Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"Let those Who have w orke d hard to qualify compete in Gran ada/I Letters to the editor should be sent to Voices. Cycle News. P.O . Box 5084 . Costa Mesa . CA 92628- Good Id e a As I was le avi ng th e recent T ro y , Ohi o , AMA Moto cross Nat iona l, I noticed Travis Pastrana and Stephane Roncada s till s igning autographs, The un ique thing about it was that some one had mad e an e le vat ed stand so they could s ig n for all the fans still h an g in g arou nd , outside the e ight foot fence that surrounded the pits, What I thought was especiall y cool , was that there wer e two riva ls for the c h a mpi o ns hi p , who didn ' t have the best of days, s ign ing autographs for a ll the fans who couldn 't get into the pits - well past the time the race was ove r. It was a good re flection of the riders and the ir s po nsors . C o n g ratu lati on s to T r a v is and Ste ph ane . JlmKlmbaff Spring Lake, MJ The Right Stuff? Do Pro motorc rossers have the right s tuff to be Am erica 's IS DE troph y team? If s o , then let th em qualify just like e ve ryo ne e lse. For th is ye a r th ose spots hav e be en ha rd ea rned by the best o ff- road ra c ers in th e co untry , not t o mentio n the club rid e rs who would be b um ped off the te am . Let those who ha ve worke d hard to quali fy compete in Gra nada . Le av e the motoc rosse rs home se nd the Garrahans . Neena Gordon Via the Intemet Man y of the coun try 's best oif- roede rs ui ill not be going, w hich is on e reason m otocrossers were look ed a t. lncidenta l/y , the m otocrossers a re n ot go in g eithe r...Editor In Defense of Loudon I was sitting on the john at the Loud on Nation a l this ye a r when I heard someone at th e sin k say, "the blo ke s that ru n th is pla c e wo uld e njoy killi ng babies. " As I went ove r to wash up , I reall y hoped he did not recog nize me as one of the ba by killers . I had ju st endured a barrage of insults from a Pro ride r a s a result of m y suggestion that he at least try th e wet pra ctice before de c iding not to ride for the 30,000 fan s . I asked the man a t the s ink wh er e he was from . Irel and , he rep lied . I re spon ded tha t Joey Dunlop was on e of m y great heroes , He then to ld me that I should ride the Isle of Man , that I wo uld like it. I told him that wa tchi ng Joey's lap o n vid e o wa s e no ugh to send a c hill throug h me. "Never s ho w fe ar , ma n" h e res pon ded . An d t his from a m an who th inks that the folks at Loud on a re baby killers, S in c e t h e AMA Nat io n a l, I ha ve read a ll sorts of criticis m, som e o ut- right na sty , about Lo udo n. Th is criticism is not s u pported b y fa cts , just emotio n, or as a n edito r friend of mine said, "hysteria. " Many ye a rs a go, my wife as ked m e abo ut track safety a nd I told her that to determine tra ck safety yo u s e e how many tim e s the a m bulan c e lea ves , If the ambulance lea ve s a lot it is probably dangerous , I have road raced motorcycles fo r 33 years, eaming my AMA Pro Expert license the old -fashioned way - by riding the s er ies and earning po ints , I have owned and operated the Penguin Road Raci ng School for 28 years and for the la st 11 years have served as Loudon's safety director. I a m us ua lly at the site of a ny se rious look ing cra s h a nd try to find the cause of the acci d ent, where the rid e r landed , and if there is a way to increase s a fe t y , I always try to work with the rea lly fa st guys to get their op inions, Despite the fears of those who only race at Loudon once a ye a r, the facility has a good safety record, In a study of the period betwe en 1992 and 1997 (s ix seasons ) we had 43.200 road race e nt rie s , this in c lud es cl u b and Pr o weekends , Th ere we re 3992 crashes (j u s t un d er 10 %). Of t hos e 399 2 c ra s h e s , t h e am b u la nce was on ly ca lled to th e sce ne 540 t im es . T ha t m e a ns the other 345 2 rid e rs got up and ret rieved the ir motorcycles . Ou t of the 540 that th e am bula nce came to check on , 54 we re tra nsported fro m the sce n e . This n um ber does n o t incl ude pe op le who we re transpo rte d la ter for X-ra ys a nd min or injuries , bu t it still is im pressively low. In 1998 , we had a disaste r. A pave m ent c ha nge c ombined with b izarre c ir c u m sta nces wer e fa ct or s whe n Th oma s Wilson a nd Migu e l DuHamel fell in th e first turn a nd s lid o ve r 300 hundred fee t into an unprotected wall. Both riders received se rio us injuri es an d the ra ci ng wo rld , incl ud ing this writer, was appalled. Wha t d id the people at Loudon do abou t it? We m e t with the AMA Pro Riders Committee (TRACK) a nd spent over $ 100 ,000 ch an ging turn o ne and othe r areas to ma ke the facility as sa fe as possible. The res ults were great, the 1999 Lou don National was the safest of the season with onl y seven ambu la nc e runs for the entire weekend and the most severe injury was an ankle. For th e 2000 season more money was spent. At the suggestion of th e Pro rider s , Loudon removed a wall in turn thre e and a curb in nine and added gravel traps . NHIS was the only track on the AMA pro tour to purchase th e new product "Air Fence Bike" at the AMA ' s suggesti o n . "Ai r Fen ce Bikes" are those blue dogh ou ses in a ll of the possib le high imp act a reas . Rid ers ha ve found that they ca n hit that product inc redi bly hard and ride off. Note that I sa id ride - th e stuff saves the m otorc ycle as well. So h o w d id th is a ll wor k out ? 