And away we go!

 http://www.cyclenews.com/ShowStory.asp?HeadlineID 16

"The Daytona Motorsports Group outlined its plans for the AMA Road
Racing Championship for 2009 and beyond in a meeting held with the
teams this afternoon at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama - with
the plan based on three major classes and a fourth spec-class.

The three classes will be Daytona Superbike, Literbike and Moto-ST,
though it is not totally clear which class will be the headliner. The
Daytona Superbike class, which will feature Òtwo-cylinder,
three-cylinder, and four-cylinder machines of similar performance,Ó
will be run on both Saturday and Sunday, leading us to believe that it
will be the featured event on the weekend.

According to the information shown to the teams, Daytona Superbikes
will feature: 1. Homologated and available motorcycles; 2. Middleweight
performance horsepower limits; 3. Targeted and specified
power-to-weight ratio (combined rider and machine weights); 4. A single
tire manufacturer; 5. A single fuel supplier; 6. Regular ECU (the black
box) exchanges; and 7. Homologated, available, affordable aftermarket
components only.

According to DMG, Daytona Superbikes will feature eligible motorcycles
from 10 brands: Aprilia, BMW, Buell, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM,
Suzuki, Triumph and Yamaha.

Literbike will feature the following: 1. Manufacturer homologated
motorcycles; 2. Industry/AMA developed rules for 2009 and 2010; 3.
Single tire supplier; 4. Single fuel supplier; 5. Specified minimum
participation level required to maintain eligibility; 6. Maximum
participation level specified; 7. Professional riders.

What DMG calls a ÒMaster or Class 1 licenseÓ is mandatory for both
Daytona Superbike and Literbike.

Moto-ST will feature three classes run simultaneously with a spec tire
and spec fuel rule, and all bikes will be twins. Riders in Moto-ST are
required to have what DMG calls a Class 1 or 2 license for the Super
Sport Twins class (120 horsepower/400 pounds), while a Class 3 license
is required for the Grand Sport Twins (90 horsepower/380 pounds) and
the Super Sport Twins class (75 horsepower/360 pounds).

The events themselves will consist of three days. Fridays will be
move-in day and will also feature a one-hour practice for Daytona
Superbikes, a one-hour Literbike practice and a two-hour Moto-ST
practice; Saturday will have practice and qualifying for all classes,
the first of two Daytona Superbike races and a 250-mile Moto-ST race;
Sunday will feature warm-up practice for Daytona Superbikes and the
Rookies Cup (what DMG is currently calling its spec class), the second
of two Daytona Superbike races, the Rookies Cup race and the Literbike
race.

Other details released today include the fact that two-way radio
systems will be mandatory; rolling starts will be used when appropriate
and there will be Òtransparent rules enforcement.Ó

Not so bad now, huh?

 T3 wrote:

Well, maybe, maybe not :-). Really depends on who wants to play, and how
they want to play.

Moto-ST -- THIS is "NasBike" in its purest form. For the moment simple
rules, but it's basically built to be run like NASCAR.

Specifically, red flags are gone (well, almost), replaced with pace
cars. I think they will strive for pace cars, frankly, because it lets
everyone catch up. 250 miles means at least 3 pit stops, so all sorts of
opportunity to mess something up and, again, close up the pack. The
primary goals of this is to encourage bringing the pack close together.
Everything is more "interesting" when the bikes are close together.

Next, it will run with no delays, in a specific time -- which means it
will be TV "friendly". Always starts on time, always runs the same
length of time. The rolling starts ensure that the race starts on time,
no stuck bikes in traffic. Unless, of course, it rains. Then they lose
the entire show.

