MotoAmerica Stock 1000

Why?

 

Different bike specs
My understanding of the rules. The bikes are completely different. In 16 they were very close to Superbike’s. Now most of them don’t even have any motor work. No triple clamps, subframes, linkage or brakes. Show room.

 

The Stock 1000 class is pretty legit this year. The top 5 or 6 are capable of being top 10 in SBK. A few of these guys will be forced out of the class after this season and hopefully get opportunities in SBK on decent equipment. Next season we might get to see if the class is working in terms of being a true feeder class to SBK. I know my guy is determined to make the step up...nothing better than a hungry 20 year old racer chomping at the bit to race with the big boys!

 

IMO, moving up to SBK still seems to be more about budget and ride availability than talent. I think theres def enough rider talent in MA to completely fill a healthy SBK grid. but the step in budget, personnel, and effort from SS/STK1000 to SBK still seems to be too large to get enough people/teams to commit.

MA forcing out the top of STK1000 is going to be interesting if theres no place in SBK for them. half of them might be forced (back) to SS.

 

He raced a 600 last weekend?

 

Yeah, I understand not wanting people “sandbagging” in SSTK. But forcing them out? I don’t get that.

Putting together a competitive SBK package is very, very expensive. There just isn’t a lot of money/teams/support to go around.

I can totally see forcing someone to move up from Novice to Expert when someone is obviously sandbagging. They can run Expert on the same bike, same everything, and still be highly competitive.

But when it comes to Pro racing, if there are no SBK rides, then there are no rides. So people will be forced to either go buy a new bike (600) and start all over, or forced to race their SSTK bike in SBK and suck hind tit, or be forced to quit racing altogether.

I don’t think MA is big enough, or has enough sponsors/support, or has enough riders in general, to go forcing people off their preferred/viable grid.

.02

 

I believe he's talking about the WERA west round last weekend.

 

Yep, me too. Cool.

 

Superbike gets Qualifying tires for SuperPole, so to be fair you need to compare race times.

 

I would like to see the rules for Superbike pared down a little more, moving it closer to STK 1000 in order to control costs. I thought that was the plan originally, which is why the two classes were mixed to begin with.

I have a feeling certain factories don't want to compete in a stock-ish class. Go look at the bikes in Parc Ferme. The Suzukis look like MotoGP bikes compared to the Yamahas.

Isn't the biggest part of the budget the electronics? and the team it takes to make them work, of course?

As it is, a Stock 1000 rider has to torch at least 4 rears in a race weekend, ditto for Superbike but they also have superpole to contend with? Not sure if they run Q tires in qualifying practice or not....

Just some speculation based on what I've seen.

 

They didn't run superpole at Utah. As far as I know they're looking at doing away with it for 2 day events

 

Correct. No Superpole scheduled for Sonoma either.

 

When comparing lap times between the two classes there’s a few factors to consider beyond the spec of the bike. Stock 1000 gets less track time and sometimes we don’t get the same tire compound options as SBK. The time of day on track isn’t the most ideal either. Typically early morning and late afternoon sessions.

We definitely compare ourselves to SBK times but don’t read much into it.

 

What is with Valentin Debise on the Graves Kawasaki at Buttonwillow last weekend? Are they looking at putting him on the grid for MA?

 

I think thats been a rumor for a couple months really

 

Thunderhill

They are using him, Andrew and Ortt at AFM to develop their ZX10 and ZX6.

 

I meant Thunderhill.
Are there thoughts about having Debise do any MA races? I know Lee and Ortt have been at all the MA weekends.