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General SportbikesThis area is made for sportbikes in general. Posts that dont really belong anywhere else besides here. Questions can be answered and addressed to fully understand certain aspects. If your question is Manufacturer specific please post it there.
so that means nothing much has changed, so what is going to happen to USSB? and what about riders, where are they going to find some, from what i have seen all the great riders have left.
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NESBA #19 FORMERLY #73 Resume
As far as riders go, some are already slated to go to Europe - Zemke, Spies, and maybe Hayes. Many have no contract as of yet, because the rules and the series package was only just now released. And others will be farming mangos, oranges and tilapia fish in Brazil - Eric Bostrom. No joke. He's leaving for Brazil on Monday.
Neil Hodgson's crewchief, Dave McGrath is leaving the sport. Miguel Duhamel's long time crewchief, Al Ludington has left Honda to work for AMA Pro Racing as National Technical Director.
The Manufacturers didn't even agree to negotiate the rules with DMG until Roger and the head of American Honda had that meeting at the Indy MotoGP event which was only about a month ago - I think that's actually pretty impressive for everything to have been worked out and finalized between all the parties involved in that short of a time.
I haven't seen the rules, but I don't think what they accomplished in the last month is all that spectacular. On the surface, it appears they basically adopted the original '09 AMA Superbike rules with the addition of spec tires and fuel. Once the rules are officially released it may turn out that I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm far off.
They could've done this back in March and all of the teams could've had all of the remaining time to develop their sponsorship packages, etc. We're now looking at the 1st of November, 2 months after the traditional time for having your package all figured out (budget and the like).
edit: After thinking more about this, I can't get over how stupid this makes AMA Pro Racing look to have wasted all of this time to end up here. Amazing.
__________________
For as dumb as you are, even you will remember this. - Lee Ving/ Fear
Ever feel you've been cheated? - Johnny Rotten
I go Beltway blitzin' on my mad mofo musclebike WFO. Its a true choice, a god-like experience if you will. The thought that I could buy the farm in a spectacular fireball...................well, that gives me a stiffie! Tesco Vee/The Meatmen
Last edited by OldSchlPunk : 10-24-2008 at 08:28 PM.
Was watching SBK the other night, and it was Supersport. The 2 Aussies were commenting on Hayes being there, and they said Zemke will be in Supersport along with Hayes. Ben Spies and Ben Bostrom will be in 1000cc Yamaha? May not be true, just a rumor. But the rumor came from the announcers!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jk750
As far as riders go, some are already slated to go to Europe - Zemke, Spies, and maybe Hayes. Many have no contract as of yet, because the rules and the series package was only just now released. And others will be farming mangos, oranges and tilapia fish in Brazil - Eric Bostrom. No joke. He's leaving for Brazil on Monday.
Following that release, Kawasaki led Honda and Suzuki in yet another AMA Pro Racing revolt...
Kawasaki and the others claim the final rules package is not what they agreed to during the previous round of bargaining with Roger Edmondson. Among the issues are rules requiring use of 17-inch wheels that are no lighter than stock wheels. And the use of stock fuel tanks instead of the reshaped tanks used in the past that lowered center of gravity and increased range. Only tanks with insufficient capacity to complete a 50 mile race can be replaced with modified units. None of the Big 4 Superbikes fall into this category.
1100cc liquid-cooled, four-valve V-Twins will legally race against the top 600s in both the Daytona Sport Bike and Supersport classes.
The newly released rules list as homologated machinery for both classes: Aprilia RSV, BMW HP2 Sport, Buell 1125R, Ducati 848, Honda CBR600RR, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, KTM Super Duke, Suzuki GSX-R600, Triumph Daytona 675, Yamaha YZF-R6.
Should be interesting seeing 1100+cc Buells and Aprilias, and BMWs competing with 600cc bikes with half the torque.
... and Miguel is rumored to be signing with a Buell team that's sponsored by US Army National Guard. Same sponsor as Jordan Motorsports....hmmmmm.
I don't know if I even give a shit anymore...nothing like squandering a huge opportunity! Looks like WSB is going to be interesting, same for MotoGP. Any way to get BSB on TV?
__________________
For as dumb as you are, even you will remember this. - Lee Ving/ Fear
Ever feel you've been cheated? - Johnny Rotten
I go Beltway blitzin' on my mad mofo musclebike WFO. Its a true choice, a god-like experience if you will. The thought that I could buy the farm in a spectacular fireball...................well, that gives me a stiffie! Tesco Vee/The Meatmen
This doesn't look good. I'm sick of this mess, too. Just when it looks like they're going to make it work somehow, they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yamaha is definitely on board with AMA/DMG.
