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Heck, they even dumbed down the Daytona Supercross. I hope the Atlanta races have very wet dirt, that's the only way a track gets gnarly. Daytona USED to be TOUGH, even for the strumpets..
Photo Credit - @gavlakracing
And it ain't never gonna happen. Neither the FIM nor the AMA has the requisite testicular fortitude.
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It'd be pretty easy to compare passing in a 450 main in 2015, 2016, 2017 and so on.
I don't doubt what Tomac is saying, but it'd hold more water if we could look at statistics and go "yeah, nobody passes anymore"
I know the level is super high this year, lots of contendas' (say it with the accent) but without passing the sport is pretty boring to watch.
This should be a fairly closely watched statistic by track builders. If passing falls by more than one standard deviation (which I bet it has), they need to go back to the drawing board.
These people are selling a product and what the "fans" want to see FAR outweighs what the riders want to see. They want huge crashes, they want aggressive riding, they want guys getting punted off the track, they want 15 riders all within a second of each other's lap times. Someone said it in a different thread about how their friends who never rode get bored watching a race after like 5 minutes. This is the crowd they are trying to rope in and how do you make a race exciting to people like that? Lots of crashes and contact. I'm glad I'm just a spectator haha. All of us diehards are going to watch no matter what as we can appreciate, from riding ourselves, just how impressive it is to even ride a Supercross track. They already got us on board.
Look at the UFC. Do their fans want to see a clean, technical grappling match or do they want to see a shitload of blood and a dude get knocked the fuck out?
Basically 2 lanes, That are designed one way during time practice/qualifying....SO move qualifying up about 3 hours.... Then as soon as the qualifying is over the sections are plowed and rebuild completely different?
(I do not know how long it takes to form jumps with a bulldozer, soo its really just a guess on my part).
Now also what happened to Creative freedom with the tracks? Nobody every mentions this. why do the lanes have to be perfectly straight? why cant we make a S turn with whoops throughout the whole section... turn while hitting whoops.. or a step on table top that turns down into a dragon back into a corner.
I wish somebody matthes or Gypsy or even whiskey throttle show.. would interview somebody about track designs and get some answers.
Pit Row
The tracks can be supercross, but longer, little more "racey"
Bike has too much power for stadiums. Racing has become ballet or gymnastics....Jump, hit your mark, jump, turn, hit mark.
Battles of tenths on the watch that doesn't translate to actual racing. Then best gate, best start, check out, audience ZZZZZZZZZZZZ
If going to stay in stadiums, need more whoops, deeper and longer sand sections and wall stops. Those are the obstacles that cause the most unforced errors.
One area I I don't understand this year is the whoops. They are so tamed down. in the past it feels like we didn't see guys jumping until later in the mains when the whoops really broke down...now they're jumping in qualifying. Also doesn't help when there's only one whoop section with like10 or so whoops, and that's counting the little starter bump.
When you go to a new track, do you hit every jump first lap out?
Stop spoon feeding these guys their same old practice tracks.
My $0.02
So I'll say it again: reduce the weight limit by ten or even fifteen pounds, reduce the displacement limits to 200cc and 250cc, and test all the motors on a dyne for horsepower that must resemble a stock motor. If you did that, what you'd get is exactly what you all say you want: safer, better, racing. The thing is, you don't really want it if it means getting rid of all those beefed-up, tricked-out motors, 'cause after all, those bikes can quad an entire rhythm section right out of a corner - and you all just LOVE watching that.
That's called a "Catch 22."
Tracks today are so expected, even a split lane or an elevated corner becomes talk of the night because it's get every pair of eyeballs on it.
I have thought this for years and have "put up" with it, so I am glad others and now riders, are voicing their opinions. However, I don't think this will gain much traction coming from the defending champ who has been getting dusted more so than ever and that's unfortunate.
Post a reply to: Tomac Speaks Track Reform