Is MotoAmerica working?

I have it at 12, but only the top 5 have more than 3 podiums, hence my "contend for the podium all season long" part. Even if you extend it down to 3 podium finishes, that gives you 7 regulars and it is really hard for me to consider Baldassari, as he fell apart after the first 4 races and Marini had 6 no podium races and then 1 third place followed by 6 no podium races, 2 wins and then nothing. Not very consistent.

 

It's fun to watch that's for certain. I like the tracks too.

 

The reason I question the series is I would like to support a jr cup rider for the full season , looking at the investment and what if any technical rule changes if any there might be. I think it would fun and my way to give back to the sport.

 

I think it would be great to have another jr cup rider with a full year commitment to the series. There is some great racing in that class that is good for the riders, teams and spectators. What does that have to do with the size of the superbike grid? The superbike grid will grow as riders and teams move up from the support classes.

 

Blake Davis.......

 

Gardner has 1. It's top balanced, but all series are. I would not be surprised at all to see a new kid on the rostrum in Valencia. And Martin is going to challenge next year I think.

 

Judging by Garrett’s pace his first test I would say yes.

 

Looks like it is growing and a great reason for you to support that Junior Cup rider. Your rider will have the opportunity to be on TV.

https://www.roadracingworld.com/new...ike-races-adding-junior-cup-coverage-in-2020/

 

That's great to see. More exposure is always a good thing. Exposure that should mean growth, maybe revenue.

 

Superbikes bring fans in, always the top class is the most important I believe. The jr class doesn't need tv ,it needs laps for the kids to gain experience. Fans look for the stars in whatever sport, same in ours.
The sport growing from the bottom may produce some future stars,but not drive privateer teams to move into superbikes in my opinion.
In the past I never desired to race superbikes as I believed 600 supersport was harder to do well in.
I also don't believe we should waste our time pushing the kids to run to Europe and end up on a crap bike .I think they need to stay here and progress to build our series.

 

Junior cup program is a great way for kids to progress. The problem I see in Motoamerica there is to much disparity in performance between manufacturers to find out who the next "stars" are. I understand that the series wants all manufacturers involved but having a spec bike for this class would seem to be a good choice. Junior talent cups overseas are stacked, not sure if the motoamerica program is the best place for kids to "cut their teeth" . Link below is Valencia, European talent cup around 1:10 - 1:40 , big field of riders all on honda's. Bunch of other good racing also.

 

Not sure if I'm allowed to post youtube links? If so just click on "watch on youtube"

 

I'd tend to agree, and I'd lump BSB stuff right up there with them. A lot of the reasoning in my opinion is the circuits. They're so much smaller and it really bunches the field up in a way that a WSBK or GP circuit can't.

 

I think the technical regulations play a role in that as well. ASBK is basically SSTK. BSB has spec ECUs with no rider aids. The Asian Championship is pretty good too, also SSTK rules. Japan is starting a new SSTK 1000 class. I think if you want good, close racing with strong grids and multiple riders fighting for wins you have to make it more affordable to be competitive.

 

I am not a promoter but it seems to me there is more to it than one class. For comparison look at the Nashville Predators. The entire game is one big show. I sometimes wonder if the surrounding event is what is lacking at a AMA/MotoAmerica event. Though I am also anti-crowd so have no idea what the current events pack in size or activities, went to Barber as a volunteer back when Mladdin and Spies were racing because dad wanted to. Had a great time hanging out with Dad though the rest of the event was a ......crowd so a bit of torture.

 

Look at Indy MotoGP weekends. Indianapolis has the annual Bikes on Meridian, which closes down the entire downtown to only bikes and is one huge party with multiple stages and bands and goes on every year. EnduroX was at the state fairgrounds one year. They’ve had AMA flattrack. The Indiana State Fair has been on the same weekends. Amateur flattrack has been at the county fairgrounds, every Friday night. I’m sure I’ve missed some events of certain years, but, the whole town was a festival, every year of Indy MotoGP. Yet, the attendance numbers continued to decline.

The first year, the stands were packed. The second year I noticed some empty seats/areas. The next year looked like ~50%, maybe more, of the seats were empty.

I’m not sure any other town has ever done so much to support an event as Indy. They really tried to make it a success. But, we just don’t have the road racing culture like we used to. Motorcycle ownership/sales are way down, which would seem to be an indicator that bikes just aren’t as relevant as they used to be. People are into other stuff, now. It’s sad, but, I think, it’s the reality.

 

To me, this actually means the opposite of how you're looking at it. Just tells me the field is really deep when there are a lot of riders with podiums but not many with a lot of podiums. Whats boring is when a top 3 rider still finishes in the top 3 even on his worst day. When the best riders have a day where they just dont "feel" it as much as usual and end up scrapping to even be in the top 10, thats a deep field.