Team Hammer replacing Yoshimura

Team Hammer is adding the Superbikes and Stock 1000's to the 600's and Twins. If the run 2 superbikes the void on the gird would only be -1. Adding bikes to the Stock 1000 grid is a positive.

 

Pretty sure Jake’s contract wasn’t with Team Hammer, but with Suzuki, and they were paying Hammer to hold him there. I suspect it will be Jake and Toni.

Hammer I believe got help at Laguna from the WSBK guys, and all of a sudden they were faster. Yosh was going slower this year than years before, with the same exact bike and tires, so something was up and they were struggling at the end.

I was told Yosh had to go to Yosh Japan to get approval to make parts or make changes. It didn’t seem like an efficient model. Especially now when you can buy most of what you need off the shelf (look at Westby). The impression I got talking to people was that Yosh NA was given a bike from Japan, and could only make set up changes or change certain ECU parameters. That was it.

The Hammer bike seemed every bit as fast in the twisties, if not faster, but was clearly giving up straight line scoot. If they (and Westby) can get a handle on that, I think they’ll have no problem running up front all the time.

 

-1 is a big change when the total might be <10.

of course, we get to argue how to actually count SBK entries given that the SBK Cup will supplement that grid.

 

Add the missing Yamaha (Attack running the factory team) and your down two!
Grids sizes and quality of bikes in the other classes are not a problem.
Your now missing two of the top privateer teams in superbike. So they can run the factory bikes.
two rides are gone... time for others to step up. Your graphics would look great on the superbike grid !
I don't see bikes being added unless Kawasaki , Honda or Ducati step in and either help someone do it or find a reason to spend money and field bikes themselves and that doesn't look likely at this time.
I can envision Aprilia though Dealers racing a 660 in twins, if it makes to production? but that's not going to help the superbike class in the short term. .
The top class needs help from the factory's period as far as quantity and quality of bikes and rides go .
The new model of farming out the effort to others to run may work in the long run but for now its costing rides.
​

 

Question is, is Jake taking the piss here...that caption isn't sounding so sure. Really hoping he gets to keep his seat

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6KKTIPBnCS/

 

Um......SUZUKI IS THE FACTORY SUPPORT. Everything else you’ve stated is beyond quite obvious and established.

But by all means keep ignoring the realities otherwise.

 

But your bitching is constructive and ads value otherwise.
So tell us all who is the someone spreading negative and unsubstantiated bullshit rumens about road racing in America? Show us who is doing this.

who is running their mouth with bullshit?

If anything I look at your post and think if I were a sponsor that I would not want to have anything to do with you. You talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. Show me otherwise.
Your own post have shown you to be a grade A class one douche.

 

Jake commented in there that his contract with the team was up in October....guess he wasn't taking the piss.

 

MA is doing fine. Not sure about the back end of things (financial management) but that's none of my business and not something 99% of us will ever know unless it goes tits up anyways. But all the classes outside of superbike have awesome grids and awesome racing. And everyone knows the lack of bikes on that grid is due to cost, nothing new there. Not that I know dick about anything, but in my 30ish years around racing, it seems to me that finding ways to drive cost down is an efficient way to grow a class... except a premier class. No one wants to see "cost effective" superbikes, MotoGP bikes, F1 cars, etc. Yes I know there are measures taken to prevent teams from buying championships but in successful series, they still have plenty of room to hot rod their shit compared to the lower level classes. So where does that leave us? There's not much to be done about improving the cost to run the class so the only other option is finding more money to offset that cost. It's not coming from the OEMs for reasons that have already been beaten to death here and those reasons aren't going to change. So where? I've said this before but I think it bears repeating - marketing. I know it requires an upfront investment and an expensive one at that. But as the old saying goes, it takes money to make money. Sponsors go where there's opportunity for brand exposure. Brand exposure comes from fans, whether it be TV viewership, streamers, or live spectators. And you're not going to grow that fanbase if people don't know you exist.

I'm a third generation motorcycle racer so I literally don't know what it's like not to be involved with it. So it's hard for me to be totally objective about this. But of all the motorcyclists I've ever met away from the race track, I've only met one who even knew what AMA/MA was. ONE. And he only knew because he was a motorsports enthusiast who had recently gotten into bikes and decided he wanted to race so he went looking for information. The point here is the fanbase will never grow if people don't even know you exist. I'm a diehard enthusiast and there have been times I've gotten frustrated about having to search out information on the series such as race and airing schedules. The TV deal is a good start and a step in the right direction. But unfortunately, cable/satellite TV is also dying. And while sports seem to be on the back end of this, even ESPN is jumping on the straming bandwagon now. So your chances of catching the attention of someone with an ad while they watch a different show on that channel or catching the attention of random channel scrollers is continually dwindling. I'd bet the majority of this board are not soccer fans (myself included) but I'd say most of us know what FIFA and even MLS are. That's the kind of brand recognition MA needs. I'm not a marketing, accounting, or business guy. But I would guess some sort of major but efficient marketing campaign would be a huge boost for MA. Just my .02.

 

No doubt the feeder class fields are doing well, especially twins, but Superbike needs quality entrants and that's the class that is most visible.
Maybe the answer is money from outside the industry. Well funded privately owned teams with Budweiser, Coors, McDonalds sponsorship deals. It's obvious that big 4 manufacturer money will be limited going forward, at least until the sportbike market recovers, if it ever does. Plenty of car racing teams in various series are funded by cash that has zero to do with cars.

 

Sadly superbikes don't need to exist. Their only purpose historically was r and d which is now done in MotoGP and wsbk. The current world economics don't support superbikes in the USA. The sooner they dump them and go to stock 1000 the better off they will be.

 

+1

 

This kind of goes back to what I said before though. No one wants to see a "cost effective" premier class, be it superbikes, gp, f1, etc. So for growing a fanbase, wouldn't people want to see the fanciest, baddest shit on they can? Or do you think the masses that MA should be trying to reach just don't care (eg. NASCAR)?

 

I agree times have changed, I just miss the cool factor of all of them building the baddest weapon and the one off unobtanium.

The results were stellar in the hay day.

 

All of this.

And ill one thing. Everyone was bitching about non-americans on superbike rides. I get that. But let's be honest, Toni on the Suzuki has drawn more over the pond attention than anyone else in the last ten years. People over the pond are actually watching again...maybe more broad riders would bring more attention back...

 

Yeah, they should go back to DMG rules (which lead to the series failing and MA having to take over). Personally watching and listening to one modern day Superbike is much more exciting then a Stock bike, even though they are closer in performance then ever before. Certainly though for grid size it could be an easy fix to go to Stock rules, maybe that is what they have in their back pocket. They also had some cool Superstock 1000 rules when the classes were combined. Some chassis mods but little or no motor work and kit electronics. You couldn't hardly tell the difference between those and Superbikes, and in fact the Superstock 1000 bikes had real podium shots.

 

Gotta admit, I wasn't happy when he first came over, especially when he came over and started dominating. That said, I think he has single-handedly brought the riding level of everyone in that class up a notch. And as much as I didn't want to like him, I have found that I kind of can't help myself. I can honestly say he's made a fan out of me.

 

I’m curious who will be riding the Hammer Twin cup bike(s), since AD is going to a 1000.

 

HWSNBN