The dark side, at least for the Japanese, is that they don't make any
bikes that run this class, at least not at the top level. Honda has
nothing for any of the classes, Yamaha doesn't I don't think. Kawasaki
and Suzuki both have middleweight entries, but nothing at the top end.
That's going to be Ducatis and maybe old Honda RVTs and Suzuki V1000's.
The question is whether they'll try and bring something back to
participate in the series. Mind, they don't necessarily need to
participate (with a sponsored team), but it would be nice to see bike
that is less than 10 years old running, I think. Maybe this is BMWs
show, I dunno.

I think, personally, this will be a hard race to watch. Just too damn
long. Who knows. And I don't know if anyone we watch today will be
riding in it. Also, there's the keeping track of the 3 different classes
in the same race. If ST doesn't catch my eye, I know for sure I won't go
to the track to just watch an FX 2.0 race, so Saturdays may well be a
write off as far as participation goes.

LiterBike, that's the Manufacturers graveyard. "Factories must field 4
riders", "Professional Riders". I'll be curious to understand what the
definition of "factory" is. Why will, say, American Honda be a "factory"
team over Erion, for example. What can't the manufacturer do. For
example, 2 years ago, American Honda was helping out Erion to help Josh
Hayes win FX over Yamaha, would that help be disqualified today? Over in
WSB is Ten Kate closer to American Honda or to Erion? We know there are
"no factories" over in WSB (save Ducati), but at the same time, the
Yamaha Factory Team this year is running Italian "non-factory" bikes.
So, what does "factory" mean to trigger the 4 man rule.

And how is "professional racer" defined? Does that mean that if Michael
Jordan wanted to race, personally, he couldn't? Because he funds it
himself? So, that will be interesting to see.

But this is the factory graveyard. This is the bone tossed to them to
keep them in play for the next 2 years. There's nothing that says that
they have to pay all their riders the same (well, I assume not), nor do
they have to give them all the same bikes. Mladin and Spies can get the
best bikes, parts, and etc, and the "other two" could have weaker bikes,
etc, costing less money. Basically, the factory team has two parts: the
top level team and "up and coming team". Rather than  farm them to
SStock, just run them at a lower level in LiterBike.

Now, for DSB, the question basically becomes whether the factories will
play, and I think they will. The 600 market is too important to them to
not play in DSB. Making it FX style fits in to more what Honda wants to
do, as they're really not in to selling race bikes on the street.

So, I can easily see the factories, Erions, and Attacks playing, while
the back markers will be the dogs breakfast of contraptions that FX is
today.

The other wild card is how DMG packages it up for TV. They can
marginalize the factories even more by bundling the LB series with the
Red Bull thing (I won't watch that either, just no interest in watching
15 year olds on 125's).

The other unknown is the games of catchup that all the teams will need
to play each round, as the rules change underneath them. DMG will be
tweaking the knobs every weekend I fear.

It will be interesting each round to watch them tie more and more cinder
blocks, bowling balls, and old railroad ties to Mladin and Spies until
they reach "parity".

But, as a spectator, I will have to just embrace this year, as I fear
this will be the fastest these bikes will ever go. Next year, they're
slowing down, and DMG has no interest in advancing the art. Every year
we see the bikes get faster, lap times go down, tire and suspension
improvements, all of those factor in to reduced lap times. Hell, even GP
is going faster this year, and they lost 190cc over 2 years ago..

Looking on the web today, I found that the lap record at the Daytona 500
was set in '87, before restrictor plates. Post plates, it was set in
'88. That's 20 years ago.

DMGs goal is parity, "close racing", and TV schedules. As they've
repeated over and over, they're not in the motorcycle business. So,
advancing motorcycles isn't there goal. Their goal is to improve
entertainment. Perhaps by adding chairs, breaking tables, and "The Steel
Octagon" will help.

Talking to a colleague, we were comparing tracks and performance. In
Europe, as the cars and bikes got faster, they reworked and redesigned
the tracks to add more run off, more room for vehicles leave the track
and, ideally, decelerate safely.

Here, we build stronger walls, and slow the vehicles down. The only art
being advanced is teams finding ways around the rule book.

