Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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JULY 5,2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 14 T he AMA has announced the results of the online nomina- tion process for the U.S. team that will compete at the 2006 Motocross des Nations, scheduled for September 23-24 at Matterley Basin/Winchester, Great Britain. The final nominees, in alphabetical order, are: Mike Alessi, Ricky Carmichael, Thomas Hahn, David Millsaps, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, Nicholas Wey and Kevin Windham. Beginning this week, motocross fans can visit AMADirectlink.com to vote on these eight nominees, in return for a per-vote contribution of $5 or more to a fund raiser sup- porting the team. The members of AMA Team USA, presented by Loretta Lynn's, will be announced during the 2006 AMA Air Nautiques Amateur Motocross National Championships, scheduled for July 31-August 5 at Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. All proceeds from the online fund raiser will go toward sup- porting AMA Team USA, presented by Loretta Lynn's. The final team selection will be made by the AMA. Vote For MX Des Nations Riders World Superbike: The Rome Meeting The latest developments in two important areas of World Superbike's future were outlined at Misano by FIM technical director Fabio Fazi, who briefed a group of Italian journalists on the main contents of the Rome meeting on June 5. As far as the possibility of 1200cc twins are concerned, the MSMA (basically the Japanese factories) proposed that all machines, regardless of type, should run air restrictors, and presented proposed sizes to ensure a balance between twins and fours. The FIM and FGsport, on the other hand, appear to have a joint position that there should not be any air restrictors, but that the twins be reined in by significant reduction of their current freedom in tuning and engine-com- ponent enlargement or replacement - plus weight or fuel- tank capacity restrictions, the latter already being a runner in MotoGP. Two companies, one in Italy and one in the UK, have now been tasked with the job of checking into how the restrictor sums add up, and exactly how restrictors could be imple- mented in the real world. World Superbike has had restrictor plates in the past - in 2003, when Gregorio Lavilla, for exam- ple, scored many respectable results on the Alstare Suzuki on a GSX-R1000 with restrictors fitted. The problem then was how to police it all, without stripping bikes down every ses- sion to check their restrictor plates. It appears that none of the parties are in any kind of stand- off position at present, with their hearts or reputations not on the line quite yet, so we can expect more discussion on the matter. But it looks like 1200cc twins in 2008 - however they are arrived at. On the second main point, regarding unification of rules throughout the Superbike world, from global championship to national series, there will be further developments short- ly. The national federations present at the meeting (from the UK, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan and Australia) now have to come up with their formal proposals on how the rules can be unified to meet with everyone's acceptance. It appears that not many of the national federations or promoters are particularly keen on air restrictors, and the UK series, for example, would like Superstock engine rules, but full Superbike chassis regulations. At Misano, the Top Teams Club discussed many of these aspects, with the majority decision appearing to be that sta- tus quo works for the meantime, mainly to stop any erosion of the differential between classes. The general argument is that if the Superbikes are made slower (some say the motivation behind that is the new 800cc MotoGP rules, which will maybe mean slower MotoGP bikes for a period of time), then Supersport bikes would have to be reduced in output, too, and then Superstock 600 machines as well. Given that Superstock 600 machines are pretty much streetbikes anyway, they have nowhere to go. Superstock 1000 machines are already close to the Supersport 600s in terms of lap performance. With possible 1200cc machines very much in vogue at present, a confirmation from SBK CEO Paolo Flammini at Misano brought up a strange dichotomy. Perfectly understandable for a class that relies on street- bike-derived machinery, FGSport has long been asserting that World Superbike racing should reflect what is available in the showroom. Some can even point to the 900cc three-cylinder regulations in the class as an example of allowing in bikes that do not have a particularly strong showroom presence (Benelli Tornado, as raced by Peter Goddard a few seasons ago), and the Petronas FP-1 (with no showroom presence whatsoever, it appears) into World Superbike racing as the vanguard of a whole new category. Some may even point to these being examples of peculiar capacity rules being created to fit man- ufacturers' desires, before the bikes were even produced. Asked if there were plans to legislate for a 675cc class, to allow Triumph's latest 600ccc (ish) offering a slot in the Supersport class, the answer was, "Not at the present time." Should Triumph have racing plans, then it would be diffi- cult to argue against the continued lack of an opening for their highly rated road-going triple, which is expected to sell in rel- atively high volume. Gordon Ritchie Werner To Serve Legendary dirt-track tuner Bill Werner will serve on the AMA Racing Committee, one of two standing com- mittees of the AMA Board of Directors, according to AMA Pro Racing. The AMA Racing Committee man- ages strategic planning and direction within its area of the AMA's mission, with the goal of responding to the interests of the AMA's 270,000 mem- bers, according to the AMA. The other members of the Racing Committee are Carl Reynolds (chair), Art More, Jeff Nash and John Ulrich. "We're pleased that Bill Werner has agreed to serve on this important board committee," said Reynolds. "His wealth of racing and business experience will be invaluable as we strive to make the AMA's professional competition even better." "When I heard in February that the AMA had created the Racing Committee, I felt that it could be a step in the right direction," said Werner. "Now I'm glad to have the opportunity to contribute, along with the other members of the committee and the AMA Board of Directors, to shaping the future of the world's best racing." The AMA Board of Directors, which meets four times a year, consists of 12 members. Six individual directors are elected by the general membership in their respective regions and serve three-year terms. Six corporate direc- tors are elected by the corporate mem- bership and serve two-year terms.