JRP has a new ride

The 108% should be written in stone regardless if the grid would be 3 riders or 30. Sorry if you paid your entry fees and didn't make the cut off, better luck next time. 108% is also too open for what is supposed to be the premier series in the US. 106% or even 105% seems like a good call to me.

I've been one of the biggest critics of RE and DMG (or in some eyes, the biggest whiner) and I doubt Roger and I will ever be buds but, I can see some improvements in the DMG series. The most important is that they listened to their "share holders".

I've known JU for a long time (over two decades) and think highly of him. Is he always right and do I always agree with him? Hell no! But I respect the heck out of him and would have his back in most things if he asked.

I'd like to see the rules in superbike opened a bit (Ti rods, forks, a few other things) but there's time for that soon enough.

 

WSBK is 107%

 

I'm no JRP fan, but I find it somewhat amusing that he gets suspended indefinitely for "violating" this rule: "A2.3 i. of the AMA Pro Road Racing Rule Book, which addresses "Engaging in any unfair practice, misbehavior or action detrimental to the sport of motorcycling in general, whether or not related to a specific competition."

Mr. Edmondson, please take a long, hard look in the mirror because you are likely to discover the most flagrant violator of that rule. It's YOU. It's easy to become defensive about everything that's happened since the DMG take-over of AMA Pro Racing, so please step out of your own skin and evaluate the actions, reactions and the overall results of the past year or so. It is an overall massive failure. I would think that an intelligent business man who analyzed the "before" and "after" of AMA Pro Racing would come to the inevitable conclusion that the guy in charge needs to go. Whoever put up the money to buy AMA Pro Racing should be really, really ticked off about the decline of the series and their investment. If AMA Pro Racing was a mess before, it is without a doubt a bigger mess today.

I've had conversations with JU before and he is probably one of the bigger supporters of the DMG-AMA, so if he's telling you that you're not serving Big Macs... well, you might want to listen. Because he's right. The sense of fairness is largely absent from the paddock, whether you like it or not. AMA Pro Racing is in a terrible disarray. The whole world is watching AMA Pro in disgust. The (perceived?) dictatorial management of the series is a disgrace. Ben Spies, Mat Mladin, Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Kevin Schwantz... all these top level people in the sport have been vocal about the decline of roadracing in the US since the DMG take-over. Mr. Edmondson, you might be able to dismiss one or two of these people, but when ALL these people are telling you that you're doing it WRONG... sir, you ARE doing it wrong!

Mr. Edmondson, I don't doubt that you had good intentions with the purchase of AMA Pro. Whether it was your financial interest or not is irrelevant, I don't subscribe to any theory that you actually intended to ruin AMA Pro Racing. However, there's a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions... and frankly you have put american roadracing on exactly that path. To hell. Good intentions and all, Roger Edmondson is not the right guy to lead american roadracing to a better place. Mr. Edmondson, for the good of the sport, for the good of all the fans, for the good of all the young racers who are trying to make a career in this sport... please resign. Pretty please with cherry on top. Just resign. No more excuses. I'm sure if you had hired someone who's results mirrored yours, he/she would be fired by now. It doesn't make you a bad person or a stupid person or any of the other accusations you may have heard or read, it just means you're not the right guy for the job. And you're not. Seriously... resign and let someone else take over the reigns and give AMA Pro Racing a chance to recover from the recent past. History will not judge you kindly if you continue driving the series down the current path.

 

The mid Ohio offense by JRP was laughable at best. Then to see the spirit of the intent of the rulebook disclaimer. WTF?

I had high hopes for the AMA this season. And they did deliver on at least on thing. The racing has been some of the best in at least a decade. DMG is on the right track with the new rules. With the original proposed payouts a privateer could actually go race and if he did well enough we could get close to breaking even for the weekend. Then they payouts were cut back drastically. Still good, but not what they should be when your putting your blood, sweat, tears, ass, and money out there to put on "the show". I know certain people disagree with the privateers being "the show" but lets face it. Guys like JRP are the lifeblood of the series. Who wants to go to a race and watch 10 factory bikes go at it? No one. Sure the leaders are exciting and everyone wants to know whats going on up front, but most club races have more than 10 guys on the grid. Making it easier for the little guy to compete is the key. Now they just need to bring the money and become consistent in their enforcement of the rules. There are quite a few fast guys racing around the country that won't enter AMA races because it costs them to much money to put on "the show" for the benefit of the AMA. If some of these riders had the budget to go racing proper the racing would be even better from 1st to last place.

