Ben Bostrom on the AMA and Lappers

Hmmmm.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2005/Jun/050602s.htm

Agree or Disagree

 

His other idea is alot better...take the SUperbike purse away in the lower places, and move it to Superstock. I agree (and hav efor years) that it's absurd to have the lappers riding around to collect a check. It's entirely pointless. Nobody watches the race for the guy who's 9 seconds/lap off the pace...get rid of him.

 

I agree. Raise the cutoff, get the slow guys out and pay them. Without rehashing his interview, he's right on. Kick out the factory guys in 600 SS and 1000 SS, let the private guys go for it. Make FX and SBK the factory classes with a high cutoff. Oh yea, make the 600 SS class use only one type of tire brand (a brand not starting with the letter "D").

 

What's funny is that Ben proposes a 105% laptime cutoff. If I'm not mistaken, he would have failed to qualify for several WSB races this year if that cutoff percentage was imposed.

 

yeah it's funny how he's bitching about backmarkers, considering he is one...

has-been prima-donna.

 

I like the idea of making SB and FX the factory races. I say kick the factories out of Superstock and Supersport. That would help a little and give the privateers some place to show their stuff. Once you do that then you could lower the FX and SB cut-off times to a lower percentage.

I agree that Ben is a bit whiney now and he has lost his speed, but his points still have merit.

 

I think it's a stretch to compare his recent performances to those of the rolling roadblocks that clog up the back 50% of an AMA SUperbike race...please.

Also, re: the 105%, I got the feeling that the number was off-the-cuff, and there probably wasn't any math behind it.

I think it's obvious that his point is that lappers have no place in a professional race, period. I mean, if the front runners catch up to one or 2 or 3 stragglers at teh end, that's one thing. But, in an AMA Superbike race, there are groups of riders battling it out for 22nd or whatever-the-hell, at a vastly slower pace than the top riders.

I'm not on his side because I'm a fanboy, I'm on his side because I'm a Superbike fan, and I want to watch the top guys race. I _don't_ want to watch the top guys ruin over a bunch of club racers who function only to get in the way and spread out the field.

 

Do ya really get paid $1000 for 36th place ?!?!

 

I think his comment about the AMA not getting past amatuer racing says it all. The AMA will never be a racing organization like WSB for that very reason......

 

But in WSB, there are no lappers, everyone finishes on the same lap.

 

Great Article

 

According to RRW, the Road America race will not pay anywhere close to that for 35th place.

I vaguely remember something about factory guys giving their winnings to the mechanics. Anybody else hear / remember this? With the first place purse being a whopping $4000, what would a factory guy do with that cash? Granted, if someone won ten races that would be $40 grand, but on a factory contract (that is less than 5% of a million dollar contract)?

I agree that the purse should be paid out in other classes, especially, if it improves the racing.

 

Screw the AMA, WERA should step up and bitch-slap the AMA out of the game and take control!!!!

Make Mongo King!!!

 

I can not believe Ben actually thinks this way "I ended up hating the AMA series because it has a real problem with lapped traffic. They wreck every single race. You come in on them and you don't know where they are gonna be."

Have he lost sense of raw racing?

Why not just run the "AMA Factory only series" ?

 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAY off. 10th place may pay $1000, and if you're the top privateer, another $1000. Enough to get you back for another AMA weekend.

 

"I'm not one to go charging into people. I don't want to go knocking someone down, especially some privateer whose paying for his own stuff. You destroy your bike, maybe you get busted up yourself too."

Somebody go find Jacobi and Mizdall and get their reaction to the turds that are spewing from Ben's oral cavity. Not to mention his own friggin teammate, Miguel. What a total load of crap. He described his incident to a T, but said he's not one to do that. Uh, dumbass, there's video.

 

That's a problem the team can spend millions developing a bike and making it the best but if the rider's brain is not right up there it makes no difference, the bike won't win races.


Ya think Ben?

 

I believe last year they were lapping up to 6-7th place in AMA SBK? So, just have 6 guys on the track?

What drives me nuts is that the true backmarker guys aren't the ones causing problems for the prima-donna factory boys. Its actually the guys in 13-17th place, who are actually quite fast. Last year they were bitching about Opie and Mike Smith--as if either of those guys are slow. The guys in last place get passed with no problem, but the faster guys are actually harder to get around.

Then add in the difference a factory bike can make. You would think Ben would realize this after doing so crappy on non-factory equipment. Kurtis used to battle for wins--now he's lucky to be in tp 10. I'd like to see Ben come back to the AMA on a true privateer bike and see how he'd do.

WSBK has no lappers becuz the tracks are double the length.