Why is Edward "ted" Codd still a Novice - let me tell you

I have been out of state for this week and I have heard that numerous people are accussing ted of sandbagging or cherry picking. Well this is a differnent story that what was being told about Ted, during the 99 season.
Talladega (99) Ted Cobb was accused a being a slow rider "from the back of the Pack and low sided into one of the front runners" - Andy Caldwell (3 race winner from teh 99'GNF). This can be read in the Performance Motorcycle magazine.

Savannah (99) Ted Cobb accused of being a DANGEROUS rider - who was extremely slow in the corners and did not know how to ride a motorcycle.

Road Atlanta (99) Ted Codd accused of having cheater motor - because he was beating Brewer and Hayes during that weekend - Wera Officials spot checked the bike - nothing found.

Savannah (99) - another rider approached me and stated he knew that the bottom-end of the STOCK GSXR-600 was a 750 motor.

Since I sponsor Ted, I take great offense to these type of accusations. I have a knack of getting companies to invest in Clubman level Road Racing. I do not cheat and neither do any of the racers that I have sponsored (current or past).

Companies like to see winners, as well as consistant results - Ted was consistant last year - Brewer, Hayes and Wren Smith won. Brewer, Hayes and Smith were multi-year Novices - Did y'all bitch about that when they where winning - EVERYTHING - NO YOU DID NOT.

You were not in my pit last year so you do not know what happened or the accusations that where spread about Ted and myself. It is easy to sit on the side and cast stones. I'm a big person and Ted and I can take the flack. I will tell you one thing.. We will be at all of the races and I will have him pre-entered for the races - Hell we might even start showing up on Saturdays.

BTW: We pre-entered for Daytona (CCS) on December 14th 1999- for the March 2000 race. How many of you took the time or had the ensight - to ensure a good grid ? let me tell you ZERO.

Just because Ted did not take a break this winter - instead of sitting on the sofa and eating chips, drinking beer and/or smoking dope -- he rode dirt bikes, weight trained and took care of his body - to ensure he was ready for this season and would be out to win - He will WIN. If Ted only won by a small margin, would y'all be bitchin ? Probably not... Enough is Enough ...

BTW: I do not hear anyone bitchin about the Team riders Valvoline, Arclight and such - when they come to the Nationals and take all of the prize money from the experts - Hell, lets put a cap on the number of races you can win and the amount of money you can win in a season. When you reach that limit you haved to stop racing for that season. Will this make you happy... HAve a nice evening - see you in Daytona, as well as the races in April.

Richard Hood
Novice 188

 

hey richard, think you could e-mail me and let me know a few secrets on getting co.'s to sponsor on the club level? that waould be nice.

sincerely
Tony Grilli
[email protected]

 

you will find out that some people that loose can not take it. they have to have an exscuse. need to blame someone or something. i used to wrestle all thru school and most guys needed or had a good reason as to why they lost to me. it couldn't be that i was better. riders get faster and SMARTER and you will see that it pays BIG dividends.

 

Hey Rich,

You're getting wound up about the wrong thing. I haven't seen where anyone here has accused your rider of cheating. Nor should they unless they have some solid evidence.
Some of the posters here _have_ rasied a valid question tho' - Why is he still a novice when his results from last year would indicate that he should have been moved up to expert????
Understand that my interest in this is little more than curiosity (I don't race in 600/750 classes) but, at least to me, a valid question has been asked.......

Charlie McCullough #90 Ex

 

Hold on let me put down my bong and stuff that last handful of Fritos into my mouth.

Mr. Hood should take note that no one on the BBS has accussed his team or Ed Cobb (AKA Ted Codd)of cheating. However, undeniable proof has been given that Mr. Cobb was eligible for advancement to the expert level. However, I assume he petitioned to remain a novice for the 2000 season.

Should there be hard and fast rules for advancement? Perhaps, we need to encourage a WERA rule change. However, I hate to see discouraging comments about someone who is having success on the race track. If we're not happy with the rules let's change the rules.

 

Hey newbieidiot. He doesn't need to email you any secrets. He just gave them all to us with the War and Peace rendition. You take a relatively fast novice and then petition for a second novice year. You get easy contingency money, lots of trophies and most of all exposure.

It boils down to the big fish in a small pond theory. In this case, some guys would rather be the big fish on a slow grid than an average fish on a fast grid. Some guys are intimidated by names like Acree, Stokes, Caylor, Himmelsbach(sp?), Junge, et al.

