Daytona Motorsports Group - Planning To Destroy AMA Roadracing?

When the AMA selected the Daytona Motorsports Group to manage their professional racing series, it seemed like a reasonable thing. DMG would be in charge of racing and promotion, and the AMA could focus on the casual rider.

At least, it has seemed reasonable, until recently. Things changed when the DMG (motto: "We Make Cool Things Suck!") decided to make wholesale changes to the AMA road racing class structure that seem utterly ridiculous. Roger Edmundson tried to defend their decisions but ended up showing that he really knows nothing about AMA road racing at all; just read the link above and notice some of the boneheaded things he says. Roger, have you ever even seen an AMA street race?

One big problem I see with this is that it will completely separate AMA riders from the world series, namely World Superbike and MotoGP. How can we expect North American riders to be picked up for 1000cc World Superbikes and 800cc MotoGP prototype bikes if the premier class becomes a dumbed-down restricted-ability 600cc class?

Hey Roger. I have another idea. While you're at it, why not put restrictor plates on all of the motorcycle carburetors? We could drop the horsepower down to lower than what you can buy in the showroom, literally starving those engines for air and fuel! Lets weigh the riders with their bikes, so the fit riders don't have any advantage over the fat ones who look like, say, Tony Stewart! Then, instead of having them run on all of these "dangerous" street circuits, lets have them ride around and around in circles on oval tracks! Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun to watch.

Comparing Lap Times at MMSP

I've wondered for a while what the difference is between World Superbike bikes and AMA Superbike bikes. Are the World Superbike bikes faster, and by how much? Or is it mostly the riders?

Now that they've come to Miller Motorsports Park this year, I at least have some anecdotal evidence. AMA Superbike ran the entire course this year, instead of the outer course only, which the World Superbike guys ran. So I went back to last year's AMA data for Miller Motorsports Park to get my data.

In 2007, the top AMA Superbike Qualifying time was by Ben Spies, at 1:49.405. This year, the top World Superbike Qualifying time was by Carlos Checa at 1:48:193, putting Checa just about 1.2 seconds faster than last year's top qualifier.

Even more interesting is to take an average of the top 10. In last year's AMA Superbike qualifying, the average time of the top 10 qualifiers was 1:50.271. This year, the average time of the top 10 World Superbike qualifiers was 1:49.007, again about 1.2 seconds faster.

Another interesting comparison was to look at the slowest qualifying times. This year in World Superbike, the slowest qualifier qualified 29th at 1:52.601. Last year's 29th-place AMA Superbike qualifier logged a time of 1:58.232.

Until Ben Spies or Mat Mladin race World Superbike, we'll never know for sure how they compare to the likes of Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser, Carlos Checa, Nori Haga, and the other World Superbike folk. Mat Mladin, being from Australia, surely could have gone on to race World Superbike by now if he wished - he's won six AMA Superbike titles after all. Methinks he enjoys cherrypicking in AMA Superbike and so I won't expect him to move up soon. The rumor is that Spies will be moving on to MotoGP next year, not World Superbike. Personally, I'd sure like to see at least one good US rider in World Superbike, so we can find out if the World Superbike riders are really that much better, or is it just that the bikes are that much quicker.

Personally, I think the bikes are probably about one second faster. I have a very high opinion of World Superbike rider abilities. This especially shows up in the slower riders, as there was not nearly so much dropoff in times toward the end, which supports my other hypothesis, which is that World Superbike riders are generally more evenly-matched across the board.


UPDATE:
Freddy Spencer explained a bit in the World Superbike broadcast that the differences between the bikes are subtle; the main thing he mentioned was that World Superbike bikes are allowed to run more aggressive camshafts and timings than AMA Superbike bikes. I suppose that could explain about a second per lap advantage on a 3 mile circuit. But I'm guessing that, overall, World Superbike riders are much better across the board than in the AMA.

Two big questions though. First, why is it that the factory Rockstar Makita Suzuki team so completely dominates AMA Superbike (I don't think they've even lost a race in almost two years) but the bikes in World Superbike are much more evenly matched? And second, could Carlos Checa or Troy Bayliss win in AMA Superbike on a brand other than Suzuki?

AMA Superbike at MMP - Hopefully the First of Many

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the AMA Superbike event at the brand-new Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. AWESOME.

The new track at MMP is sweet. Rave reviews were given by pretty much everyone who was asked. The fast, wide track, extensive runoff areas, and amenities make it the new standard by which American road courses will be judged. Hey, don't just take my word for it. I think it was Jake Zemke who said, "It is nice to finally have a world-class road racing facility in the United States." Most comparisons I heard were not to other road courses in America, but to Formula One courses around the world, which represent the cream of the crop when it comes to racing venues.

Congratulations, Larry Miller, on creating an awesome racing venue. Hopefully you can get the support you deserve to keep the events coming.

As for the event itself, well, the AMA Superbike event was the first ever sanctioned race at the new MMP, and in one of the best races of the year, Ben Spies managed to pull out yet another victory over Mat Mladin and Ben Bostrom. It was SUH-WEET.

Of course, visiting the vendor area is part of the appeal of these events, and this one was no exception. I was surprised at how small the vendor area was, but I expect that it will be bigger next year.

Here's some pictures:


Here's a picture of me standing next to a sweet MV Agusta. Oh, yeah. Italian motorcycles.



Here's a brand-new Triumph Daytona 675. Cycle World is raving about this bike, calling it the best middleweight sportbike available today. Oh, yeah. British motorcycles.



Here's a picture of me standing behind Ben Bostrom's racing Ducati, or at least a replica of it. Oh, yeah. Italian motorcycles again.



Finally - the start of the AMA Superbike race. Yes, these people really are insane. They are taking that corner at, oh, let's say 90 mph.