Honda - maybe
Kawasaki - maybe not
Suzuki - seriously, maybe not
Quote:
While there is no official comment as yet, it is known that American Suzuki has told Yoshimura Suzuki that they will not be participating in the Daytona tire test next month, and sources suggest that not racing at all in 2009 is definitely on the table for Suzuki.
Probably buying pre-packaged/fabbed spec'd motorcycles directly from DMG after they put their goodies on them. All you'll be able to do is adjust the suspension and tire pressure, and rearsets.
Sounds incredible, but who knows they way things keep changing. And seriously, who is to know what concessions/offers were really made between the factories and the AMA/DMG. Will we ever know? All this stuff is getting ridiculous.
I hope that for all parties involved, especially the fans, that this mess gets sorted out. Who wants to hear riders/teams/manufacturers whining before/during/after/between every race?!? I know I don't..
'09 is looking better all of the time. What a friggin' mess! I'm sure Suzuki would still be in the game even with this economy if it weren't for the fighting with RE.
In the Soup article, Mel states that he's told everyone they work with, I'm assuming that means tracks like Road America and VIR (which others?) will be needing to find title sponsors for the upcoming year. That ought to be easy...
This news will also put a hit to the advertising slots Suzuki buys to help broadcast the races on Speed (or wherever DMG/AMA get the contract).
Now, multiply that x3 if Honda and Kawasaki wind up pulling out.
I guess Yamaha is going to get a whole bunch of good advertising in the coming year racing against a bunch of privateers. Well, in all fairness, the Jordan team was coming around...but without Suzuki's support, where does that leave them? Unless they do go with the Buells as rumored.
__________________
For as dumb as you are, even you will remember this. - Lee Ving/ Fear
Ever feel you've been cheated? - Johnny Rotten
I go Beltway blitzin' on my mad mofo musclebike WFO. Its a true choice, a god-like experience if you will. The thought that I could buy the farm in a spectacular fireball...................well, that gives me a stiffie! Tesco Vee/The Meatmen
Welp, Looks like Yamaha's new R1 will be a winner Honda is also a title sponsor at a few races, and a few SPEED broadcasts too. If they leave, it's over. well, it's over anyway, but you know what I mean.
Last edited by Shamrock627 : 11-25-2008 at 11:18 PM.
2010 Confirmed Events
March 3 - 5
Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Florida)
March 26 - 28
Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, California)
April 16 - 18
Road Atlanta (Braselton, Georgia)
May 14 - 16
Infineon Raceway (Sonoma, California)
June 4 - 6
Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin)
July 16 - 18
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Lexington, Ohio)
August 13 - 15
Virginia International Raceway (Alton, Virginia)
September 3 - 5
New Jersey Motorsports Park (Millville, New Jersey)
September 24 - 26
Barber Motorsports Park (Birmingham, Alabama)
Also, remember that it has been mentioned in other threads that Honda is officially out for 2010, including no further support for the Corona squad. Hodgson is looking for work back in the UK with a BSB team.
Yamaha is severly curtailing their US racing program for 2010, handing off all responsibility to Graves Motorsports. Yamaha was the most supportive and enthusiastic factory of DMG/AMA's racing program at the start of last season, and arguably the most competitive pre-season team going into the 2010 season.
Suzuki/Yoshimura has drastically cut back their planned efforts for 2010, laying off or retiring several key members of their racing operations.
The dynasty is dead.
Kawasaki's plans are still in question.
Buell. Well, who knows now. Buell may still be campaigning with their orphaned team. Or not.
Aprilia. Again, who knows... Their RSV twin had some decent results in DSB. Will they bother to bring their RSV4 here to Superbike in 2010. Doubtful.
KWS is out of DSB. They did DSB last year just to build a relationship with Aprillia. Aprillia intended all along to run Superbike with the RSV4 but couldn't get it homologated for '09 (unlike Buell getting the 1125RR rammed through for them).
From what I hear, Rossmeyer/RMR is up in the air. Technically they could run the same bikes next year, but Buell was giving them a lot of technical support.
IMO, Bill Syfan and Jim Wardell are sacrificial lambs. While not completely free of error, I don't think either was the source of the problems.
AMA isn't the only place losing factory support. Canadian Superbike is losing also.
__________________
For as dumb as you are, even you will remember this. - Lee Ving/ Fear
Ever feel you've been cheated? - Johnny Rotten
I go Beltway blitzin' on my mad mofo musclebike WFO. Its a true choice, a god-like experience if you will. The thought that I could buy the farm in a spectacular fireball...................well, that gives me a stiffie! Tesco Vee/The Meatmen
Honda is also a title sponsor at a few races, and a few SPEED broadcasts too. If they leave, it's over. well, it's over anyway, but you know what I mean.
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