Official 2019 MotoAmerica silly season thread.

This thread is fun. Keep going.

 

I remember Miguel Duhamel losing his shit over this issue, what seems like 50 years ago.

 

more Hondas!

 

I wish that was true.

I heard rumors that Debise paid when he came over. I imagine that Herrin is footing part of his ride.

It is a bummer but unfortunately that is how it works, not too many paid rides.

 

I wish the reality were different too, believe me. Still, people paying to be there cannot be described as "professionals", and as a viewer rather than a participant I feel it greatly dilutes the field when many folks (I know a few) seem to see it as some sort of bucket list item to "do a pro race" instead of the pinnacle of sporting achievement it should be. Those people have helped cheapen the importance of the American championship and have made it harder for young talent to succeed on merit for a generation now by showing up with wallets open.

 

The money spent on the club level is less than the sum required to be marginally competitive at the pro level. There are no more rides to be had or support to be found there. But, at the club level, there is. What's Gauge McAllister doing these days? Or Brandon Paasch? Want me to name a dozen other racers that "should" have a PRO ride? Those rides don't exist.

This has nothing to do with how many bikes I want to see on the grid. It has to do with what's sustainable. "Pro" racing is poaching club entries and the sport is suffering as a whole. The twins class hurts club racing. The accessibility of the little bike class hurts club racing. If there's no club racing, there's no pro racing.

 

Did you really laugh out loud, or was that just an arbitrary thing you put at the end of posts like a punctuation mark? Because I see these posts and I read the "lol"s and I don't think a single thing about it is funny.

 

There’s seems to be a lack of talent across the board where I’m at. Trackday groups seem slower than years ago. Novices are further behind. And the same few riders have been winning expert races for years. Because of that, I’m not happy trading wins with the same guy for a club title. It doesn’t make either of us better racers as fast as losing to Debise and Beach does.

Someone has to finish 20th in MA SS races. I was a better fit in STK600 but oh well, MA has forced me to get better every year. Maybe some of those other 20th finishers are club racing. Maybe there aren’t as many as we’d like. Either way, I’m doing it. And having me go home isn’t helpful if no one else (with more talent and/or $$) replaces me. So until u find them, convince them to race, and fund them, your ideas aren’t good for the sport either.

I’m cautiously excited and hopeful for Andrew

 

At this point, I can't find a single fault in your racer logic and I definitely have zero entitlement to how you spend your racing dollars. I really wish I had a better answer. You aren't wrong, that's for sure.

But, to my point, you aren't right either.

But no one spending that kind of skrilla for 20th place needs any kind of input from me. You got it sorted.

 

Ya I don’t know the solution. Like I said before, if I had the $$ id race Club and MA. We’d all be happy then. But even when talking $, my sponsor (and likely any future sponsor) pays more for me to do nationals than club races. So even that’s an ez choice.

Because of RiderzLaw, the payouts for 2 top20 finishes, and help from a few others, I just about broke even at Sonoma. The feeling I got when I added it all up made my year. Of course, Barber just brought my avg cost back up, ha.

 

what?

 

It cracks me up to see this debate in motorcycles.

Here is how pro racing works in the sports car world. You have a lot of rich, “gentlemen” (with the disclaimer that it’s not limited to men), who pay for rides with pro teams. The teams are structured in that they may have one car with two “A” drivers, and the gentlemen drivers are teamed with a “A” driver, that A driver may be racing for free, in that the gentleman driver is essentially paying for the A driver. All that “A” driver is getting out of it is exposure for their real gig, which is likely driver coaching. If the “gentleman” driver is into the sport enough, he might provide sponsorship to the A driver they’re teamed up with to help them get to the next level.

Other than that, it’s typically up to the drivers to bring personal sponsors. Like motorcycle racing, very rare are true factory seats. Mostly everyone is an independent contractor and are racing for free with other people or personal sponsors footing the bill.

This has been going on for a long time now, like decades.

As for the rest, racing has always been a rich man’s sport. Legends like Mark Donohue, Dan Gurney, Jim hall, Peter Revson, etc all came from money, and that’s what got them the exposure to be “seen” and “discovered”. A lot of that was still right place / right time, despite the funding.

Motorcycle racing is tougher in that regard, because there aren’t many 40-50yo hedge fund managers that want to pay for the privelage of being a pro motorcycle racer on the weekend and aren’t flooding track days looking for riding coaching and paying big bucks for it (I know it’s out there, but not like it is in the car world).

The hosts from “Dinner with Racers” podcast, where they interviewed Roger Hayden, brought it up and they had to explain the auto pro racing “economy” to him, because it’s a bit different than motorcycles, at least it’s more commonplace.

 

When will people realize this isn't 20 years ago?

You want the "golden age of road racing"? Bust out your VCR and watch some.

People are out there busting their butts to put on a show. Whether they are paying to do it or someone is paying for them to do it, money is spent, bones are broken, blood is spilled, hearts are broken and heroes are made.

This is the new golden age, a renaissance of sorts... it has to start somewhere with someone who is willing to stick out their neck. If it's not gonna be corporation it falls back on the little guys, like us and so many others to give a foundation to lift up the "real professionals".

Club racing place a huge and important role, without it, there would be any form of what is considered "pro". But, until you experience both, you cant understand the difference. Want to feel it? Put up the money to buy a crew pass and get out there with a team, I'm sure someone would be willing to use the extra set of skilled hands and mind.

Just a couple cents from a kooky race dad, take it for what its worth, not much.

 

I think there are some rose colored glasses that everything was perfect, 10,20,30, or 40 years ago. IMO, who cares, the economy is what it is now, and you adapt to survive. I’ve had some well meaning, retired people try to give me career advice, but boy, their world view and information is out of date. I politely acknowledge their advice, but do what I have to do. Racing would be no different.

Going back to my other post, a team could be structured like this:

2-3 paying riders
1 “A-“ rider, who is essentially riding for free, by providing coaching to the 2-3
1 “A” rider who is being paid by personal sponsors and the team from some revenue they’re receiving from the paying riders. This rider (and the A-) rider gets the team exposure for team sponsors and to create demand for the paying seats.

At least, that’s similar to how the car world works.

 

I couldn't have said it better. Didn't know we would make club people angry by going broke to let our son follow a dream. And it's fun family time too.

 

Thanks Robert. My thoughts exactly.

 

Well, we are 2 seasons into the more "Superbike" superbike racing in MA, from the perspective of the rules being opened up to building bikes more on par with the FIM WSBK level. I'm guessing that has increased operational costs for the teams. I'm guessing its not helping fill the grids?

 

Watch the races from 2017 and 2018, and the racing is better and the quantity / quality of bikes / riders is the best it has looked in nearly ten years.

 

It's not motoamerica but there's an interesting look into the moto2 world over at speedweek on RW Racing and Aegerter.