Honda withdraws from US professional motorcycle racing

[oddlycalm]

Regrettably the current AMA/DMG racing environment does not align with our company goals.Honda withdraws (http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/557/4632/Motorcycle-Article/Honda-Withdrawals-from-AMA-Superbike-Racing.aspx)

Daytona Motorsport Group (the Frances) don't seem to realize who the audience is for motorcycle road racing. They should take their rolling starts, special classes and special rules for 'murican iron and the rest of their Daytona hilljack nosepicker colon blow and head back to the land of stooopid. No doubt they will have a field of 43 privateers but the series that spawned a gaggle world champions will be gone.

oc

[Napoleon]

The AMA is run by the Frances?

[High Sided]

The AMA is run by the Frances?


Yep, Nascar bought the road racing AMA at the end of last season.

mat mladin said F@#c it as well. even chose not to race on a course he considered to dangerous.
http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2009/08/mat-mladin-retires-from-ama-pr.html

[extramundane]

In Roger We Trust. :gomer:

[Methanolandbrats]

F'n two-wheeled Grand Am. I hope everybody quits.

[High Sided]

^^^
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
FIM Rocks
Go Ben Spies!!!

[Napoleon]

Yep, Nascar bought the road racing AMA at the end of last season.

No wonder I missed that. I haven't been paying as much attention to racing the last couple of years.

Well scrach going to an AMA race of my list of things to do.

[oddlycalm]

^^^
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
FIM Rocks
Go Ben Spies!!!

The sad thing is that the AMA series has produced roughly half of all the FIM world champions going back to the late 1970's but that's all going to end. Institutionalized mediocrity and no concern for the safety of the riders is what the future looks like. :thumdown: No more Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Randy Mamola, Ben Spies, etc., etc. etc.

oc

[Methanolandbrats]

With stock cars, The Daytona 24 Hour and bikes down the tubes, is there anything left for the Frances to **** up?

[Duroc]

Totally mind-boggling. Driving off a deep pockets manufacturer in this economy is crazy. My thoughts are DMG overpaid in pre-meltdown dollars. Upside down, desperate and dumb is a bad mix.

They announced a Sportster spec division. Not to placate H-D, who have never spent much on racing. They're banking on the stumpf^&kers who show up for Bike Week and Sturgis as their core revenue source. :saywhat: Yeah.....that's the ticket....

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

[oddlycalm]

Totally mind-boggling. Driving off a deep pockets manufacturer in this economy is crazy. My thoughts are DMG overpaid in pre-meltdown dollars. Upside down, desperate and dumb is a bad mix.

They announced a Sportster spec division. Not to placate H-D, who have never spent much on racing. They're banking on the stumpf^&kers who show up for Bike Week and Sturgis as their core revenue source. :saywhat: Yeah.....that's the ticket....

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

It really is unbelievable as we gaze at the smoking crater of what was. The fact that they don't care an iota about rider safety is criminal. It takes us back to the 1970's or before. Topeka was appalling with multiple concrete walls and a 10ft. deep ditch. WTF? :irked:

If they had bothered to discover who the audience was they would have known the average fans are much more knowledgeable. Trying to dumb things down and get rid of the big money factory bikes is that worst possible decision they could have made. That's why people show up.

Your right, a Sportster class was tried before and it was just a bog slow support series. The Hardly-Dangerous crowd doesn't give a rip about motorcycle road racing and never has. I've been to bike week and Sturgis on multiple occasions and anyone on a sport bike, even a Buell, stands out like a sore like a preacher at a hooker convention. You might have seen me, I was the guy with the black T shirt and beard on a Harley....:gomer:

oc

[NismoZ]

Gosh, I wish we could have seen THIS one coming!:shakehead (maybe Honda needs to concentrate more resources on their IndyCar effort!:rofl:)

[stroker]

From what I hear Kawasaki isn't far behind.

[NismoZ]

Followed shortly thereafter by insignificance.

[Indy]

Followed shortly thereafter by insignificance.

Welcome to American racing.

[oddlycalm]

What makes me saddest about this is that all the effort it took to make US motorcycle road racing competitive internationally is being dismantled in short order. Kenny Roberts, and the US world champions that followed him, didn't just emerge out of the ether fully formed, it took 15yrs of concerted effort during the 60's and 70's from a lot of talented people to take AMA professional road racing from something the foot draggers (flat trackers) tried a couple times a year to a successful series that produced world champions.

As in so many other areas the US seems determined to pursue 3rd world status rather than excellence.

oc

[NismoZ]

I'm proud to say my "status" in life allowed me to be around at the beginning of that changeover toward international recognition. Heck, all they needed was real road courses to race on! AMA National, Meadowdale, 1965...Dick Mann (with his foot in a cast!) Gary Nixon, Cal Rayborn, Bart Markel, George Roeder. I had no idea who/what I was looking at but even I noticed some guys still put their foot down even on very fast turns, but some of the YOUNG guys, Chris Draayer, just leaned in (knee tucked in though) and you could see the future!