Before any guilty minds reply, I really don't care who stays novice or for what reasons. Ask yourself this question though: Are you going to get faster by lapping 10 guys in a novice race or trying to keep up with the guys that truly are fast (see previously mentioned names)?

To those questionable novice returnees: Several of you said everyone is whining because you're faster. Remember this, a few of us will catch you by the end of the season, and will bump you off the podium by years end. It probably won't be me, but someone will. Because while you are busy filling your trophy case all season, we will be learning from you. By the time you see a front wheel, it'll be too late. After following you all year, everyone behind you will know your strengths and weaknesses. Just think, you could have been getting faster too if only you had more fast guys to learn from. Too bad. You could have turned expert and learned from the real fast guys.

Oops. No National Championship. It looks like another year as a novice.

 

Gentlemen,

Please understand - I was not stating the members of this thread were saying Ted was a cheater. If that was the perception I am sorry.

What I was stating was.. Last year (99) riders where saying ted was a dangerous rider, a cheater, a person who should not be on the track, a rider who rode without abandon and crashed into others without care.

Does this sound like someone who is ready for an Expert license, for 2000 - no matter his ranking ?

Sounds to me like he needs to go to Ed's racing school and start over - if the above statements were true - which they were not. But, enough of the front riders had made comments to the officials, to where the Officials believed the statements. The WERA officials - not once came to us and asked what was going on - or - our side of the story. We were guilty, because the front runners made the statements.

Ted is a good rider - I'll be the first to admit that - that's why I sponsor him. But, Ted does crash and he does make mistakes. One race weekend does not and will not predict the rest of the season.

But why should you go to the next level if you have not won the prize (a championship) ?

This last weekend was the 1st win - in a Regional Race - for Ted. Last year - Brewer and Hayes(all multi-year Novices) won ALL of the regional races and some of the Nationals. This year it will be Ted Cobb. So, if this warrents a bullseye or people gunning for him, we accept the challenges.

Lets race and have a goodtime, but becareful and lets not hurt anyone

If you are at the Track stop by and we can talk and even help each other out.

I apologise if I offended anyone.. It was not my intention..

Sincerely,
Richard Hood
Novice 188

 

Man this subject has been beat to death lets stop all of the whining whos a sanbager and whose not its WERA's prob if tey stay fine if they go fine i dont care all i know is iam here to race and if ya get in front of me if ya a first yr novice or a ten yr novice iam jus lookin for a way around ya . And it doesnt matter what ya did last yr or if ya think ya gonna be the man this yr nobodys got the race won until the checkered flag waves until then its every man for himself . So lets race have fun and may the best man win .

 

Fastiger (and the rest of you whiners),
Nothing personal, but I don’t think that you will ever be a front runner until you change your attitude.
Racing is 90% mental, and if you go to the track with this negative attitude towards the fast guys and how you can’t win because it is unfair to you, then you are dooming yourself to lose.
I don’t know you, but from what I have gathered thru your posts is that you are a first year racer who bought a GSXR to race and are upset because you don’t think that you can be competitive, and that you deserve to win money.
What you don’t understand is that what is happening this year has happened every year. We started out the same as you, the fast guys lapped us, and we never thought they could be beat. But for the fast guys of today, why shouldn’t they have a shot at a championship?
Ted (Ed) Cobb finished in the top five ( a 5th) in only one class last year according to what I saw on this web site. Is it fair that he got to stay a novice?
Hell yes! He could have won a lot more last year had someone not done same thing that he is doing this year. Just like it was fair for all those who did it before him. He isn’t breaking any rules, He isn’t cheating. There were no special exceptions made just for him. This is the way it is, this is the way it has been. If you don’t like it, ask for a rule change or leave WERA, but there is no reason to make your snide comments against racers who are just doing what the rulebook says is allowed.
Why is it fair for anyone other than Ed Cobb to get the National championship? Sure it may only be a plaque on the wall to you, but if Cobb has the desire to go on with his racing, that championship might help him in getting sponsorship. It’s also a nice reward for not smoking dope all winter.
Some of you only think that fast guys can improve by racing with experts, but the pace at the front of a 600 novice grid is pretty high, and winning it is not always a walk in the park.
Don’t let your jealousy get the best of you. Set some goals for yourself and be happy when you achieve them, and pretty soon you will be up front.
But for now, don’t shit on Cobb or anyone else for their accomplishments. He is out there to have fun and doesn’t deserve to be beat up like this, especially if WERA doesn’t find anything wrong with him racing as a novice this year.

