Congrats to the AMA guys... Oh Wait.

This is definitely a big part of why I love it. I especially love the fact that in club racing, a guy can still show up with a $1200 weekend budget, and beat the guy with the $10,000 weekend budget.

Of course, I also like going to trackdays on my gsxr 600, and blowing past guys on their $50,000+ MV Agustas.

 

But this discussion has been going on in different threads since back when they did grid up.

It's been going on before the internet, and has probably been going on since back when Al Wilcox raced.

 

Hell sometimes Novice to Expert doesn't matter. Had a novice blow by me on the brakes in the Solo 16 Saturday. He was riding well...me...not so much.

 

This happens when you take a half decade break.

 

Yeah. An AMA guy winning a WERA race is like a sucessful 35 year old dood banging a seventeen year old fast-food order-taker chick. I mean, where is the challenge? The zit-covered fry-tech 16 year old nose-ring punk who works with her has almost no chance at tire money.

 

Wait. You race?

 

No...I just ride around making other look fast.

 

Damn can Zempke get off the line. I swear he was shot out of a effing cannon. And then the bastard had the nerve to sling rubber and the sticker off his rear tire and hit me in the head with it going into T3 at Fontana. I am pretty sure he had the bike sideways from the start until he hit the brakes for T3.

On that same weekend Toye finished within a second of JZ.

Recently at a club race out here one of the local guys qualified ahead of JZ.

Fact is everyone is out there on similar equipment and just because they run AMA or have been paid to race doesn't mean they can't be beat.

 

The 16 year old will just have to make do with used tires.

 

I think it is classy for an AMA pro to pull in on the last lap. If you are not chasing the points then you really shouldn't take them from those that are. On the flip side, there is no rule to it. It is racing. It is just classy that is all.

 

What if that's the money that the AMA guy needs to make it to the next AMA round? Should they pull in then?

The days of $50K helmet contracts and getting paid to ride for most are over.

 

That was the point of the whole post... it's what was said in the pits by a lot of people. Of course everyone loves to race with the pros, and learn from them, and of course they can beat everyone. As somebody said they earlier they entered just like everyone else, and were qualified to do so. ya think? Of course they were... WERA won't turn down the $, and people love to see them. I think it shows a difference in generations when the old guard would let club racers race, and pulled in when they knew they had the race in the bag and didn't need the contingency or points.

The post was about the fact that they come and clean up at a club race when they don't need time money and certainly don't give an F about points.

I don't care either way, because I'm slow and don't race for points.

I do however see the gripe. The other posters who are a "Pull your panties up" are the typical keyboard jockeys who either don't race or who aren't in the running for points anyway.

 

^ +1, and

I remember watching him do that and thought it was cool as hell. Granted, it's cool that an AMA rider ran as well as he did for sure - but if you're just looking for seat time, it isn't always a bad idea to pull in and let the club cats work their battles towards their goals, imo.

 

damn right

 

There are definitely a few "special" people in this thread.

Very few AMA racers are actually making a living actually racing AMA races.

If they show up at a club race, they should race. I mean actually race, finish in the position they earn, not pull off on the last lap so someone else can get tire money.

People need to get off the entitlement mentality. You are not entitled to contingency just because you may be able to podium, you need to finish in front of the other racers to EARN the contingency.

I LOVE it when AMA guys show up to our series, gives me someone to chase. I turned my best ever lap here while following Jake Holden, the exact same lap that he set a new track record. I think it was awesome because I got to learn, and got an up close view of the lap record being set.

 

No, you missed the point: The guys being discussed here, need the money. And the most cost-effective way to get track time, is to go run a club race and maybe win some contingency money while getting that track time.

Pulling in before the race is over is like team orders telling a guy to let somebody else win--it is the opposite of what racing is. And who is the omnipotent person who is going to decide who gets to finish in the position they earned vs. pulling in so somebody they beat can win?

This is just another version of the "what is a pro" and "what is a privateer" debates. For some people, their definition of a Pro who should be banned from their race or should pull in before they end of their race is, anybody who they think has more resources than they have, whether it is skill, talent, money or horsepower. And the "first true privateer" who would have won, is them, and everyone who beat them shouldn't have been allowed in the race or should have pulled over.

 

I guess an expert racer should go back to novice so he can win some contigency?

fuck it I'm staying novice for life haha and just tell them to quit bitching and get faster lol.

 

The ship has sailed on sportsman ship. Barney lost to dwyer at jennings last month and then rode MOTO gp a week or so later. He had a smile on his face and has been at this a long time. Dwyer is still fast ...barney will still talk to mortals and club racing is open to just about any and everyone

 

Dwyer beating Barnes heads up is WAY better than somebody only "winning" because somebody else pulled in.

Good for Dwyer!

 

Yep, 4-cylinder 4-speed as well. I think that was all that was offered then. It was fine with my Kawasaki Triple, then my RD350. When I started racing the 750 Suzuki I had to add some 'helper' springs in the back.

Those really were stone-ax reliable little trucks.