MotoAmerica I GEICO Motorcycle Superbike Speedfest I Laguna Seca - July/8-10

Gulp, I like the Jr Cup. As much poop as many talk about it kids are spring boarding out of that class onto other chassis every year.

If the NATC can be a success possibly we will see more of a feeder into JC.

MotoAmerica has a big poop sandwich on their hands. A JC bike cost has spiraled out of control. Sometimes teams spending big money ruins things.

MotoA should find a way to detune the Ninja a bit so that we can see more R3's and KTM's!

 

What bikes would you put the kids on?

 

Perhaps one throw away round per season could help get more entries.

 

EXACTLY!!!! There were plenty of us poor parents making all the east coast rounds of an east coast based series headquartered in the west.

It’s a bunch of BS to see Frank, whom I respect, and a bunch of other east coasters bitch about coming out here when we have been going out there forever, and they just keep dropping the west coast rounds…..I guess cause we bitch less?

Never been to the Ridge, but Sonoma was a really cool track that I personally like better than Laguna. I know that it doesn’t have worldwide reputation like Laguna but it is a really cool layout and the elevation changes are incredible.

Fontana was gone before we started racing. I went to at least 2 rounds there to spectate as well as Pomona parking lot race. They both had good fan turnout.

Spectating at Fontana kinda sucks, I always thought they should have opened up the grandstands in one or two sections so spectators could see the entire track. In the infield that was impossible.

Unfortunately, they are supposed to turn that into a small circle track and supposedly ruin the old track we ran at Fontana.

 

I think they should have an east and west coast series like supercross does and like AMA did in the SS 600 class

Take the more privateer classes Stk1000, junior cup, twins, hooligans and setup an east and west coast series. Now for the west that would probably include Road America and Barber plus Laguna (1-2 times) or Sonoma or Fontana or Miller?

East coast could probably keep all their close rounds. Then have an end of year joint round at Laguna if visited twice or Barber.

You have an east coat and west coast champion and still have a runoff. Maybe the more funded teams can still run all the rounds but the points would only accumulate for their east/west division. That way a team can skip the long hauls of a round or two but still win championships and keep sponsors happy.

I also think all classes should have 2 races per weekend. Pulling that far to only have one race is a no go to me. You have already spent all the money on, TIME OFF FROM WORK, fuel, airfare, hotels, paid or not paid crew, etc. One more race only costs at most another set of tires and possibly another day at the track but unless your race is Saturday, will you really be able to save a day and load up to leave sat night?

 

100%. Why in the world any pro racing series believes they should also run the development class or a rider development series seems a bit disingenuous to me. Integrate it into the already existing racing structure at the local level with the club racing orgs. Form a partnership and help provide some structure but let the local orgs implement it and manage it all.
Better platform, better racing, better outcomes.

Kids don’t need a big stage to develop their riding skills, they need track time and the more affordable the more opportunities for more track time. I honestly think Moto America is doing a lot of young racers a disservice in this area. I also blame parents who think that somehow kids need a big stage at the pro level.

I will also add that when I go to watch a pro race, I want to watch a pro level race, not a kids race, not a rider “development” class. I want to see Pro racers racing pro classes.

Wayne, I hope you are reading this.

 

I’ve told many people I’m glad the AMA minimum age was 16 when we were coming up. No way I would have wanted the extra pressure and expense for those extra younger years.

Running local WERA and club, plus close USGPRU rounds was plenty of “cheaper” prep.

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the class structures in the future. The built 400s are probably not far off the cost of an NSF250R, which is a legit GP bike and chassis. The North American Talent Cup seemed to be a step in the right direction with the spec Aprilias, although the motors are turds.

The supersport class is also a mess. I'd prefer they go back to the old rules. As more and more manufacturers pull street supersports from the market, maybe they can just sell those bikes on an order basis for track use only, like Yamaha does with the R6.

The shitbox commuter ultra lightweights are great for guys like me who have a day job and finite resources. I don't know if that's really the best platform for developing young racers for the world stage.

 

I'm conflicted on all of this.

1. Have you tried to get a kid a track day lately? The red tape is quite a irritant. That is if you can find a track or org willing to take the risk. Then when you show up, because of all the legal crap your kid is treated like a newb street rider which ruins half of the day. Let's not even talk about the cost. I could basically paid for two JR Cup entries with what I just dropped last Saturday. It's really cool the orgs have started sponsoring riders in MotoA but a little help/discount for the underage rider could possible help increase track day participation. But then again they don't need to because the spots are sold out way in advance. Business is business at the end of the day.

2. MotoA wants to put on a show. At the moment the JC has got to be in the top three in viewership. Wish I could see the stats and the story those numbers would tell. The product is phenomenal (viewership) and I really don't think they care about leveling the Club orgs. They have their stories of racers moving on and being successful in other classes.

 

At current, for the full races available for free on YouTube from the Laguna round so far, the views are:

Hooligans, 15k
Stock 1000, 30k
Baggers, 14k

For the highlights, the views are:

Stock 1000, 4.9k
Jr Cup Race 1, 5.1k
Jr Cup Race 2, 5.8k
Baggers, 7.5k
Twins, 10k
SS Race 1, 11k
SS Race 2, 12k
SBK Race 2, 49k
SBK Race 1, 72k

 

Pretty sure the reason is not cost, its track time.

Whenever baggers are present, either Stock1000 or Twins gets only 1 race per weekend instead of 2.
This weekend they had baggers and hooligans, so both Stock1000 and Twins only got 1 race each. Luckily for some of the Stock1000 racers, they still get to race the superbike races.

 

It would be interesting to see those numbers from Live +

 

This would all be simpler if they would just combine the stock 1000 and sbk like even most riders suggested

 

And sometimes this can be fed directly into the kid from the parent. The kid doesn’t know any better, they do know how their parent behave and inner act with organizations etc. The only thing children know about irritants at the track comes from their parents. there really isn’t anything to be confused about. IMO Moto Americas mission should be to develop riders for the world stage, not to develop club level racers to race in a domestic pro class. Plenty of club orgs already do a tremendous job in this area. Why MA thinks they should is bad business on their part considering all the whining about cost, etc.

Why should discounts and pricing for track time be based on a riders age? Business is business after all, like you stated. You can’t have it both ways.

No idea on actual viewership numbers but I would be hard pressed to think jr.cup outdraws Superbike, SuperSport or the bagger classes.

 

Thank you, didn't think to use that as a yard stick.

 

I Broomed over this.
Just as I suspected. Jr.cup is on the low end of viewership which makes sense.
Thanks for info.

 

For sure. But I'd wager those numbers are lower. I would think that the number of people that would click on a free race or highlight reel on YouTube has to be higher than the number of people that pay the annual subscription fee.

For some numbers from videos with a much longer soak time, from the 2022 Road Atlanta round:

Jr Cup Race 1, 8k
Jr Cup Race 2, 10k
SS Race 2, 19k
SS Race 1, 24k
Baggers, 28k
Twins, 47k
SBK Race 2, 73k
SBK Race 1, 78k

 

From a business aspect I would want to cater to the kids whom will be carrying the sport.

However I disagree with what your vision MA should be.

Current protectory is if a US kid is not in Europe by age 14 they will never make it.

Back in the AMA days I remember a official (can't remember the name --slept since then) explaining the weekend is a show. That's it, all about viewership and getting fans to the event.