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 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 36 L ast week's issue featured the first portion of our round-table discussion with the team managers of the factory teams that com- prise the AMA road-racing championship - American Honda's Chuck Miller, Yamaha's Keith McCarty, Yoshimura Suzuki's Don Sakakura, Kawasaki's Mike Preston and Parts Unlimited Ducati's Tom Bodenbach. This week we pick up the conversation that was held at the Miller Motorsports Park on the Saturday of the Superbike doubleheader. The following transcrip- tion begins with a discussion on rule changes... The FIM is discussing future Superbike rules. The AMA Superbike rules expire at the end of 2007. Do you advocate the same rules? Do you want them more restrictive? Less restrictive? McCarty: I would like to see us... I know right now that we're going to move on with what's called with the MSMA. All of our companies have a member on the board of this group and they're kind of the ones pushing for global unification of rules for motorcycle racing in road racing. And I think it's a great idea. And I would probably defer this to them, because they're probably a lot smarter about how to control it than I would be. I know they came up with some ideas that weren't very popular. And I think, by their own admis- sion, they weren't the very best ideas. But it was the best idea they could all agree on at the time. I know it's a concern. At that time it was a restrictor-type plate or engine or whatever and that's what they wanted to do at that time. Since then, things have evolved. As far as the rules go I would like to see that global unification. I think it would be better for racing in general for all of us. I think it could be a really big thing. The rules as they are now - you're going to have much faster motorcycles if this series goes to World Superbike spec, with airboxes, gearboxes, camshafts. So if we're going to go to that spec, we're going to defeat the purpose of racetracks that we're outgrowing. Bodenbach: Ducati would actually rather be able to go to a 1200, but have basically the same restric- tions as the 1000 inline. Not because they think, "Well, we'll be able to blow everyone away with a 1200," but to lower the cost. Right now, to be competitive run- ning with our twin, we're basically running an F1-style engine - exotic parts, low mileage. Most of these guys are running tons of miles on their engines, that means lower costs. I mean I'm sure they don't think it's low cost to them. But we have some huge costs in main- taining our engines. Sakakura: Well, 1000cc production motorcycles are very powerful. I think I've stated with the Superstock you get the lap times. Performance around the racetrack - there's not that much of a difference. That gap is becoming reduced now. How we would slow the motorcycle down? I think I would agree on slowing the motorcycles down. I think we need to investigate it before building circuits around our motorcycles that we try to race and we promote. I think we've made some pretty major gains there as far as cost reduction as far as the standard components, your airboxes, your throttle bodies, your transmis- sions, where you don't have five, six choices with all those gears, as we had with our old 750s. It's definite- ly a step in the right direction and I think it's helped to tighten the competition up as well. But slowing the motorcycles – that's evolution. I don't think we're going to slow that down, we'd have to stop it. It's a matter of building a safe environment to accommo- date these motorcycles. I think Dunlop has really come a huge - a long way - in tire development to suit motorcycles in our series, at our venues, our Daytonas and some of our more abusive racetracks. McCarty: What you were looking at before, was the answer to how do you slow the bikes down? I think, really, everybody's going to take care of it in their own way, because they all probably produce more power than is usable by the riders. I think that's one of the reasons that the MotoGP guys want to go 800ccs, because they can make way more power than the riders or tires or anyone can utilize. So I think to challenge themselves in a technical way that can make a better type power or smoother power, whatever they're looking for, is probably something that they all are eager to try. Again, I imagine down the road that's the direction that everybody will be, but not for some time. I don't know that the ability to have the speed is going to really create the problem. Even though maybe everybody having world Superbike-type rules or whatever they end up with, it could make our bikes faster, but I don't think that's going to be too big of an issue myself. Speaking of World Superbike rules, they allow traction control. It seems to be a contentious issue at the moment. McCarty: I think that it's out there and you're not going to stop it from being out there, and it's a very difficult thing to control from a technical side. Everybody can come up with a lot of different ways. I Road Race Team Managers: Part II THE CONTINUATION OF LAST WEEK'S ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION WITH THE AMA ROAD- RACING TEAM MANAGERS THE STATE OF RACING: PART II [ ] ] Chuck Miller BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS AND PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY NELSON & RILES