Yes, motorsport is bigger in Europe, but it's still an interesting
observation.

None of this matters until '09. I will watch Daytona with interest. It
will be interesting watching DMG convince SpeedTV to run both a 250 and
200 mile race on TV that weekend.

As you say, Tom, it's great drama.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

I toldya, this has been good from the get go and I mean back when they
started firing folks and calling the law. The great part is it doesn't
really matter whether you like, or dislike what's happening, it's
watching how the whole deal unfolds that makes it interesting, sorta
like a racing/BSG thing, or a soap opera, if you will. Anyway, I agree
with most of the above, but would add, the devil is in the details and
until I see a real life rule book I'll hold off trying to form an
opinion. Too many times I've heard one thing only for it to morph a
"little" before it hit print. Though TBH the DSB power/weight thing
sorta' jumped out at me, not sure I'm down with that, but we'll see.
(Do you know someone that will be happy about weighing the riders with
the bikes?;-)
ST has big downside AFAIC, it's kinda long for slow bikes and running 3
classes, not to mention all levels of riders together makes it
extremely confusing, especially when you don't know much about the
bikes. Red Bull? What_ever. Litre class, tell you what, I was kinda'
surprised, everything I'd heard of late was pointing to a Machiavellian
type thing, do it all at once and be done with it, so, maybe MN was
right for once(without his dramatics) and the Nip OEM's did save the
day, err, year, or so. I still see them going to a 2 day weekend, but I
don't see that happening as long as the litres, or ST are around and
"somehow" I get the feeling ST isn't going anywhere. I have some
questions about the maintaining a minimum/maximum participation level
and the rider tickets, 1, 2, or 3. Supposedly a 1 (master) can ride
anywhere, does that mean one guy could ride in every race? So, like I
said I'll keep the wait and see thing going for a while..

The weather looks good in Bamaham, we be gone...

 
I'll predict now that the OEMs will just withdraw. But what that really
means is that Yoshimura-Suzuki will become Yoshimura-Susuki and be
exactly the same team and personnel but maybe move into the warehouse
next door. And they'll still find a way to buy parts from Suzuki-Japan
that are somehow not available to Jordan.

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/Article_Page.aspx?ArticleIDb62&Page=1
BMW. German Superbike racing this year. WSB 2009. Would they want to
race in the USA?

Rolling starts. Hmmm?

So basically 3 sprint races on Sunday. Which ones will Speed show that
evening?

For those not in the UK, perhaps you'd find this weekend's Thruxton BSB
meeting schedule interesting.

Friday all day practice
Saturday all day Practice and qualifying
Sunday Morning Warmup. 08:55
KTM Super Duke 12 laps
BSB race 1 20 laps
R1 Cup 14 laps
Supersport 18 laps
BSB race 2 20 laps
Superstock 1000 15 laps
125GP 14 laps
Superstock 600 14 laps
End of day 18:30

TV on Eurosport 2. Live 13:15 -> 17:15

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"Daytona" Superbike?  Gag.  Talk about arrogant.



Double gag.  This class is all about manufactured competitiveness.  



Gagging once more.  Spec tires and fuel?  More artificially close
racing.  About the only potential positive here is the "Professional
riders" clause but only if it's used to keep the grid sizes and the
lapped backmarkers in check.



I'm really not a big fan of this idea.  If the teams want to use them,
fine.  As a former racer I think I'd prefer not to.  That kind of
distraction can cause accidents on a motorcycle and the consequences
are potentially lethal.  More to the point, I bet they'll soon mandate
that each team meets a minimum quota on the number of conversations
during the race so they can get some air time on TV.


Even worse than I feared.

On the negative side, I think we can say goodbye to Mladin and
probably Spies.  On the positive side perhaps WSBK will become a
desirable move again for the AMA riders and if we're lucky we'll see
guys like EBoz and Hayes competing at the world level.  Heck I'd even
like to see Hayes and Zemke duking it out in WSS.