Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Let's Get It Right ow that Daytona's out of the way, we can get on to the business of racing as it's meant to be. Not by holding your breath for half a lap on a decades-old surface with a very hard wall blinding by a few feet away, but on tracks with corners and ele- vation changes and escape routes when things go wrong, a5 rhey inevirably do in racing. Clearly, there are people who care about track safety, but are they the right people? The end of the Scott Hollingsworth era gave hope to those who knew that the AMA Pro Racing board never adequately addressed ridersafety, i.e., most ofthe pad- dock. Unquestionably, track safety has improved greatly over the years, mostly through the efforts ofAMA road-race man- ager Ron Barrick and a few forward-think- ing racetrack. But riders have been almost entirely bypas5ed at a time when their input becomes ever more critical. The old saw that ifyou 8et l0 riders, you get l0 opinions just doesn't fly, Look at the collecrive wodd-level experience on the Superbike Srid: World Champion Neil Hodgson, six- time AMA Champion Mat Mladin. World Superbike veteran Ben Bostrom, Wodd Endurance Champion lason Pridmore, 500cc GP veteran l'liguel Duhamel. To a man, they re intelligent. reasonable, emi- nently ogerienced, passionate about the livelihood they've chosen, and willing and ready to help. And yet this abundance of resources is steadfastly ignored. Steve Whitelock provides a ray of hope, The Supercross/motocross boss understands racing as both business and entertainmen!. When the three leading Supercross riders - Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart and Chad Reed - all crashed at some point in the opening round of the series, Whitelock mandated safer tracks. The thinking was simple: No one wants to see about $ l5 million rn rider salary laying on the tmck, Without them, there is no show and Whitelock understood before anyone else that the four-stroke era had eclipsed current tlack thinking. ''The goal," Whitelock said in a state- ment, "is to build tracks that are as safe as possible and deliver great racing for the fans. That's our objective as we proceed with this process." Anaheim ll, the first race where Whitelock was able to implement changes, showcased some ofthe best rac- ing of the season. No one doub6 that rearranging a stadi- um full of din is a hell of a lot easier than adding run-off on a road course- You can't iust take a bulldozer to the dangerous ones and hope for the best. On second thought. . . The costs of road-race safety are enor- mous and there has to tre a return on the investment. That investment must be viewed in human terms. and without rid- ers. the show simply doesn't go on. Whitelock rs pan of the troika running racing - temporarily, it's said. Alreadx director of competition l4errill Vanderslice has announced his resignation, though he seems to be lin8ering: Now his departure is set for the end of April, I'm told. No word on the status of Michelle Rossi. Even less word on the naming of a racing czar, a position whose vacancy grows more cavernous by the day. And, for those who don't knoq in one of many previous and productive lives, Vy'hitelock was the World Superbike technical boss. Road America announced a $5 million, three-year capital improvemenr plan in November. The plan calls for resurfacing five corners and having run-off added at turn five. But the biggest (hange is the "reconfiguration of the Bill Mitchell bridge at turn l3 to accommodate a greater run- off area." the track said in a release. The release should have been univer- sally welcomed as good news, but it was- n't. The reason was simple: lnstead of consulting riders, the track solicited the opinron of FIM safety boss Claude Danis. Vvho better than the man who mus! give his blessinS to a racetrack fgr FIM homologation? "Us," was the riders' answer, and they have a point- The riders rightfully feel that unless you understand what's happening on a 20O-horsepower his own wake. The damage was signifi- cant, but it was cleaned up in about 20 minutes and qualifying continued without incident. When was the last time a signifi- cant oil spill at an AMA race was quickly resalved? Roberts himself said that the oily track multirider pileup would be a topic of discussion at the next Rider's Safety Commission meeting. One significant difference between the AMA and MotoGP is team structure. The Al'1A tearns are run without sponsor obli- gations - there are almost none among the factories, except for Parts Unlimited at Ducati Austin - and rely almost entirely on the generosity of the American distribu- tors. Executives rn offices mostly in Southern California make the decisions. generate the budgets, pay the salaries, and ignore the grim realities of road racing. When road racers bitch about track safety and the lack of rider involvement, alarms should be ringing in the same exec- utive suites that pay attention to Supercross/motocross. The factories pro- vide the bulk of the funding for the ines- timable Asterisk Mobile Medical Center (the AMA is also a significant contributor). "Similar plans are being considered by the AMA Pro Racing l,ledical Advisory Board for the AMA Chevy Truck U.S. Superbike Championships and the AMA Progressive lnsurance U.S. Flat Track Championships," reads a press release issued by the AMA. That was on .lune 20, 2003- Three years and counting - that's a lot of considering. Maybe it's time for a consideration commiftee. American Suzuki is the most generous benefactor in road racing. with a budger I'd conservatively estimate to be in excess of $12 million. Thq/ have three factory riders, two of whom sport a number- plate, and a number of satellite teams. When a six-time champion like Mladin voices his opinion, it shouldn't fall on the deaf ears of the people paying his salary Their investment is enormous and yet their timidity is well documented. Only American Honda had a representatave on the now-defunct AI4A Pro Racing board, and rider safety was not among the rea- sons for his departure from all AMA boards. And while at existed, the Pro Racing board made almost no effort to include riders in safeq/ decisions affecting their own lives. So the next time a rider complains about the frighteninSly dangerous final turn at Road Atlanta, an event sponsored by American Suzuki, maybe he should look at the signature on his paycheck, lf that guy doesn't care enough to take a stand, why should anyone else? Cll The hope here is that whomever takes over the helm of the teeterinS ship 'AI4A PR" makes rider involvement in rider safe- ty a priority. Clearly, he or she can't pay less attention to it than their predecessor And the current fascination with commit- tees could be well served for a change, if that committee consists solely of riders. A displacement decrease is less than a year away as l4otoGP machines outgrow World Championship tracks that are con- stantly scrutinized and spend millions on safety. There's little doubt that a number of U.S. racetracks aren't keeping up with the consBnt evolution of the Superbike class. Even the best of them, such as lnfineon Raceway in Sonoma, have areas that can be improved; moving the K-wall to add a little more run-off in the right- hand turn seven is one spot riders have mentioned to me. lf they'd mentioned it to lnfineon management, it probably would have been done by now. motorcycle on the l6th lap of a l6Jap race, when the tires are slicker than a Sunday televanSelist, the shock's more overheated than the gay-marriage debate, and the front-brake lever feels like an overripe tomato, you shouldn't be the final arbiter We value your opinion, as you must ours, they believe. The model to emulate is MotoGP At the pinnacle of the spon. the Rider's Safety Commission - Valentino Rossi, Kenny Robers lr, Loris Capirossi, and othe6 - meet at every GP to discuss all manners of safety issues. An incident very early in the lone qualifying session in Jerez, Spain, proved that even the best tracks aren't immune to the unforeseen- A failure on Alex Hofmann's Pramac d'Antin Ducati Desmosedici had unintended and far- reaching consequences. Rossi was an unwilling victim, as were Robers, both Kawasakis, and Marco lYelandri, of the oil streak Hofmann unwittingly laid down in 94 APR|L 12,2006 . CYCLE NEWS ' By HmruY RaY Aenlms CHICANERY \ ) LI I c

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