 

SO...IT'S ALL ABOUT A CHAMPIONSHIP! Stay a novice 5+ years until you finally win one! If you are close but can't quite make the grade, sit back another year! Most novices do not have real sponsors, most of us are scaping and spending our own hard earned cash, trying to stay competitive. I could not care less if some green-shirt outrides me, it's the sponcored champion wanna-be that already has credentials that has no place in our ranks. Let the green-shirt take the championship from me and I will not complain, he/she deserves it!

 

Championship?!? SO WHAT? EVERYONE gets to be a novice champion....EVENTUALLY!

 

Well yes, that and race wins. That is what Cobb is after, and that is what you guys don’t want him to get. Face it, that is the way it is in the 600 class, and it won’t be fair to change it now. Those of us who are veteran novices who had to put up with it for years and had to wait until it was out turn could care less about dropping a second off our lap time if it only meant that we now got a 15th in the expert class.
I got into racing for one reason, to win. Well actually, I did it to impress chicks, and chicks could care less about me running a 1:14. They want to see trophies.

You don’t have to race a 600. You could spend the same money and get a TZ250 and clean up in F2 against the FZR400s. In the lightweight classes they novices usually don’t stick around like they do in the 600 class.

It takes most racers multiple years to reach the pace of the 600 front runners. That is why the jump to the slow expert times is so low. If it were Cobb winning every race by 10 seconds, it would be one thing, but wait until he gets to the next track and see how he runs. There are usually ten riders bunched up at the finish of a 600 novice race. They all push each other to go faster. If you knock one or two up to the expert level, will it really matter that much to your finish?

 

Mr Rusnak,
I am indeed a first year racer and I indeed have a GSXR 600. The number of hours I've been in the seat of a street bike in my life you can count on one hand (track or street). The fact that you feel a trophy or a championship means anything by beating me says a lot about your character and sportsmanship. Would you actually get satisfaction from finishing ahead of someone as inexperienced as myself? You should be ashamed that after five years you are still competing in a class that has riders as inexperienced as myself.

As far as my attitude? I'm out here to have fun. I didn't go through racing school to get trophies, contingency money or because chicks think it's cool (what's up with that?). There are victories on the track other than a trophy: lowering your lap times, outbraking a faster rider into a turn, staying close to a fast guy through a couple corners, etc. My attitude is great. I will enjoy riding and getting better as long as I'm in the sport. My reasoning for an experienced rider to move up is not for my own personal gain. That's arrogance on your part. In fact, I'll make a deal with you. If I'm still a novice next year, I'll send you every trophy I win and contingency money I earn.

At this point nobody cares if you stay novice. If you got bumped up you would be whining the loudest and I don't think anyone wants to hear it. So win your trophies and money while the rest of us rookies go out and have a great time just being on the track racing.

Mr. Hood and Mr. Cobb, take no offense. It just irritates me that someones sole purpose for staying novice is to impress girls by winning trophies. The two of you don't appear to be doing that. Best of luck this year.

Diesel- Riding a GSXR600 labels me as wanting to be the next Kenny Jr (I'm older than he is and have no aspirations that would void my stock options) Can you suggest a more appropriate bike? With me voicing my opinion a few people are worried I'm lobbying to steal their contingency money, so a non contingency class would be preferred.

My book is finished. Heading to Mardi Gras. Good luck this weekend vintage guys.

 

Wow! This thread is getting ugly!

 

