to do anything that was going to do anything to continue to improve it without... Was that Loudon! BARRICK: Yes, that was Loudon , and we just wa lked away from them. But you walked away from it aft e r the riders CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 18, 200 4 29

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