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 ";ice president Andy Leisner had complained for years, number one. And number two, t rack owner Bob Bahre, the spat that he had with you and Merrill was quite unprofessional. VANDERSLICE: That's not what made us walk away from the racetrack. And t he rider boycott, t he riders deciding they wouldn't race in t he 600 race? VANDERSLICE: Overall, as Ron des cribed, we have to evaluate the e ntire situation at Loud on . In effect, Ron, as he put it, there really wasn't any wiggle room for furthe r improve ment. And I think that was part of our re luctance to go back. HO LLINGSWO RTH: Y can make the same case ou fo r Phoen ix. We worked hard in Phoen ix to try to come up with solutions to the issues there, and we just couldn't do it in an eco nomicallyfeasible fashion, so you just have to walk away from Phoenix. BARRICK: Once that [Phoe nix] becam e an ISC prop erty, I spen t a full day out the re wit h two of the e ngineers from their e nginee ring side of things, the NATe. We spent a full eight-hour day trom ping arou nd the facility and looking at different designs and trying to find so me way to create a road cours e, and they were w illing to invest a significant amo unt of mon ey into the project because they we re talking about putting a tunn el thro ugh to gain access to the infield. They we re ready to make a big investme nt and were ready to work with us to try to create a much bette r road course. After a full day of looking at everyth ing and trying different designs, 30 AUGUST 18, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS they couldn't, I couldn't find any way, within the confines of that facility to make , w hat we consider a suitab le race track . But the argument co uld be made that t hat place sh ou ld never have been raced at in t he first place. HOLLINGSWORTH: Hold on a second . We've gotten a little bit off track. You asked a question abou t why we don't take more rider input... W hy isn 't there a for mal way? HOLLINGSWORTH: ...on the race we ekend. If you ask Ron, he's going to tell you that he goe s out and looks at the racetrack and looks at safety. I think he ta kes riders out, and riders look at the placement of safety bar riers and hay bales and things of that nature . I think the re's a process of reviewing race tr acks that incorpor ates riders' views to begin with, before we get the re . So I think there is an effort being made to incorporate bot h longer-term planning for racetracks and event-weekend planning for safety bar rie rs and things like that that do take rider input into the equation . At Brainerd, Miguel Duhamel told us he went through turn two and said they needed to be more hay bales ou t there. And maybe they were placed there, maybe they weren't. BARRICK: They were. Why weren't they pla ced t he re beforehand? BARRICK: All's I can say is, I guess the bikes just kee p gett ing faste r and faste r, and the guys start not icing more and more things t hat they think need to be addressed . I'm open to that. There is no formal process, like you say, whe re at 6 o'clo ck every Saturd ay night we all go walk the track or som ething. But it's still an open environment whe re they come to me and say this and that, and that did get taken care of. Miguel came and po inted out that the trac k's a little rougher here and we 're going faste r this year and we need some straw bales out there. And the straw bales that he saw were actuallyin fron t of a came ra stand, so that's what he was see ing. What got placed out there was some of the Alpina defend er barriers that the track actually ow ns "I'D BE HAPPY TO GATHER A Do you want 90 riders coming up to yo u saying we need th is, we need that? Wouldn't it make more sense for the riders to have a unified voice instead of these things ha ppe ning haphazard ly? BARRICK: I wouldn't be oppos ed to putting toge the r som e formal process to accomplish that . Ninety riders is ce rtainly not the answer. I'd rather it was just a handful of riders that w ould com e to a unified decision. But I'd be happy to gather a group of tw o or th ree of the top riders , if they're willing to take the time at a spe cified point in the wee kend. I don't think Saturday night is the appropriate time to do it because if they have any imme diate needs the y've already raced for two days. At the GPs, they're doing it on Saturday because they're talking about the following year. BARRICK: Of course, they're able to choo se fro m the best facilities in each country that they visit. But those facilit ies spend a lot of money to upgrade to stay up to spec. BARRICK: O f course. many of them are subsidized by the governmen t as we ll. LEISNER: The economies of racing the re are quite a bit diff ent. er BARRICK: Ther e are many, many races that have far, far few er spectato rs than we do, yet they' re able to afford a Moto GP and spe nd infinite amounts of mo ney o n their race tracks. GRAEBER: To echo what Ron's saying, I don't think we'd be op pose d to working that into a race weekend schedu le, to have a select group of ride rs commit to coming out and doing it at a time t hat's actionable. I do n't think we'd be oppo sed to that . A lot of t hese tracks do little changes. Mid-Ohio is a perfect example, They changed the surface. They pu t rain grooves in them . The Keyhole was dangerous. I personally saw three top riders crash there. When a track does someth ing like that, does the AMA have any responsibility to know about it in advance a nd suggest input ? And why was there no o ne from the AMA at the test? HOLLINGSWO RTH: I can tell you that we were aware of the changes. But you missed a major on e... The one in the back. HOLLINGSWO RTH: ...the wa ll in the back was moved back also. Again, we cont inue to be in dialogue, in discussion today with Mid-Ohio about wh at's going to be require d there in the future. So it's an evolutiona ry process . There's an assumption that the surface this year is going to be worse or whatever you wa nt to call it . The GROUP OF" TWO OR THREE OF" THE TOP RIDERS, IF" THEy'RE W ILLING TO TAKE THE TIME AT A SPECIF"IED PO INT IN THE WEEKEND." now, as well as about 300 straw bales got placed out the re . So there was quite a long run of mate rial that got put in fro nt of that tree line. Whether he saw it or not after the fact , I don't know. If you're aware, as you go through that turn , it so rt of drops away down to the tree line. The straw bales that he saw we re ente ring the turn where the camera location was. Once you're in the turn and going through the turn , that's sort of out of your peripheral vision. HOLLINGSWORTH: There's an example of rider input that we were respo nsive to. 40th Anniversary - Ron Barrick fact of the matter is, we had prob ably 15 to 20 less falldowns th is year than we did last year. So sometimes the reality of the situation isn't quite what everyone's e xpectation or fears of it might be. T he riders sai d they were cautious.. BARRICK: Their lap times didn't indicate that they w ere cautious. T hey went faste r, but it's hard to know w hether it was the track or the bike. HO LLINGSWOR TH: That's just it. It's hard to know. But we do know fo r a fact that that one area,