Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ls lt Legal? : I j r' !i ; K=E [riffi ls the Buell XBRR purpose-built ra.e I bike Formula Xtreme legal? The AHA thinks so, and said so in a press release issued on Friday, February 10. Others aren't quite a5 suTe. "We welcome anybody in the class, o, coursei lhe more competition the better in this clasr. We welcome Buell," said Yamaha's Tom Halverson, who's in charge ofbuildingan FX legal R6. "lguess the point we're trying to make is, the way the rule- book reads to us is, the spirit oi this class shouldn't allow one-off special racint motorcycles to be able to race in it." "lt says right in the rulebook, the motor- cycle has to be a homologated motorcyale that is a street-legal motorrycle," added Erion Racing's Kevin Erion. "The fact that Buell is claimin8 the bike will never be a streetbike, well, I don't know. So what part of the frame do they get to modiry - ever/- thin8? So they can basically throw the one away and start lyith another one. So the whole motorcycle is built from the g.ound up as a race bike." Ea ier. Erion stated: "They already said it was legal to Buell. but that doesn't make it legal. Wher€ in the rulebook does it say we are allowed to circumvent the rule- book if we so choose? Doesn't the rule- book Eovem whether the bike is legal is not? So the fact rhat they say ir's legal doer- n't mean it's legal, it just means they'r€ sey- ing it's le8al. lt has to conform to the rules of the rulebook." The AMA rule ro which Erion is refer- ring states: "Formula Xtreme competition is r€stricted to motorcycles [engines and frames] produced for U.S. street use and ayailable in the U-S. throuth reEil dealers." Of the XBRR. Buell says on its website, "lt is illegal for anyone to ride tiis motorcy- cle on public roads." The AMA based their corfirrnarion on the XBRR being "the race-kitted yariarft of the road-going XBl2R," but the two bikes bear very litde resemblance to earh other, unlike 'l/amaha's Formula Xtreme R6s or Erion Honda's CBR600RR5, Thar alone doesn't make it ineligible, Buell didn't ,ust build the XBRR withoot consuhinS the AMA, according to platform director Sterre Anderson. ',k for tfie caser ud heads. neither are rtock," Arderson said. "Both are extreme- ly rnodmad. The cases have been recast, We explained to the AMA rhar we could do new castings by melting the old castings and usint that metal to c.ast new cases. This would allow us to produce them for cheaper and allow them to be affordable for every- bo6/, rather than do the welding that would be required to modifythem, which would be "We had discussions with them lthe AMA] and told them whar we are thinkhg about throuth the entire process, We arked them, 'ls it okay or not?' We were assured that it was okay to do what we were doing." Anderson said the main concern was that the fram€ had to be stock. "The bit thinS was that the frame had to be production, which it is," Anderson said. "The frame is amazinSly stock, with no mod- ifications. We've added billet block for axle adjustment, but other than rhat, it's dead stock. And it can handl€ the 60 to 70 percent AMA director of competition Merrill Vanderslice says that the Buell is elitible for competition in the AMA Formula Xtreme Series, The release stated that AMA Pro Racing technical prsonnel had inspected the Buell and determined it was legal. "By design, FormulaXtreme rules a.re the most liberal of all the.lasses within the AMA Superbike Championship," stated Vanderslice. "The class war created with broad equipment parameters, and air-cooled V-twins are afforded the most latitude. guell has based dlis motorcycle on its XBI2R streetbike, and the modifications made are within the rules allow€d in the class." nderslice sai, that rofie of the confu- sion was crcated by a press releqse distrib- uted by Buell. 