5084 . faxed to De spite te rrible wea the r this ye a r, the c lu b series (LRRS) had re cord high entries (ov e r 13 00 one weekend) and reduced ambulance runs - an av erage o f fou r per weekend. The 2000 Loudon National was e ven better. Dur ing Fr ida y's qualifying and practice, I was told tha t there were no ambulance tran sports a nd no serious injuries at all. So why do peo ple keep call ing Loudon a "kille r track"? Hyste ria , I a m told. The shame of it is that two riders have been killed a nd one para lyzed from the nec k down at other tra cks as a re su lt o f hitt ing u n p rotected wa lls and there is no outcry! All race tracks a re d an g erous , because of what we do th er e. I be liev e that higher speed m akes fo r m ore danger (thre e recent d e a ths at Da y tona) . At Loudon we ha ve 14 turn s in 1.6 miles, this keeps the speed dow n and injuries low. No motorcycle racer ha s lost his life at Loudon in the 11 ye a rs that we ha ve used the ne w lay out. Loudon has some real assets for th e series as well: A long racing history, over 30,000 fans , and a technical layout tha t a llows fans to see over 80 perc ent of the tra c k. We also ha ve one of the best sa fety crews in th e country. Here in America , we have a Nat iona l series , a nd most of the trac ks have to hos t a uto racing to s urvive . Wa lls a re a fact of life he re a nd always have be en . We need to cover the impact a reas not stop ra cing . O ur s po rt is growing , but not with out so me pr oblems . The fact ory te ams ar e ru n ni n g so me ve ry ex pe ns ive e qu ip me nt, p r ivat e er s h av e litt le cha nce a nd grid s ar e shrin king . Costs are wa y u p a nd tea m mana gers are not eager to ris k rider s a nd eq uip ment. Sa laries are up as we ll. On e rider to ld m e that he got paid a ny way , so why would he want to ride in the rai n if he didn 't have to . I res pect Dou g Ch a nd le r not only as a ride r, but a s an hon o ra ble person . Howe ver . at Loudon he was put on the spot. The no -ride gu ys m ad e m or e noise tha n th e ride guys and preva iled , the s p ecta to rs lost out. Inc identally , Loudon had a rainy LRRS rac e recently with about 1000 entri es and the winner of the fastest ra in fina l turned a J :24 .5. I think that is a bit fa ste r than the wet AMA Superbike p ractice. And the ambu lance never left the property a ll da y. Jerry Wood Via the Intem et 714/751 -6685 or e-mailed to edito r@ cyclenews.com. Published lett ers do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Letters should not exceed 200 words and all are subject to editing. Anonymous letters will not be considered for publicat io n. All lett ers should contain the writer's name . address and dayt ime phone number. . Edito r. ities. The ir tracks we re im macula tely prepared as well as their infrastruc ture . They are fine e xa m p les of how AMA Moto cross Nationals should be. The AMA claims to want to keep the costs down and have the inte re sts of the privateer at heart. I am not sure if th is is corre ct , but I do have two ideas that could help . S ince I arrived o n the outdoo r Na t ional s c en e in 19 9 5, th e p ri z e mo ney h a s not inc reased by one cent - eve n though the cost of e very thing else has. Th is is ca lled in fla t io n . S p eak ing with m y frien d Steve Wis e , I lea rn ed th at th e purse was the sa me for him nearly 25 ye ars ago . Picture this s ce na rio: You are an Ama te ur try in g to co m p e te in yo ur first Na tio na l e ve nt. You paid all the expe nses to ar rive at the race a nd yo u take a walk on th e t ra c k - o h, no, th ere ' s a c oncrete starting pad . The g uy kno ws he is going to burn his new tire in hopes of getting a go od sta rt in o rder to qualify. All go es well a nd his weekend ends - four tires later ($40 0plus) with a pair of 17th -place finish es. With h is co m mend a b le a ch iev e ment he ma kes a whopping $360. I would be too e m bar ra ssed to offe r that kind of purse if I held a Nat iona l. T ake a Superc ross , for ex ampl e . PACE Motor Sp o rts is be lieved to make in excess of $ J million in profit per event - yet the grand prize for 17th is $1420 ($3 10 for the 125cc class) . Wh y do the promoters get away wit h pa ying so littl e? The reason is because the AMA requires so little. My po int is that the AMA ha s the power to c ha nge all th is . Firstly . c o ns id e ra b ly inc rease the m inimum amount of prize money to be paid and , second ly, get rid of all tho se tire -bu rn ing concrete sta rt p ads . I h av e n ever se en roa d ra c e s sta rt o n dirt for m a int en an ce re a son s . Greg Alberlyn Coronq. CA Wood is th e safety d i recto r at N ew Ham psh ire Intern a tion al Speedway ... Editor A Time To W hine Firstl y , I would like to com mend th e ow ners of Re d Bu d a nd Un a d illa on doing an outstand ing job on th e ir fac ilcy c. < 0 _. n C1) en Albertyn is th e defending AMA 250cc Na ti on al Motocross Champion...Editor n e _ so • A UG UST 9 , 2000 5

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