Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By CHICANERY HENNY RAY ABRAMS A Farce MA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth has two choices: Either he can grow a set of cojones or he should resign. No other possibilities exist after the charade that was the opening round of the unsponsored AMA Superbike Championship at the continuously perilous Daytona International Speedway. The first running of the Formula Xtreme Daytona 200, allegedly the most important race of the year and now run on what Superbike series champ Mat Mladin calls mini-bikes - it was the slowest race of the weekend - was an endurance race for anyone who had to endure it. To quote American Honda's Miguel Duhamel, "The Daytona 200 this year, it felt like it was the Daytona 255, because, like Kurtis [Roberts] and Jake [Zemke] mentioned, it never ended." And he won the race by over 42 seconds, lapping everyone who wasn't on the podium. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. How did we get here' How did we get to a day when the best rider the series has ever known, five-time champion Mladin, was heading for the Orlando airport when the Daytona 200 was run? What sort of knuckleheads make these decisions? It begins with exploding tires. As best as can be divined, the Speedway tired of being tarred as a destroyer of youth after two catastrophiC rear-tire failures during the 2003 winter testing season. Never mind that Dunlop re-engineered the Daytona dual-compound tires that have been trouble-free ever since. Well down the road, a decision was made to alter the road course, eliminating the west banking. It didn't hurt that the Speedway had to close for months to construct a new tunnel. Why not appease the motorcycle crowd? Possibly in exchange for making the 200 a Formula Xtreme race. No one is jumping up to claim parentage of that crotchet. Forget about the sheer insanity of riding 196-plus mph mere feet from a wall. During our roundtable with AMA Pro Racing, Hollingsworth was asked if Daytona came to the AMA with the Formula Xtreme 200. "It's been an ongoing dialogue with Daytona for quite some time about all types of race-operation issues and the Daytona 200 and its future," he said. "So really there have been a number of good ideas that have been put on the table." Good idea? For whom' Certainly not the fans, who saw an endless procession of mostly slow motorcycles getting in the way of a limited number of very talented riders. The Speedway? You bet. They got their coveted 71-rider grid - there were only 36 Superbikes on the grid for that race - made mostly of filler; hungry Supersport riders looking for a good payday. You want A pathetic? Simon Turner, who finished 10th, three laps and 6.914 seconds behind Duhamel, made the same $3000 that Mat Mladin earned for winning the Superbike race. Kudos all around. For American Honda' Certainly. The only factory supporting the class became a very late sponsor of the Daytona 200. In fairness, they've been in the class from the start: Duhamel won last year's title, with Zemke second. It wasn't like they were cherry-picking the race. The class, maybe, but not the race. That discussion is for another day. Is Formula Xtreme the premier class of the future? I've heard it both ways. Getting a straight answer out of anyone in AMA Pro Racing is about as easy as getting Martha Stewart to breastfeed a baby alligator. Not gonna happen. As loathe as I am to draw comparisons to NASCAR, this case merits an exception. Racing is business, but more than that, it's entertainment. The Speedway knows that. Which is why Nextel Cup our races. We do have integrity. Granted, it's fading quicker than the Supermoto series, but still. .." It should not be the other way around. And it sets a dangerous precedent. Kawasaki and Yamaha, neither of which are in Superbike, both sponsor races. What's to keep Infineon Raceway from telling the AMA, "Listen, guys, Kawasaki's not in Superbike, so what say we slap Superstock in the live-lV time slot?" Is it any wonder that the Superbike class and the championship have no title sponsor? What the entire desperate situation points to is a lack of leadership and vision. Ducati, and tell them to make nice. Tell them it's better for all the mommies and daddies if they can all be watched in one place. Tell them that's the only way they'll know if their kids are the best kids. Tell them their kids really do want to play with the other kids. It really is that simple. If that happens, I predict the Daytona 200 will again be a Superbike race in 2006. One 1000cc class, call it what you want. And while we're at it, make it a Sunday doubleheader with a 600cc Supersport race in between. That would eliminate riders racing two classes. So you'd have the best riders in the country facing each other twice a day on the best machines. Sounds simple, doesn't it? And lower the qualifying requirement from the ridiculous I 10 percent to something more sensible, like 108 percent. Former World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson's take on the back of the Superbike field: "Some of the guys looked like they'd just come from McDonald's." races run on Sunday, with the best drivers in the best cars. What are the chances that the Speedway would tell Gordon and Earnhardt and Stewart, "Okay boys, y'all can run on Friday or Saturday and we're going to run trucks on Sunday." Because a Formula Xtreme 200 isn't Nextel Cup and it isn't Busch, even if it is bush. At best, it's Craftsman Trucks. It might even be ARCA or Orca, a beached whale very few care about that's rotting in the sun. Of the four races, it was by far the worst. Had it been 22 laps, like 600cc Supersport, it would have been a cracker. There has to be a dramatic change in the nature of the Superbike Championship. Everyone knows it. Two team managers one whose team races Superbikes, one whose doesn't - and a number of others, including a board member, suggested a very simple solution: one 1000cc class. If Kawasaki and Yamaha can't be convinced to join the top class in racing, and their reasons for abstaining are hollower than an 89-cent chocolate Easter bunny, force them. Grab them by the Pampers and wedgie them over to the sandbox with the other kids, Honda and Suzuki and What about the 1000cc riders who don't qualify? Give them a consolation race on Saturday afternoon, along with a second 600cc race. Seems like a good time to run Formula Xtreme. And a starter class, a Suzuki SV-6S0 Cup for riders who can't afford Supersport. Give them a championship incentive - maybe a Suzuki-sponsored Supersport effort. What would it take to strengthen Superbike and restore dignity to the Daytona 200? In a word, balls. Which can be grown if the will exists. If not, step aside for someone who has a pair. eN Had it been 15 laps like Superbike, you could almost guarantee a photo finish. But it had to be 68 soul-sapping, life-draining, brain-shriveling laps. Back to Mr. Hollingsworth and the AMA Pro Racing board. What the hell were they thinking' Somewhere in this mix there has to be someone who can muster up the testosterone to tell Daytona, "We'll decide which races we run. This is our series. These are 'yr' E .,rlfle , ! t PC! I 92 CO? :0:

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