RogerE if your still tuned in why don't you chew on this for a bit. You guys hold the keys to the Nascar playground for potential teams/sponsors. If a team wants to run Nascar why not make them allocate a tiny fraction of their budget. Say 1% to a road racing team. The Nascar team would hardly feel the difference and it would make all the difference in the world to road racing. I think you would see that back markers would suddenly be much closer to the front when they had the money to run their program proper. Then instead of 5-6 guys with an honest chance at a win you would maybe have 10-15 guys that could put it on the top spot of the box.

 

Yeah, lets get the rich to pay the way for the poor... Damn. I can't really respond to this without getting banned. Can we move the thread into the dungeon?

 

Telling NASCAR sponsors they will have to pay a roadracing tax doesn't give the warm fuzzies you're thinking. The buisness of sponsorship doesn't work that way.

 

Yeah. Thanks. That's a much more politically correct way to tell him don't be a dumbass.

 

Wow dude...

 

The redlimiter for this thread is broken.

 

As an observer, I don't really care how JRP does. However, I find myself following the results of guys like Jake Holden pretty regularly. Both are privateers, but the end result is noticeably different.

 

Giving money to one series from another is the problem with this country. Don't do that please.
RE said he has not obligation to disclose who has said what about JRP that maybe true. However it was you who brought up your list of witnesses and plaintiffs against him. Now you have an obligation to show JRP the evidence against him and the reasonable thing would be to prove you are credible and disclose your findings.
This should not happen in the off season where dopey reporters will not be able to ask questions rebutting your side of the story. Granted it's your bat and ball but if you want players on the field you have to open your books.

 

Seems not a single one of the aforementioned folks was willing to open thier checkbook(s) nearly was wide as their mouths to show the world how to "do it right".

 

Actually, Throttle has a point.

There's more to the racing then the cameras focusing on the lead pack, especially for live spectators.

As a live spectator, you get to watch a pack of 5-10 factory guys dicing it out, and it's great racing for sure. They go by, passing and dashing - it's great fun.

But then you get to wait. A minute-twenty or so, depending on the track - until they come by again.

In the interim, the mid-pack and backmarkers are doing their best, slicing and dicing, and often providing some good racing themselves - even though it's not shown on television.

I'll give you an example. This past weekend Skip knocked a 1/2 second off his time from Saturday's race to Sunday morning. He spent Sunday racing in a pack of four guys where we spent every lap looking to see who was going to pass who and who was more daring on the brakes.

By mid race this may have been a minute or so after Hayes, Mladin and co. went by, but it was still good racing to watch live and really kept it interesting.

Without those guys competing, the in-person experience is simply not the same. Less full grids, not as much action, no challenge for the frontrunners in the latter stages - it just isn't as climatic for the show.

And that hasn't changed since I first watched live AMA roadracing in 1992.

 

Has anyone noticed the ever increasing similarities between AMA Pro Racing and the soap opera that is Nascar? I'm not a follower of Nascar, but I've seen enough of it to know that it's more about the "stars" and the politics within/between the teams than it is about the actual racing, or any real skill on the parts of the drivers. It seems like there are a dozen plus weekly shows devoted to who is doing what in nascar, and the fans seem to eat it up.

 

Stop right there. This is how we got here.

Okay, you're listening but KEEP TALKING. You could have listed the number of complaints by category (corner workers, riders, entrants, spectators, whatever else) and no one would be in danger of getting black-listed. Legally its true, you don't have to tell us anything. Of course, its also true that we don't have to come to the races or watch them on TV. This big secrecy thing is not good.

next: You should automate everything you can and eliminate human judgment just like all the other great televised sports are doing. I don't know what those start sensors cost but it can't be so bad the AMA Pro Racing can't swing it. It would eliminate any arguments and save you a ton of headaches.

I attended the NJMP event this weekend and it was absolutely great. I had a blast in the pits. Tie up these little idiosyncrasies and DMG will get the respect it deserves.

 

Hey Evelyne, your old friend Greg in Indy piping in.
This has been very entertaining.:wow:
It's interesting to see how much RE has not changed over the years. :tut:
Here's an idea. Maybe you & Sean should take over AMA Pro Racing. :up:
Look me up next time you're in Indy. It'd be fun to catch up a bit.

