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Edited Date/Time
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From CN:
ROAD RACING - No to Factory Superbike in 2009
By Henny Ray Abrams
No Response, No Class 8/15/2008
ALTON, VA, AUG 15: The 2009 AMA Superbike Championship will not include a Factory Superbike class after none of the manufacturers responded to the Friday afternoon deadline set by the Daytona Motorsports Group.
On Tuesday August 5, DMG CEO Roger Edmondson sent queries to all of the manufacturers asking if they would support the class, which some had previously requested. (The rules were to be based on the 2009-2010 rules agreed to over a year ago by the now defunct AMA road race committee.) Edmondson said the class would proceed if there was a guarantee of at least eight machines. Since none of the factories responded, it meant the class was doomed.
Instead, there will be two sprint races on a weekend, the horsepower and weight-restricted Daytona Superbike class and American Superbike, with rules similar to the current Superstock class. Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup and Moto-ST will also run at select events.
“It’s past closing time here and there is clearly not sufficient support to include Factory Superbike in our program and we won’t,” Edmondson said in a phone conversation from Daytona Beach, Florida. “It’s not a surprise that those who didn’t ask for it didn’t respond, but it is a surprising that those who asked for those rules didn’t give me the courtesy of saying no. Other than that we are ready to move on with double-headers in American Superbike and Daytona Superbike.”
Edmondson did get one response, but it didn’t address Factory Superbike.
“I heard from one of the competitors that they were hoping to get me an answer by yesterday and it didn’t come in at the end of business today,” he said. “I made it clear that a non-answer was a 'no' vote.”
As to whether the rules might yet be altered, Edmondson said, no. The Daytona Superbike class would be restricted by a horsepower to weight ratio.
“This is the set of rules that we’re going to run our series by next year,” he said.
“In short order we would now like to be in a position to announce a schedule, we would like to be in position to wrap up tire RPF’s (request for proposals), which will be going out Tuesday. We would like to talk about teams coming on board. It’s time to stop talking about rules and moving on.”
Edmondson is now embarking on a cross country motorcycle trip with one of his sons. They’ll ride a pair of Harley-Davidsons, a Road Glide and a Street Glide, arriving at next weekend’s Grand-Am race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California in time for a Friday meeting with the AMA road race promoters.
ROAD RACING - No to Factory Superbike in 2009
By Henny Ray Abrams
No Response, No Class 8/15/2008
ALTON, VA, AUG 15: The 2009 AMA Superbike Championship will not include a Factory Superbike class after none of the manufacturers responded to the Friday afternoon deadline set by the Daytona Motorsports Group.
On Tuesday August 5, DMG CEO Roger Edmondson sent queries to all of the manufacturers asking if they would support the class, which some had previously requested. (The rules were to be based on the 2009-2010 rules agreed to over a year ago by the now defunct AMA road race committee.) Edmondson said the class would proceed if there was a guarantee of at least eight machines. Since none of the factories responded, it meant the class was doomed.
Instead, there will be two sprint races on a weekend, the horsepower and weight-restricted Daytona Superbike class and American Superbike, with rules similar to the current Superstock class. Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup and Moto-ST will also run at select events.
“It’s past closing time here and there is clearly not sufficient support to include Factory Superbike in our program and we won’t,” Edmondson said in a phone conversation from Daytona Beach, Florida. “It’s not a surprise that those who didn’t ask for it didn’t respond, but it is a surprising that those who asked for those rules didn’t give me the courtesy of saying no. Other than that we are ready to move on with double-headers in American Superbike and Daytona Superbike.”
Edmondson did get one response, but it didn’t address Factory Superbike.
“I heard from one of the competitors that they were hoping to get me an answer by yesterday and it didn’t come in at the end of business today,” he said. “I made it clear that a non-answer was a 'no' vote.”
As to whether the rules might yet be altered, Edmondson said, no. The Daytona Superbike class would be restricted by a horsepower to weight ratio.
“This is the set of rules that we’re going to run our series by next year,” he said.
“In short order we would now like to be in a position to announce a schedule, we would like to be in position to wrap up tire RPF’s (request for proposals), which will be going out Tuesday. We would like to talk about teams coming on board. It’s time to stop talking about rules and moving on.”
Edmondson is now embarking on a cross country motorcycle trip with one of his sons. They’ll ride a pair of Harley-Davidsons, a Road Glide and a Street Glide, arriving at next weekend’s Grand-Am race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California in time for a Friday meeting with the AMA road race promoters.
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Actually as far as Im concerned AMA Road Racing ended the day they did away with the Formula 1 class.
Long term, it's good
When the OEM's realize that DMG isn't going to fold like a deck of cards, like AMA would, they'll slowly get back in under their rules.
Road Racing, like MX, needs parity and that can only be achieved through equipment limitations and equality.
No racing series can be commercially viable if one racer or one brand dominates.
This has been proven by many racing series', not just nascar
A racing series needs parity in order to be commercially viable, period.
I've thought for some time that there were far too many classes at the AMA races, but again they should have looked at the WSB/WSS format.
BTW Dougie I disagree with you about the move away from F1. There truly was only one bike capable of winning at that time and it was one that had nothing to do with the type of bikes people could buy and ride.
