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MotoAmerica 2021 | VIRginia International Raceway | May 21-23

Discussion in 'General' started by TX Joose, May 12, 2021.

  1. noles19

    noles19 Well-Known Member

    Yes of course. but there are many examples of rich people going through the steps and competing in those series and not being fast.
    Both the car series have a pro/am class now even
     
  2. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Yep. Always have been and always will be backmarkers in every pro series.
     
  3. younglion

    younglion Well-Known Member

    I think overall the weekend was extremely positive from a fans POV.

    - Other than Gagne running away at the front of both SBK races, there were battles for podiums, some close racing, and lappers were typically smart and non-factors.
    - Weather was hot but pretty much ideal otherwise.
    - Fans on site was great to see and the camera following Gagne after race 2 leaving winners circle was amazing - seeing the kids run up to him and he graciously obliged each and everyone with photo's and signatures - very impressive to see him genuinely happy to do so.
    - Twins - close racing and not the run-away for the Aprilia's many (me included) expected pre-season and despite some technical gremlins (that bump start was funny yet cringeworthy for a national series) it was pretty even overall. Kudo's for Parrish staying up there too, impressive!
    - SST1000 - race 2 last lap was awesome and even better to see the two guys laughing about it from winners circle and their post-race interviews.
    - Jr Cup - never disappoints like Moto3 - close racing and impressive young talent on display. Kohlstead and Max Van up front this early is so nice to see.
    - 600SS - bummed for Smith in race 2 but he really impressed. Happy "Ritchie's baaaaack!" too - keep the battle for the 'ship nice and tight please.

    Announcing team overall is really solid and I agree about Floyd on all counts but IMO he's a small price to pay given how awesome the rest are. The 3 pit reporters including the new guy are all extremely well spoken, do their homework, and have a great delivery. Greg and Jason are a known commodity and wealth of insight, and Roger is just what the series needs - likeable, clearly has all the track insight and racer pedigree, plus a clear, articulate commentating style. I'll put up with 1 bad apple to enjoy the other 7-8 awesome ones.
     
    TurboBlew, Gino230, MELK-MAN and 3 others like this.
  4. rafa

    rafa Well-Known Member

    From what Richard said, its easier for the smaller teams to get the same equipment (marelli) they use now and set the bike up.
    If they limit the equipment, teams like attack would still spend the same amount of money and make the TC/Engine Brake/Torque Maps and all of these things work, but in a much more complicated way through the kit electronics.

    Whoever mentioned budget is right, some of the stock teams have extremely limited budgets, no way they could build anything even close to a superbike.
     
  5. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    +1,000,000

    They wouldn’t be giving the 1000SS guys, free tires, free entry I think, and a separate championship with good payouts, if they didn’t want them there for eye candy.
     
    cav115, Wheel Bearing and noles19 like this.
  6. noles19

    noles19 Well-Known Member

    And racers and fans still bitch about it like it's something new every time:crackup:
     
  7. RRP

    RRP Kinda Superbikey

    Well said, I want to get to this point regarding Floyd.
     
  8. redtailracing

    redtailracing gone tuna fishin'

    Endurance racing is a bit of a different monster. Gentleman drivers are part of the racing and even built into the rules as I understand it. It's part of the sport. Apples to oranges.

    Sean, you get my point. It seems (at least to me) the licensing and qualifying cutoff are too lax. I pose my situation as an extreme to emphasize the question of where should MA draw the line?

    As far as needing the entries, I highly doubt a half dozen entries are a make or break for them. I'm not saying chop grid sizes in half. I'm saying draw the line somewhere reasonable which probably eliminates a half dozen entries between twins & stk1k.
     
  9. jksoft

    jksoft Well-Known Member

    You could tell Jason is a true professional. He comes in to a new series (as far as I know he hasn't been involved with MA before) and instantly sounds like he knows what he is talking about. Very impressive. All 3 pit reporters are top notch.
     
    Boman Forklift and redtailracing like this.
  10. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    I am quite certain it is 6 figures.

    When Tyler raced I was low budget out of my truck and trailer and blew over $30k, maybe 50k don’t want to remember. This was not including the bikes, trailer, truck, warmers, generators, etc. and fortunately we were getting help.

    We had friends on buy a ride teams that spent 6 figures for the bike rental program and still had to get themselves to and from the track, plus crash damage, etc.

    It’s mind blowing how much this stuff costs when you are hauling all over the country with 4-5 a gallon diesel, motor rebuilds, $2k plus on tires every round, etc.