 

If that happened, Ev better make sure she does all of the media interviews and not Mongo.

 

To the forum regulars and administrators--forgive me for intruding; I have never had any dealings with WERA, and my brush with active racing was brief and many years ago. As a longtime fan of the sport, my sole reason/desire for posting is that this forum thread stands as my best opportunity to directly communicate with Mr Edmondson, so please feel free to ignore this post if you view my presence as a transgression.

Mr Edmondson: I shall try to come right to the point. While I appreciate your clear willingness to directly engage any and all via this forum, I must say that I find your "defence" to be objectionable, if not downright shameful, even reprehensible.

The criticisms leveled at, and of, your employees are de facto criticisms at, and of, your organization. As head of your organization I would expect you to address these criticisms directly, and not attempt--as you are clearly doing--to construct some sort of barrier of convenience, a rhetorical divide, differentiating between you and your organization (taken as a faceless whole) on one side, and the "the hard-working and under-appreciated team who goes into the battle every time we hold an event".

Expressing dissatisfaction, even when done with great specificity, of an under- or non- performing representative/agent of an organization, be it food server or bank teller or AMA official, certainly does NOT constitute a personal attack on that individual representative/agent; it stands as a condemnation of the organization, be it restaurant, bank, or AMA ProRacing. In the professional setting/context, the individual representative exists (solely) as a tangible facet/aspect of the organization: selected, trained, and directed by the organization.

Which is to say, when my order arrives cold and in error, I don't go out and key the server's car, I attempt redress with the restaurant, specifically, with the managerial authority of the restaurant. Or I demonstrate my dissatisfaction by withholding my patronage of that particular business and quite likely taking it elsewhere. Again, the individual representative, qua an "individual", is incidental; their behavior/actions are indicative--indicative of the organization.

You, sir, are most certainly the managerial authority of AMA ProRacing. Any criticism leveled at any facet/aspect of AMA ProRacing, be it a rule or even an official, is ultimately directed at, and answerable by, you. The buck stops with Roger Edmondson, and to have you now attempt to hide behind the just-now fabricated skirts of your "under-appreciated" employees' "hard-work" is shameful. You're trying to protect yourself and your (faceless) organization by claiming to protect your employees--all the while simultaneously differentiating, and consequently distancing, yourself from them and their activity and implicitly leaving them to hold the bag while you wag your finger and bluster "how dare you!" from just beyond the splatter. Clever, and perhaps safer, but not exactly leading from the front.

And what makes it all truly reprehensible is the parallel accusation implicit within your professed indignation: the attempt to shame and cow the vocal critics to whom you're responding by accusing them of picking on "the hard-working and under-appreciated" little guys, even going so far as to employ military terminology, "battle", and thus have the unmitigated gall to couch the entire matter in some twisted terms of patriotism, or lack thereof.

Speaking as a fan of the sport, and potential, but presently former, patron of AMA ProRacing, and first and foremost as a conscionable human being, I find your statements, and the clear implications within them, to be offensive and sordid.

My best advice is for you to take full responsibility and accountability for every facet/aspect, human and otherwise, of your organization, understand that a criticism of any part is a de facto criticism of the whole and address it as such. Strive to make your organization truly "Pro"-fessional, and not only transparent, but invisible in its operation.

My greatest concern, only strengthened by your remarks here, is that you truly just don't "get it"; you fail to see, or are incapable of seeing, the flaws within your own mindset. Expressed as charitably as I can, and confined to the professional realm: without doubt, you are a man of convictions, and deservedly prideful of your accomplishments; I would caution you to not be so prideful that you don't fully examine and understand both the content and direction of those convictions, specifically as they dictate your actions as the final and ultimate authority of your organization.

Thanks for your time, and thanks to this forum for the opportunity.

 

For the record, does this mean that JRP's protest concerning Larry Pegram's on-track attempt to run him over will go completely ignored and not investigated? I'm a little unclear about the rules concerning protests here. Did you investigate and deem the accusation to be completely false, or did you choose not to investigate the incident at all? JRP is reporting that when he inquired about the status of Larry's situation, he was told (verbatim) "None of your business". Based on the fact that Larry raced on Sunday, does that imply that no such incident took place? Does that mean that there was no video evidence or witness of the on-track incident? What did Mr. Pegram say about the allegation after the protest was filed? Thanks in advance for your time and willingness to engage the community.