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/128341
"Thank you very much - and where do • YO U want me to send my yearly dues to?" MX des Nations I can't believe that the AHA can't field a team to go to Europe for the Motocross des Nations. Once again, they continue to disappoint . It's really kind of embarrassing that a country as rich as ours does not want to represent itself for a simple race over one weekend in Europe. I'm sure that there are even teams in Europe that would be glad to help with the equipment - even if we just sent the ride rs, mechanics and maybe a few managers . Man, this sucks. Sorry, I just had to vent. Paul M cDaniel Cincinnat i. OH AMA Roundtable I have a few co mments on "The O ther Side" interview with AMA Pro Racing. The reason we are suffering in this quagmire of uncertainty regarding classes, rules, etc ., in the road racing series is because AMAPro Racing is a spineless lap dog for the manufacturers. To paraphrase Scott Hollingsworth : "We can't make long-term rules/classes. Show me a 2007 RI, and then we can make rules/classes accordingly." Do us all a favor and gather up some intestinal fortitude and set up intelligent classes based on what the fans and riders want, not what the manufacturers' marketing departments think we should be stuck With. Set up classes, and if the manufacturers decide not to build a bike for that class, so be it! If AMA Pro Racing needs help, here is what would make us all happy: 12Scc GP, 2S0cc GP, 600cc Supersport and 750cc Superbike. And God forb id you could even have a Sound of Singles and Battle of the Twins class to make the race weekends interesting and not as painfully boring as they have become . Also, please pay special attention to the inclusion of the GP classes. Fans and riders were done a tremendous disservice when AMA Pro Racing took it upon itself to kill those classes. We stillwant to see real race bikes! Robert Leuer Fremont . CA Chicanery Just wanted to send you a quick note saying thank you for writing and publishing what all good motorcycle fans must be thinking after reading AMA Pro Racing's decision regarding the Daytona 200 and the choice to run this coming year's race on Formula Xtreme bikes. While I admit that something should have been done to remedy the current situation of boring racing and lack of safety for the riders , I must also admit that the idea of watching 600cc "Superbikes" (and I use that term loosely) running around Daytona does not thrill me . It is not because I think that the race should be run with bigger bikes, but rather the fact that with the current rules as they are , privateers wo uld be forced to make up the majority of the field, ot her than the obvious Hondas of the factory team . As you stated in your column, it must be great to think of the top two (or three) facto ry Honda's racing amongst themselves for the win, all the while lapping every other contestant in the race. Let's see , wasn't one of the major complaints in the real Superbike category all year long by the factory riders the difference in speed between their bikes and the privateers they were riding with? Does this mean that we need a 107-percent rule in the FX series? Ifso, will there be anyone else to compete? Thank you, AMA Pro Racing, for making my planned vacation to Bike Week 2005 to watch the best racing at the preeminent event in the U.S. meaningless. Thank you very much - and where do you want me to send my yearly dues to? Michael Goettsch Ames. IA The Daytona 200 Goes Xtreme Let me see if I got this straight: AMA Superbike was 1000cc, but got too fast and dangero us, so they knocked it down to 750cc. Those got too fast and so they bumped it back up to 1000cc. Now it's too fast again and they're bumping it down to 600cc for Daytona. Am I confused? Hell, why not just make the BMW Boxer Cup the main show? After all, people love the bar-banging (or head-banging, as it were), and the Pros and the Amateurs would all be on even machinery. Plus, heavy, slow bikes are safer. Make it like the IROC championships or something. Pretty soon , you know the technology will make 600s too fast for the existing racetracks as well. What are you going to run next YSRSOs? Tell the AMAto just get the ir act together for once. Make a class and they willcome. Quit bending the rules for each and every manufacturer. The AMAshould letters to theeditor sh",,1d be sent 10 Voices, Cycle News, PO Box5084,CostoMeso, CA92628-5084; foxed to 714-751-6685 Of emoiled 10 ed;tori!cyclen....s.com. Published letters do not necessarily reRect the posman ofCycle News, Inc. L eiters should not exceed 200 words, andall are subject to editing. Anonymous letters will notbe considered for publicotion. A111ette rsshould corocln thewriter nome, oddress onddaytime phone number... Editor. 's make the classes and let [the manufacturers] make the bikes, eh? Ste ven Holt Fallbrook, CA The Daytona 200 Goes Xtreme II Please include this with the flood of letters expressing outrage at the decision to make the premier race in America a Honda show for marketi ng the 600cc Ho nda sportbike . The po int of the 2000-mile race was to see which moto rcycle brand could win an endurance race in the Superbike class for the beginning of the riding season. John Kern said it best in the September I issue in re ference to the AMA: "You have absolutely ruined the event for this fan." The prem ier class for the Daytona 200 race is and always will be Superbike, which is the showcase that the manufacturer presents at the starting line in early March of each year. Will someone please design a T-shirt that I can wear to Bike Week that simply states : "The AMA is not worthy of organizing races with respect to common sense and tradition ." Ma urice M cCoy Mo rtinsville. IL A Plea For Loudon I have been reading your AMAroun dtable discussions with interes t. I think that the suggestion of including the tracks in your talks was a good one. However, I am not comfortable with the impression that was left with respect to Loudon. The day when Thomas Wilson and Miguel Duhamel got hurt was a bad one. It changed road racing in this country and seemed to really start the riders' safety movement of today. The events surrounding that day were extraordinary, with the combinat ion of new pavement, Wilson's catastrophic brake failure, and the sudden rain during qualifying. After that event , the NHIS track owners want ed to do the right thing and met with the AMA rider representatives and AMA officials about improving track safety. The track then spent a large sum of money changing the track (turns one , eight and 10) and purchased soft barrier systems for many new portions of the track . These changes proved to work. For the following three years, Loudon enjoyed some of the safest racing (lowest injury rate) of the entire AMA series . www.cyclenews.com Loudon has some of the most intense use of motorcycles in the country, with about 300,000 laps being turned every year. Over the 15 years that we have had this track, motorcycles have run 4,500,000 laps with only one fatality . If you compare those numbers with tracks like Daytona, where there are only two race weeks per year and four fatali ties in the same period, Loudon looks a lot better by comparison . In fact, if you look at the safety record at Loudon in general, I believe that it would compare favorably with a majority of the tracks in this nation, particularly since the track made the updates six years ago. I have had almost four decades of racing experience and over three decades as a race official , board member, and race -schoo l owner. Admitte dly, I am just a "club racer" now, as one of the Pros put it, but I have two sons that race as pro fessionals and feel comfortable racing at Loudon. I have learned that no track is safer than the organization running it. We run our LRRS club series and the Formula USA series races, rain or shine, without any drama. The Pros will argue that club racing proves nothing because they don't run pro superbike equipment. That is true , but our top club guys race about one to two seconds under pro superbike lap times on supersport equipment . Our supersport times are now faster than the AMA times (I: 12.0 for 600) and our rain lap times are faster. We have had F-USA national races in the pouring rain with top national riders like Mike Barnes running up front without any problems. The bottom line here is, the AMA walked away from Loudon fo r what reason? The safety record was good after the modifications. The actions of the owners at the last AMArace were understandable when you consider that the fans were screaming for a race after hours of messing around in indecision. The track own ers felt a responsibility to those fans. They also put up one of the largest purses on the AMA tour and were willing to invest even more into track safety. So why walk away? The track owners, the New England fans and AMA members want their race back! I don't know exactly what it would take to make it happen, but I have to believe that there is a way. Is there anyone at the AMA who can say what it would take? We are listening... Jerry Wood Loudon. New Hampsh ire CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 15.2004 5