I would like to follow up my earlier post about the state of AMA Roadracing with some observations and opinions of things that occurred at Barber this past weekend. Once again, these are my first hand observations being present at, and participating in the DMG Daytona Sportbike class as the crew chief for #57 Chaz Davies of the Aprilia/Millenium/KWS team. I am speaking entirely for myself and these comments are unsolicited. The 'big event' that transpired at Barber was that on Friday evening, after superpole, all 10 DSB superpole participants were immediately taken for dyno testing, then to be weighed. When I first heard that this was going to happen, I was quite concerned. I felt that despite Mr. Edmondson having reversed his earlier position of dyno enforced power to weight ratios, that we were now being quietly ushered into cumbersome and time consuming 'equivalency formula' racing. I am opposed to this for many reasons. It is time consuming for the crew, it is fraught with inconsistencies (tire slippages, weather conditions, engine temp, operator error), it removes a level of tuning inventiveness, and absolutely ignores an important fundamental that makes motorcycle roadracing what it is, the importance of a good chassis setup. Motorcycles do not perform like cars, and if we try to technically address them as such, we ignore a large part about what we love about riding motorcycles. So, my rider qualified in third position and we headed for the dyno. A large group of team members stood around as each motorcycle was ushered into the dyno trailer. One team member was allowed to accompany their respective motorcycle. Before my motorcycle was rolled in, I told my mechanic what I predicted our bike would make on the track Dynojet dyno. As it turned out, I guessed it to within 0.6hp. I also could tell a few things about the 600s just by how they sounded as they made their runs. This lasted, I believe for over an hour and then we took the bikes down to have them weighed. We drained our fuel and put our bike on the scales with a dry tank. I knew within a couple of pounds what our bike would weigh, but just to make things lighter and more interesting, I asked the tech official to guess what our bike would weigh. He laughed and gave me a guess. As it was, his guess was off to the tune of 18 pounds. He was surprised. What happened later that evening became more interesting. Gossip began to sweep through the paddock more quickly than Sunday's tornadic weather. I was very curious to see how DMG would handle their newfound data as well as to how they would respond to the critics (including those here) who have blasted them for being biased and unfair in regards to the displacement advantage of the Buell, and to a much lesser extent, the 400cc displacement advantage afforded to our 998cc Aprilia RSV1000 v-twin. Is a conspiracy indeed afoot? Would DMG lock the dyno results up with the truth about Roswell, NM and the facts of the Kennedy assasination? Later that evening, while I was eating dinner, I saw that DMG had emailed out a press release regarding the dyno and weight results. I was also a bit shocked that not only had they publicly responded within hours of the tests, but they went on to give some actual power to weight ratios. My conclusion was that if they really wanted to 'put in the fix' that those numbers would never see the light of day. As I knew our power and weight numbers, I learned from the email that not only were we not close to the top of the power to weight ratios, we were not even equal to at least one of the 600s! This simply confirmed what I have seen on track all year, with some of the 600s out accelerating us up the hill out of turn five at Road Atlanta. Conversly, I believe our 'big twin' is top five competitive not because of our engine, but because our chassis works so well. I hope that DMG uses this information to 'tweak' the rules to make the racing even tighter and more competitive than it already has been in a season thus far that has shown close competition and three different manufacturers winning in the first four weekends. I personally will implore DMG to continue to refine what has been working and shows great promise as opposed to shackling us with a equivalancy system more suited to car racing than our uniquely beautiful form of motorsports. On another positive note, I was told at Barber the the last three episodes of AMA Pro Primetime had recorded ratings that were 300% higher than some of the the live racing telecasts of last season. Apparantly, the ratings are boosted by new first time viewers of the sport. I hope that if this continues, perhaps we can look forward to same day coverage as well as the current Saturday night show. The lines for the autograph session were ridiculously long, and the fan walk both days was crowded with curious fans, many of whom were entire families with children. My biggest beef with the weekend, was that on Sunday afternoon the schedule was extremely vague and did not feel like we were given proper prior notice to know what to prepare for. On the other hand, with the extemely severe and constantly changing weather, I don't know if we could reasonably have expected much more. Thanks for reading and let's all hope our sport can grow during these tough economic times, Rocky Stargel
Having been on the scheduling end of things - there's no way to know what's going to happen so they were guessing as much if not more than you guys were. It sucks but mother nature is a fickle fickle lady. Very cool on the rest of it! I'm really glad that common sense seems to be reigning supreme in all of this. You guys are ALL working together to put on a show for the fans.
Being nothing more than a true outsider I want to tell you that I appreciate you sharing your observations. With so much conjecture and opinions by so many not involved it's nice to hear some realities, including both the good and bad.
As you know, this BBS is no place for considered and intelligent opinions. I demand that you redo the entire thread in the form of a rant, accompanied by poor spelling and incomprehensible syntax. Seriously, thank you for the real 'insider' view.:up:
I talked to at least a dozen people while we were waiting on the weather that were at a bike event for the first time. Biggest question from most was would we race in the rain. This lead to longer conversations and several comments of "Wow..they'll race in these condidtion. The Nascar guys would have gone home by now and rescheduled the event."
Thanks Rocky. Despite the strong TV ratings I feel much less connected to AMA racing than I have since the 80's. Your first hand experience is really great to read. It is, dare I say, making me more optimistic about the future of AMA racing.
Well one thing that is really helping is seeing the ads on Speed all the time. They're doing great promoting the prime time stuff for sure.
That ain't rocky, it's a post by the DMG pod person who looks like rocky. The real rocky is in a freezer with Walt Disney's head and some stoufers french bread pizza. Area 51! Area 51! Area51! Attica! We will sell no wine before it's time!
I was at the race this weekend also and was impressed with most of the show they put on.(especially with all the crazy weather) Props to DMG for the job they did. Rocky thanks for the great read! :up: The only thing i still have a problem with is the rolling starts i guess......very boring and undramatic, or atleast that's what my friends who have never seen a motorcycle race before said. They loved the standing starts and said it was intense to watch. So i nicely pointed them to the fact that there is a WERA race later this month! :up:
I agree with you that if you are in a position to view the start then a standing start is really exciting. However, I was viewing from the turn 2-3 hill where you can't see the front stretch and I was surprised at how exciting the rolling start was. It was 40+ bikes nose to tail all the way around that bend and up the hill through 4 and it was actually thrilling to see.
And that folks is how they are getting those ratings! Nobody watches that shit live (or should I say its original air time, we all know its not live). It's all being Tivoed and watched at a later "more conveniant time" other than 10:00at night 2 weeks later. I have watched every episode, on Tivo.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, but when is the last time you saw a supersport race start from a standing start that wasn't 40 bikes nose to tail throught the first 4 turns?
Okay, Joe did not go there, so I guess I will.......the big question on everyone's mind (well, maybe not everyone....) is how did your hair hold up to the constantly changing conditions on Sunday? Do you have a "rain" set up? Did you have to change your products 2 or 3 times throughout the day? How did you prepare for the impending torndado? I'd be willing to bet that the aforementioned "Attack Pack" came in handy. Inquiring minds want to know..... Seriously, thanks for your insightful and (more importantly) intelligent comments about what is really going on in the paddock. Scott P.
I'm still against the rolling starts...for the sole reason that you've just destroyed a huge skill that a road racer must learn. A "car" of any kind does not belong in motorcycle racing. I'm not against the "pace car" idea, but they should have a MOTORCYCLE! I still think a nice BMW decked out like the police ride would be plenty sufficient. With that said, thanks for that Rocky. Your opinion actually does make a difference to some of us.
