A few things from the Soup interview:
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2008/Jun/080605rtk.htm
Q: How would you describe your relationship with HRC?
A: Without HRC, it wouldn't be possible to win races what we are doing
now. We have a lot of freedom on the technical side of things, to do the
things that we believe is best. Of course we have to always send a lot
of information over why we are doing things, and they follow us closely.
But we have almost full freedom on how to do things around in the garage.
Q: Can you talk about your... could we call it a collaboration with the
American Honda Superbike team?
A: Oh, for sure. Well, we already have, since 2004 Laguna Seca, every
now and then contact about certain issues which we both find on the
bike. And this season, all of a sudden there was a lot more sharing of
information going on, for us coming here. We really need a lot of their
help, which they fully did. They opened all the books for us, and also
big credits for them for the result we had here. I'm not saying that
without them it wouldn't have been possible, but they make our life a
lot easier. Because from day one, we were able to do constant fast lap
times with Carlos. In setup, the bikes we could run with a soft front,
and that's been the key around here. So that was a big, big help for us.
Also, we had a meeting here with all of their engineers and my
engineers, so there's some direct contact now between the departments
within the teams. And yeah, there will be - we will share some
technology, test some stuff from them, they will test some stuff from
us. So it's a good bunch of people, that they have working there.
Q: I wonder if you might have an opinion about the rule changes here in
America, or what you know of them? Can you talk about it at all?
A: Well, I heard a little bit about it.
Q: Supposedly, someone said that you found the rules "interesting." I
don't know if it's true or not.
A: No. I find them interesting because they are very, very weird. I find
it interesting because I would like to know if somebody can explain me,
I will be very interested to hear. Because I doubt that somebody can
explain this. It's killing the racing. And if they want a series which
is close together, I think a mono tire rule could do a lot in that. But
it's not, to start the series, what they want. You must not forget that
motorcycle racing is not car racing. It's something different.
On that last matter, I noticed the AMA schedule for Road America this
weekend. Today, SB gets a 50-minute practice this morning, 40 minutes of
qualifying this afternoon, then 25 minutes of qualifying tomorrow
morning, and they go racing at 1:40. FX gets the same today, a 20-minute
practice tomorrow and then go racing right after SB. [Is the new "AMA"
promoting FX as the new premier class, as someone inaccuraT3ely sT3ated
afT3er Laguna lasT3 fall?!] Then at 3:30 tomorrow MotoST goes off for
three hours, after two hours of practice at the end of the day today and
a warmup tomorrow morning (they apparently don't qualify).
For the SS classes, they get 50 minutes of practice today, 20 minutes of
practice and 20 minutes of qualifying tomorrow (no split Q sessions),
30-minute warmups on Sunday morning and they go racing. SB also gets a
30-minute warmup Sunday. And the Red Bull rookies get shoved in there
somewhere as well.
Hmm...
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