Official 2019 MotoAmerica silly season thread.

To add on the above post about pro stick and ball sports. Most think athletes are overpaid until they look at the revenue the teams bring in. If anything, they’re still underpaid! Rather see it go to the players than the owners...

Forbs does a nice roundup. Here is one for the Eagles: https://www.forbes.com/teams/philadelphia-eagles/

Imagine if a MotoAmerica team has a $458M revenue stream...

 

what I meant specifically is that MA has forced me to up my game to even race with them. in '15, STK600 had a separate race and the cutoff was 110%. in '16, the races were combined and qualifying was 107% to the top SS time or the LCQ. in '17, SS got a better rear tire and went faster. and now in '18, theres no more LCQ. however, '18 might be the first year qualifying is easier because SS is a little slower and the cutoff is 108%.

we know theres a lot more to improving than just waking up in the morning and deciding you are going to go faster - level of competition, motivation, the help the rider is receiving, etc. with MA competition, ive picked the form of racing that is allowing me to improve the fastest while also fitting my $$ and time budgets. im sure there are other ways. this is what works for me.

 

thats an interesting economy of sorts.

one thing I don't understand in your example - what keeps those teams at the races? who pays for all their expenses? is it just the gentlemen driver footing that bill? other sponsors? does the organization pay out enough to keep the teams there?

 

Certainly Dorna pays quite a bit to many teams, to keep them as part of the show. It is a show after all. The difference being, they've got the revenue to allow them to do that, whereas there isn't enough money in the US market for MA to do the same (I would think. Wayne, feel free to chime in )

 

While I see your point, as one of the bucket listers / old guys / gentleman drivers what am I supposed to do? I don't want to stay in CCS FL and win races every month, that means nothing to me after 19 years. And I was stagnating because there was no pressure to get better. I spent at least as much if not more because the entry fees were quite high.

Instead I went to MotoAmerica, and I was very motivated (i.e. forced) to get better. It's like any other sport- you play at a higher level, you have to improve or you go home. That was beneficial to me and to the sport as a whole. I spent money in the industry and did my part to keep motorcycling alive.

Right now motorcycle racing is a dying sport. If MotoAmerica is all we have left in 5 years, that will be pretty sad. But it won't be the fault of the racers who stepped up to ride there.

There is not money being spent by Gentlemen drivers / Bucket Listers that is stopping anyone else from succeeding in MotoAmerica. If you are fast and you work hard you will succeed. That doesn't mean you will be financially rewarded for your efforts, but that has nothing to do with the riders who are paying to be there.

What I don't think you get is that it IS the pinnacle of sporting achievement to race in MotoAmerica. Where else are they setting faster lap times?

 

Well, a neighbor's kid told me (cuz I'm the bike guy) how he's got the fastest time around a local cloverleaf. Seriously.

 

Oh boy... this ought to be good.

 

I’m pretty damn sure I’ll bever fuckig make money racing motorcycles.

But as long as my kids are taken care of, I’ll live in a cardboard box if it means I can ride fast!

I’ll sign up at a “pro race” or I’ll race as an Amateur.

I don’t care what you call me as long as I’m having fun.

 

Great perspective on the whole deal. I stopped riding because I wasn’t having fun anymore. After I stopped riding I didn’t spend as much money but did help out riders where I could, and continue to help to this day. I started having fun again even though I wasn’t on the bike.

 

Half of the F1 grid are pay drivers. Young guys with limited means getting plucked (like Hamilton) are the very rare exception.

 

It works best in endurance racing, which seems to be doing a lot better than the sprint series, though it still kind of exists there too.

Not that Wiki is a great source, but this gets into it some: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_driver
NYTimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/...nce-racers-its-a-long-and-winding-career.html
Jalopnik article on driver rankings: https://jalopnik.com/why-everyone-is-freaking-out-about-driver-rankings-an-1681325162
Article linked to the Jalopnik article: http://maximumattack.tumblr.com/post/56821916023/driver-rankings-in-thefuture

This is just some of it...

 

Not all pro car racing is paid for by gentleman drivers. You have a bunch of factory backed teams from many different car manufacturers as well. The real PRO catergories are for the most part professional drivers ( factory paid drivers as well) and then you have a GTE Am catergory where a certain level pro driver can race with an amatuer in a professional class. Yes some gentleman drivers have stepped there game up and are running pro categories but that is if you want to spend $$.

I was just asking how much it costs for MA because i remember all the announcements saying how much money in purses there were this year but you still do not see crazy fields.

And if stangmx13 sold more brotogp shirts he could probably race both MA and club

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I just want to know if MA is paying BeIn or if BeIn is paying MA. Dorna's revenue stream is mostly from tracks and TV. Dorna uses that to pay for tires, travel, a subsidy to the private GP teams, and for a bunch of other things so that teams can show up to race. even stick and ball sports work like this. if MA doesnt have that revenue from TV and is instead paying, MA is at a huge disadvantage.

 

Most gentleman drivers are guys who have the money but want to race on the big screen or they have a sponsor who wants to pay. For a gentlan driver to race say the continental tire series it will probably cost 500-750k for the season renting the car with a professional driver as your co driver, sad part you only get to be in the car like 45 minutes of a two hour plus race.

 

ive got more time now that the season is over.

purses for me doubled and are easier to get. last year I had to get a top 15 to make $250/race. now its $500/race for top 20. it has helped me a lot. but of course, that small amount of $$ isnt going to get someone else onto the grid. maybe it made it easier for me to drive to Barber. but I would have done it anyway.

 

Try NHRA. For a Pro Stock Bike, I think we spent around $450k to win the championship. It all added up to about 14 minutes of seat time for the whole year, and that included testing. Even if we made every round at every race, I think it still only added up to about 20 minutes.

 

Yes, it most definitely is. When paying riders became more than half the pro grid, that became the new business model for team owners. Like it or not, paying riders are effectively scabs driving down the cost of rider labor. When individual riders and team owners act only in their own interest rather than the interest of the sport, you get what's happening right now which is a lack of new talent entering the field. Why should any young person dedicate their life to this sport when some of the top riders are paying to participate?
What does it mean in the big picture? The above isn't some moral judgment, it's just how it is now. Maybe if riders all refused to pay for the privilege of working and risking their lives, team managers would find ways to pay them like they used to. Maybe the entire sport would collapse overnight. If the latter, it means the sport died a long time ago and is only on the life support of wealthy riders' dollars. Our kid figured it out before we did, several years ago.

 

Isn't there more money in drag racing though?

 

Who was the rider?