They used to have both. Along with F2. What the hell ever happende to F2?
Also of some interest is that it was Privateers winning Championships when it was F1. Remember Schlacter, Richi, Singleton etc. Perhaps Im just being nostalgic.
Why would the factories getting out of racing be such a bad thing?
It is what needs to happen to SX and MX for it to survive.
The factories aren't going to stop making and selling bikes.
If club racing grows they will end up selling more bikes and parts.
If racing gets better then outside money will come, especially when the see that they can compete with all the other private teams.
We race on narrow sports car courses, MotoGP races on wide F1 courses
As it's been, hardly anybody goes.
1 thing everybody is kinda forgetting.
At the end of next season, Mr. Edmondson's vision and series
will crown somebody with the AMA's National Number 1 Plate, with
all the signage, bragging rights and sales that go with it.
I've seen more than one post saying what Moto needs is a strong, independant
thinking maverick to lead us to the promised land.
Well, here it is.
Yet the fact is Suzuki (i.e. Spies and Mladin) have been handing everyone else their ass week after week for quite a while now. Don't see how maintaining the status quo helps anyone other than Suzuki. The chief goals of DMG appear twofold: a) level the playing field and b) relieve the factories of much of the financial burden by going to an outside-sponsor based format similar to NASCAR.
I thought DMG's compromise of adding a "factory Superbike" class seemed reasonable. Apparently the factories thought otherwise.
If the series promoter can find a way to create an exciting series with great exposure and bring in dollars from outside the industry all the more power to them. Somebody needs to take the risk eventually. I'm glad somebody finally has the balls to stand up to the manufacturers and try.
Pit Row
The reason that Miladin/Spies & Suzuki have been kicking ass is because they choose to fully support their AMA factory team while the others dithered about. It didn't help that the idiots at the AMA never saw fit to consolidate the series specs with that of WSB. 2 similar series with different rules forced the factories to choose which series to support & you know which one they picked. Stupidity. Now DMG has turned American RR into a 600cc support class. Who wants a cookie cutter NASCRAP formula? I'm done with it. We will never see another American world champ because there is no feeder series into the big leagues. Spies may be the last one to make the leap if he gets an offer for Moto GP next year.
DMG had offered the manufacturers everything they asked for and the manufacturers kept turning them down and asking for more.
There was no way they were going to accept a spec tire for the superbike series either. The manufacturers were adamant about that point. That would have leveled the playing field more than any other rule IMO.
From SOUP:
DMG Deadline - Noir At The Stratford
by jim mcdermott
Monday, August 18, 2008
Pool is open. To swimming, not so much.
image by jim mcdermott
Click your eyes to black-and-white, and The Stratford in Danville could be a crime-scene setting from the early 60's. The kind of place where failed comedians go to overdose, tired cops break up domestic disturbances between exotic dancers and their unemployed boyfriends, and infants bawl through the Kool smoke exhaled by their pregnant mothers. If you want a $49 tour of the biggest dive hotels in America, just become a roadracing journalist.
There's a big sign out in front of the hotel that says "POOL IS OPEN." Exactly what it is open to is anyone's guess...maybe alligators. The concrete hole brims with vile green liquid, dead leaves, and fast-food wrappers floating on the surface, inviting bathers seeking hepatitis or dysentery to dive right in. Evan and I sat by the Stratford's pool until quite late, bullsh*tting and listening to the guests yell over their color TVs. Eerily lit, it was a great backdrop for a little benchracing.
There was lots to talk about, but the real story is the ongoing Mexican standoff between DMG and the manufacturers—whose vision of motorcycle racing will prevail? When the news hit Friday that the DMG "Factory Superbike" deadline had passed without a response from the manufacturers, we knew there would be hell to pay. Lines had been drawn in the sand, sidearms unsheathed, tempers flaring. People can only point guns at each other for so long before one goes off, and the hammer finally clicked down on a loaded chamber. No deadline response from the mannies = no Factory Superbike class next year, according to DMG. An AMA racing season without factory participation now seems quite possible. Will there be two competing series, like the Champ Car/IRL fiasco? Looks like they're going to the mattresses, even though everyone knows war is bad for business.
It was 2 am. The Virginia summer heat, the diesel fumes from trucks driving by the hotel, and the flickering lights of the pool brought a mickey-slipped quality to the evening. It was easy to half-close your eyes, and be transported back to 1962; wearing a badge and strapped, answering a 10-54 call—possible dead body in The Stratford's pool.
The scene of the crime. Where Superbike donned cement shoes.
image by jim mcdermott
They hooked a line to the floater and fished it out of the stagnant water, put it face-down on a yellow tarpaulin that was spread out on the concrete. We pushed through the crowd surrounding the pool, shouting "GET BACK, MOVE BACK, MAKE ROOM!" and knelt beside the body. "Probably been in the water all day," said the Coroner. "OK, let's flip him over."
It was tough to make out the face, which had been beat up pretty bad. It will take the lab a few days to get a positive ID on the body. But in our guts, we both knew who it was.
It was the corpse of U.S. Roadracing.
ENDS
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