'Regardless of the wording in the release, the bottom line is that Buell has produced a racetrack version of an exlstint street motorcycle and modified it whhin the rules," he noted. "We were aware of Buell's plans and inspected the rnotorcyde on Friday, Febrlary 3 , as part o, the approyal proc€ss." Hafuerson made a few points in rebuttal: "The rulebook says that Formula Xtr€rne i! bdsed on production four-stroke itreet nrotorcychs. This, to me, obviousb/ from the picure, n€ver started as a street motorcycle "lt also says thqt twin-cylinder, air-cooled engine modficalois are unlimited. But that, to mc, doernt read like you can use com- pletely difrerent engine parts. To have a bike that was never intended as a streetbike, then not only modifyint pans, blt completely replacing them - to my understanding, those things would be like the cases, and the crank- shaft - to me, that doesn't seem like it's whh- in the intent of the rules. ' Erion had also heard that the cases were not stock parts and that the camshafts weren't in the same location. "lt says it two places in the rulebook that the Formula Xtreme bike has to be a street- bike, that then can be modified." he said- "What's happening is, they're taking the lan- guage of'and then can be modified'and say- int this motorcycle started life as one of those and now it's one of these. So what part of it is still the same? None of it. Because it says you can do unlimited modifi- cations [to the engine and swingarm.] What does the word 'modifled' mean? Does k mean throw this one away and start with something new? Or does it mean actually change something from what it is to some. thing else? And if that's the case, does it mean change something, meh it down into its rdw state of matedal, and reform it into a new one? That's in theory what they'd be doint with the engine cases." Erion compare{ it to the 2002 case involving the Graves Motorsport Yarnaha team. ln *lat incident, Vandersli.e told rearn owner Chlrck Graves that the motorcycle, an Rl motor in an R7 chassis, was legal. Drrlon Buckmaster rode the bike for the 2001 season and the firsr three r.ces of 2002 before Erion's riders filed a protest, The AMA denied the prorest, so Erion agpealed, and a thr€€-rne.nber board o{ appeal ruled that it wasn't legal. Graves had to *rarnble to build a legal Formula Xtreme bike for the following round a! Pikes Peak lnternational Raceway. ,We've gone down this road already, and we're going to go down ir atain, unfor- tunately," Erion said. Halverson pointed out that machine legality is one ol the issues usually discussed by the AMA advisory board, o[ which he and Erion, and several others, are mem, bers. The XBRR was never discussed. Halverson said. "l feel, being pan of rhar. tha! lhis rs something that we should have been aware of and at least gotten to give an opinion about, instead of it comtng out and it s almost too late," he said. 'And you feel like. 'What are we really doing that for?' There's usually a 30-day comment period after the advisory board meeting to come to a conclusaon and rhey present that to the [AMA Pro Racins] board, and the board says, 'Put this out to a comment period,' and that gets decided. To m),/ knowledge, none of lhat happened ln rhrs deal. We didn't hear about this thint until ir was kind of out in rhe press. which is kind of disappointing as well," Since the Al'4A made its ruling, ahere's little that can be done before the Daytona 200. The bike can be protested 30 minutes after provisional results are posted- "You kind of hate to protest it, because, lik€ I said, we'd love to see them in there racin8," Halverson said- "But if you don't say ahything, then it's just like givinS your blessint to the AMA, that they can do this at their whim and never say anything to anyone about it, at least not to us." Heony kf bron tlPoul Corruther. Seven-time Al"lA Grand National Champion Chris Carr will have Ford Quality Checked Cenified Pre-own€d ProSrern backing for a fifth conseculive season. the dirt-track letend announaed last week. Carr, who shrts his 2lst year of professional racing in March, will be the lone rider on the team. "This year, Chrir Carr Racing and the Ford Qualiry Checked Certilied Pre-owned pro- gram will kind of b€ like the first year we got togerher." said Cam "l'll be the lone racer, Carr Back With Ford 8 TEBRUARY 22,2006 . CYCLE NEWS along with crew chief Kenny Tolbert and my race mechanic, Bubba Eentley. We'll be a close-kni! racing ream with one goal in mind: winning the 2006 AMA Flat Track tirlefor the eighth time," Gone from last year's program is lhe team's second rider, Willie McCoy. "\ryillie did a Sreat iob for us the last two years," Carr said. 'iA.d the decision allowing him to move on (o another program was made by Chris Carr Racing, not the Ford Quality Checked program."

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