    Tyler really wanted to make the next step to a funded team with mechanics not named dad. His biggest reason was he wanted to push hard enough that he could throw it away and not worry if I had enough time and money to get him back out there again.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2021
    Gino230 likes this.
  11. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    Yea I agree Jason would be a great addition.

    For whatever reason Robbie doesn’t bother me that much? He says some stupid stuff, no doubt, but he is doing better than I probably could do, and I thought he and Roger did pretty well this past weekend.
     
  12. 2blueYam

    2blueYam Track Day Addict

    I haven't checked the rules, but I would guess at a minimum you still need an expert license from an Amateur racing org (WERA, CCS, etc.) to get a STK1000 license for MA. So first year in or first year back to racing likely wouldn't get you there. I thought they had a 110% cutoff rule for qualifying, but it looks like 110% of Jake's 1:26.283 would be 1:34.911 and Gary Virgin made the grid with a 1:35.358. Everyone else would have made the 110% cutoff so you may have eliminated 1 back marker?

    Getting around lappers is part of the deal in most road racing. There were lappers in the World Superbike race on what is a pretty long track at Aragon this weekend.
     
    418 likes this.
  13. rafa

    rafa Well-Known Member

    That guy indeed is great.
    This weekend he made sure to stop by our pit at the wall, make sure he had the correct details about our rider before passing them to the annoucers on TV.

    Robbie use to bother me, I am fine with him now, he at least sounds passionate about what he is doing there. I get more annoyed now by people complaining about him than with him.
     
    Boman Forklift and henry_carlson like this.
  14. RRP

    RRP Kinda Superbikey

    I feel like he did the same thing Jamie Howe did previously (and that Robbie Floyd seems to refuse to do). Learn the teams, talk to the teams, ramp up and educated themselves.

    Prime Example - when he went to the Hudson Valley (Honos?) pit and asked/invited himself in and immediately asked about what they had done developing Corey Alexander’s ZX10.
     
    rafa likes this.
  15. Chino52405

    Chino52405 Well-Known Member

    Sunday we finally we got to hear Barbera instead of BarBearAh. Only took until the second day of the second round to say the right name of a dude who's been racing internationally forever.
     
    Circacee likes this.
  16. Circacee

    Circacee Well-Known Member

    You're right. I used to be a Robbie hater but man, he's enthusiastic . RLH is cool too but at times, he kinda blows Robbie off and I think that heat falls on Robbie, making him seem like an ass.

    GW and Pridmore were horrendous this weekend. They sound like they have peanut butter on the roof of their mouth. Kept fucking names up, kept fucking bikes up.. It was odd..

    All in all, I'm happy we have racing back.
     
    Gixxerguy855 likes this.
  17. cBJr

    cBJr Well-Known Member

    +1

    Overall: I'm pumped with MotoAmerica right now. I think they've really done a great job of rebuilding the brand in the last few years all around.
     
  18. Monsterdood

    Monsterdood Well-Known Member

    No Twins riders got lapped in race 1. Almost everyone of us set new PR’s this weekend. The pace was incredible with the talent up front. Parish’s best race lap time from 2 years was good enough for 10th in race one. Those of us at the back made the cutoff (110%), raced our butts off, had some great battles, and gave the fans great racing to watch in the 80 seconds in between when the leaders come around. You might not see that on Live+, but the people there saw it and cheered when we came around on the cool down lap.

    If half the grid was getting lapped and it impacts the leaders, I agree.

    I can’t comment on Stock 1000 as I haven’t got to watch it yet.
     
    TurboBlew, stk0308, Gino230 and 7 others like this.
  19. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    Some people just aren’t happy unless they are bitching!!

    Glad you researched and can back it up with data. As I recall, if a rider is within 110% of the quickest rider during any session, that can count towards making it. I don’t remember the exact details, but I believe Gino mentioned that before.
     
    t11ravis and 418 like this.
  20. Monsterdood

    Monsterdood Well-Known Member

    I’m not sure the cutoff % for every class, but Twins is 110%. If you fail to get within 110% of the fastest time from combined qualifying, but you did get within 110% in one of the practice sessions or in any single qualifying session, you can request a provisional start. The provisional start would be granted if there was some reason you were unable to set a time or a good time in combined qualifying. Mechanical, bad gas, messed up tire pressure, or something else out of the old excuse bag.

    I haven’t used a provisional request yet, but I’ve been close. My qual time from 2 years ago would have had me packing up early this weekend. I went 2+ seconds faster in qual and just barely made the cutoff. I found 2 more seconds under race pressure and hit my goal of 37’s and had some good racing so that was awesome.
     
    stk0308, Champer, Gino230 and 2 others like this.

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