Mr. Tiger,
I don’t feel that I am the one who is whining. I am defending the way things have worked in WERA in the past. I was mistaken when I said I have been racing for five years, this will be my fifth year as a novice and no it doesn’t shame me at all. I could find you some novices who have raced for a lot longer than that.
I don’t mind people wanting to change the rules, but there is no need to personally attack anyone.
You are new, so let me explain something to you. You have just jumped into the hardest and probably most dangerous class in club racing. We see the highest number of entries, and I have counted the highest number of crashes and red flags. I have been riding for 20 years, and I would not have even considered starting in this class. I chose to learn in the lightweight ranks. By the same token, after deciding that I was experienced enough to move up to the 600’s, I didn’t want to jump from a 50 hp bike to a 100 hp bike and go immediately to the expert ranks. I don’t think that the WERA race director would have allowed it anyway. I may have been able to petition my way up this year, but the number of races a racer rides, or the number of years he has raced has absolutely nothing do with them being a expert. In some other organizations it does, but not in WERA.
At Putnam Park, the top experts are in the 1:11 to 1:13 range. You think that the fast novices close in quickly, they are flying. You have people out there racing for $1000+ Yamaha money. Do they want just any old goon out their getting between them and some serious cash? You have AMA regulars (not factory, but still plenty fast) and guys like Tray Batey out there. Sure, an expert should know how to pass a slower rider safely, but that doesn’t mean that they always do.
Would I get satisfaction out of beating someone as new as you? If it makes you feel bad, sure.
You say “My reasoning for an experienced rider to move up is not for my own personal gain.” I say you are lying. Why have you been so vocally opposed to this, other than losing a competitor, what would change by moving Cobb up? Don’t tell me you don’t want to win. EVERYONE wants to win.
I am going to some new tracks this year, including some that are going to be hosting Nationals that weekend. You are a new racer, so you probably don’t know that during the Nationals you lose a lot of practice time to the endurance race and the extra classes. I may be more cautious than you, but I do not want to jump into a expert field at a new track just yet. Cobb’s sponsor said that he was far from a consistent rider last year. He may have been fast on certain days, but that doesn’t mean that he feels ready to race with the experts.
Sure, he is most likely staying novice because he wants some easy wins, but the point is, WERA gives him that option. He has every right to do it so everyone should just lay off the personal attacks and snide comments. WERA knows his results, and has heard your complaints and will act or not as they see fit.
As for someone like me, I have not met any of the requirements to be an expert, so why should I feel bad about staying a novice? Lets see how long it takes you to get into the top five in points.
In fact, I stand to gain from moving Cobb up, Hey WERA, move Ed Cobb up!

 

FELLAS,FELLAS,FELLAS!

This is getting ridiculous!
I did'nt get to participate in the '99 season. I dont know Ed other than from Richards introduction over the TALLADEGA weekend. Why is this guy creating such a problem for everyone?
(T A R G E T)
That is what I plan to make of Ed Cobb, or whoever is leading and running the best at whatever track. I dont mean that in a bad way, but if that is who is out front, you should always set your sites on him and dont stop until you are showing him the way. Always thinking,"this session im going to be all over him". It can only make you faster. It works.

 

WERA's official stance is this - Ted was a fast Novice in 99. He also had a bad habit of making bonehead moves on occasion - his being fast tended to make him stand out more and cause more damage to himself and others. His inconsistancy is what prompted us to leave him Novice for another year with the provision that if he is determined by us to be too fast for the Novice ranks he will be bumped up, this will lose him all points he has gained to that point - he chose to go that route. There is more to being an Expert racer than just turning some fast laps on occasion, if a rider doesn't have the necessary maturity they can cause some tremendous problems for everyone including themselves, the Novice ranks are where riders gain that necessary maturity. We are watching him and will continue to do so, we may move him to Expert, we may leave him as a Novice. As far as we're concerned championships and race wins don't have a thing to do with our decision, nor do we take much stock in what other racers say about the subject unless they are ina totally different class, it's hard to be objective about a guy that beats you...

Okay kids, this one is officially done. No more posts - period. I'd like to leave the thread up for those who have not been involved to get an idea of what people feel but I will nuke it and all of the other similar threads if necessary. This BBS is here to exchange information not to get into pissing matches.

 

And of course I immediately ignore my own ultimatum...

On Richards point about WERA considering Ted dangerous based on complaints by other riders woithout getting their input - that's not how we operate. First we do explore any and all complaints about dangerous riding. Second - if we thought he was dangerous he would no longer have a license and his classification would be moot. We didn't come get your side of the story because it wasn't needed, we didn't feel he was riding in a dangerous manner - over his head on occasion, maybe, dangerous, no.

And yes people complained about the other riders mentioned. We get complaints about every rider who goes fast. If they are Novice then they should be moved to Expert. If they are Expert then WERA should tear them down because the complaining riders doesn't see why he should be forced to put up the money. For that matter we even get complaints about Formula 1 bikes and they have no limits... Complaints are normal in a competitive environment, if you are making them you really need to double check your motives, if valid then go for it (either way we'll still listen, that's part of what we're here for). If you are on the receieving end and haven't done anything, ignore them - you can't be a target if you're not out front.

NOW this thread is done.

 

Look in an old farmers barn and run what you find. We vintage guys are competitive but not cut-throat. In vintage, novices race with experts... as a novice last year I was put into place at the GNF when Dave Roper passed me and left me for dead in just the first turn. (Any of you ever raced with Miguel Duhammel on the track?) The babes we get are our deeply understanding wives/girlfriends, most of us don't have sponsors and a successful race weekend means we can still walk and go to work on Monday. (and still do a 12oz. curl with a Frito chaser )