What happened in the Daytona riders meeting?

No biggie. They got the message, so it was a clean start.
I got a lecture on how unprofessional I was because I kept telling my Turn 1/Pit Out flag person to "throw the checkers" at Homestead during the Penguin School last December.

 

Well, that's true. You put out, show or wave a flag.

You, on the other hand, throw a flag.

It doesn't matter, Johnny B. If you called for a corner to "throw" an ambulance flag, they would. It would probably result in a few WTF's but, we all love ya and would do it because of that feeling we have for you...deep down,inside,,,where it counts.

BTW - I meant throw the flag. You can say you hit the stand with the flag...I think you just threw it out there!

 

BINGO! You probably said it better than I would. Having cornerworked all the days of racing there this year, I still see the "club" racing people doing a better job than the "pros" at the AMA. I will still give them some time, I talked a bit to one of the officials and he did admit they are understaffed. That doesn't excuse some outright false (uninformed BS?) statements made to the press about some of the happenings.

 

I can understand and appreciate opinions from people who think that the AMA has made a bit of a mess of things, I can understand and appreciate opinions from people who don't like the class structures, and I can understand and appreciate opinions from people who don't like Roger Edmondson for personal reasons. But to claim that he doesn't know anything about motorcycle racing, or to imply that he's not a "motorcycle person" just floors me. For God's sake, the guy practically invented the Supersport class, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone with more experience in running motorcycle races. I'm continually amazed at how some people here have opinions based upon things that just don't have any basis in reality. Coming from someone that's done what you've done for the sport makes it even more difficult to comprehend.

When you consider other current AMA staff like Al Ludington, Bill Syfan, Colin Fraser and others I have no idea, whatsoever, how anyone could possibly make the claim you've made.

 

Daytona Folks

Gordon said "Daytona folks". I took it to mean that DIS and Roger E's bosses are the ncar gods and they get it their way regardless of what Roger might have a history of doing previous. I was told by an "industry insider", prior to DMG, that the "safety car"- don't let 'em hear you call it a Pace Car- was the promoter's mandate. Comes right out of the ncar book. Roger changed the face of road racing in the US. Ran successful series by getting it right. Hard to understand why the big changes other than some heavy influences imposing a new model on a sport they think they understand well enough to make them.

 

The "Daytona folks" are restructuring the AMA with the intentions of transforming it from a money bleeding disaster to a profitable business. They're not rookies at racing, and they know a little bit about how to accomplish that. Everyone that I've spoken to who's personally heard Jim France's side of what is going on has been positive and optimistic, and I'm pretty sure that RE has been given quite a bit of leash to do what he feels needs to be done. Motorcycle guys are running AMA Pro Racing.

We can discuss the pace car to death even more than it's been beaten into the ground already, but the fact remains, pace cars are used in other motorcycle racing series, they're not exclusive to the Daytona 200 and it's not a gimmick cooked up by DIS. As pointed out already, they're used in World Endurance and British Superbike, and I don't think DIS has anything much to say about how they run their races.

 

Frank, like NASB?

 

Dave, you know that what happened with NASB was due to the AMA's greed, for which they eventually paid dearly.

 

Or their members did...

 

That doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do.There are also a lot of other motorcycle series not using it.

 

I seem to remember the 600 SuperSport class being at the Daytona race of champions in 1989 (because Barney won it on Yokohamas...in the rain), the next year it was on the AMA schedule along with 750 SuperSport.

 

The AMA leveraged most of the tracks to NOT give NASB dates, which was a very large part of the NASB failure.

I don't remember anything about them threatening track owners if they rented to WERA.

The judge got it right. Not sure why you can't accept that.

 

The judgement had NOTHING to do with NASB. It had to do with the AMA pushing RE out and not paying him for his properties when he was working with the AMA.

NASB was his first attempt at putting the AMA's for profit division out of buisness.

 

Nope supersport 1st ran in 87 at ama nationals

 

You remember the first year of the supersport series? Yokohama spec tires with Kan-a-tuna's running against Hurry-canes.

 

It’s interesting that people have very different memories involving the AMA/Edmondson/NASB situation. I can’t say that the AMA made NASB fail. I do remember that the AMA seemingly went out of their way to make it more difficult for NASB and as a part of this the AMA did put leverage on tracks and promoters to not provide dates and/or support towards NASB.

I think we forget just how nasty these dealing were and how unprofessional the AMA behaved durring this time.

 

LOL, you're too funny. I guess NASB could have held their races in the parking lots of K-Mart or some crappy little tracks in the boonies after the contracts that they signed with AMA tracks were torn up when the AMA pressured them and they returned to holding AMA races instead. Yep, that would have been an equitable solution and fair and should have been all NASB needed to flourish in competition with the AMA. Your version of reality is right, the court was wrong, and the AMA caved because they didn't want to pursue the appeal that they thought they could win, not because they realized that ultimately they'd spend tons of money fighting a case they could not win and still be on the hook for damages. That's right - damages. To be awarded damages you have to proove that you've been harmed. RE was well on his way to prooving that when the AMA finally threw in the towel and coughed up a settlement that, logically, they thought would cost less than continuing with the litigation. And they've publicly admitted to harming RE and his family since. If NASB had been a success there would have been no cause for action for damages. If NASB had not been a success, but the court felt that their problems were unrelated to the AMA they wouldn't have decided in RE's favor in the initial ruling. Nobody can say for sure, but I don't see how any reasonable person can completely dismiss any correlation and brush it off as an excuse. It's ludicrous for you to attempt to disassociate NASB from the rest of what happened between the AMA and RE, at best. It's also in direct opposition to the view of John Ulrich, as put forth in his opinion piece titled "AMA Supercross Deal A Case Of History Repeating Itself, And Members Will Pay The Price" published in 2001. But what does he know?

But we're dancing around the periphery of the original issue that I commented on, aren't we, which was that the "Daytona folks" running AMA Pro Racing aren't motorcycle people and should let someone who knows motorcycles have the reigns. If you know of a period when AMA racing was in better financial shape than when RE was running it, please let me know.

Huh? RE attempting to put AMA racing out of business????? LOL, I think you have things turned upside down. The AMA screwed RE over, which was the only reason he formed NASB, i.e., to try to make a living doing something at which he had been successful, first with CCS and then with the AMA. If they hadn't tried to hose him, there never would have been a NASB.