[cameraman]

Jeebus, how old are you anyway?
You sound like my father (91)...

[oddlycalm]

Jeebus, how old are you anyway?
You sound like my father (91)...

Actually, this is exactly what anyone now in their mid-50's or older that went to road races in the US as a kid saw. Compared to what we saw at the Canadian GP it was embarrassing, but it only took a decade for AMA road racing to transform itself into a world class series and in 1978 Kenny Roberts won the first of three consecutive FIM 500cc world titles. US riders dominated the world 500cc for the next 20yrs and have won roughly half the 500cc & MotoGP titles since that first one in 1978. Seeing it being dumbed down by the Frances is like being gutted.

BTW, one of the great lesser known stories in motorcycle road racing is Erv Kanemoto (http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp?id=206) who has been in it almost as long as I've been watching.

oc

[oddlycalm]

Dick Mann (with his foot in a cast!) Gary Nixon, Cal Rayborn, Bart Markel, George Roeder. I had no idea who/what I was looking at but even I noticed some guys still put their foot down even on very fast turns, but some of the YOUNG guys, Chris Draayer, just leaned in (knee tucked in though) and you could see the future!
The shame of it was that Mann, Roeder, Markel, Rayborn and Nixon had as much ability as anyone in the world but they hadn't been exposed to proper road racing technique until later in their careers. Once they were they got with the program they were blindingly fast but too old to make the jump to Europe. Cal Rayborn in particular became an incredible road racer. He was so smooth it made him look slow and I remember being shocked that he set fast lap.

oc

[cameraman]

Actually, this is exactly what anyone now in their mid-50's or older that went to road races in the US as a kid saw.
oc

True but I read it as Nizmo considering Chris Draayer to be young as he watched him race in 1965, as though he was ~40 in 1965...

[NismoZ]

NINETY ONE! Give me a frikkin' break. I still run Navy Seal training times, and when I saw Draayer that weekend I remember thinking how amazing it was watching him ride like that and at the SAME AGE I was kick-starting an ALLSTATE 250!:rofl: (I told everybody it was a Puch....I think it actually was!)...I meant Draayer was young compared to Nixon, Rayborn, et al.

[NismoZ]

HEY! Ben Spies to Moto GP next year with Tech 3 Yamaha. Way to go.:cool: (one of the last of the set?:()

[cameraman]

NINETY ONE! Give me a frikkin' break.

It's hard to tell on vBulletin.

[oddlycalm]

True but I read it as Nizmo considering Chris Draayer to be young as he watched him race in 1965, as though he was ~40 in 1965...

Indeed, hard to tell on a text based forum. I took it to mean young relative the other riders because I've read his posts long enough to know he's around the same age I am.

oc

[oddlycalm]

HEY! Ben Spies to Moto GP next year with Tech 3 Yamaha. Way to go.:cool: (one of the last of the set?:()

Ben Spies to MotoGP (http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Oct/091001a.htm)


Herve Poncharal at Tech 3 is showing his support by allowing me to come on board with my Crew Chief Tom Houseworth and Gregory Wood, my mechanic, who have both been with me since AMA days.

This kind of points back to the Erv Kanemoto story I posted a link to. The AMA series has not only produced some world class riders but also some world class tuners and race engineers that have moved up as well. Unlike US drivers that arrive in Europe like fish out of water many US riders have arrived with their own crew. That continuity is no small thing and seeing Spies contesting the SBK championship in his first year is unlikely to have happend without it.

You're right, Spies and his crew are probably the last set to move up from the AMA series. The Frances could care less, they just want to control it.

oc

[NismoZ]

And Ben is likely to race in the season final at Valencia! :cool:again.:thumbup:

[Napoleon]

The Hardly-Dangerous crowd doesn't give a rip about motorcycle road racing and never has. I've been to bike week and Sturgis on multiple occasions and anyone on a sport bike, even a Buell, stands out like a sore like a preacher at a hooker convention.

Especially since Harley just axed the entire Buell division (http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/harley-davidson-to-discontinue-buell-sport-bikes/?hpw)

[oddlycalm]

Especially since Harley just axed the entire Buell division (http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/harley-davidson-to-discontinue-buell-sport-bikes/?hpw)
Exactly right. Killing Buell and selling MV Augusta effectively removes H-D from the road racing scene. This is the final nail in the coffin for the Daytona twerps 'murican iron revival strategy, not that it had any legs to begin with.


oc

[emjaya]

Especially since Harley just axed the entire Buell division (http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/harley-davidson-to-discontinue-buell-sport-bikes/?hpw)

Buell to buy it back? (http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-news/chances-to-save-buell-motorcycles-emerge-ar80525.html)?

[stroker]

Exactly right. Killing Buell and selling MV Augusta effectively removes H-D from the road racing scene.
oc

I think I'd argue that HD hasn't been involved in roadracing since Cal Rayborn died...

[oddlycalm]

I think I'd argue that HD hasn't been involved in roadracing since Cal Rayborn died...
Can't really argue with that, though they were trying to get back recently. Sad day when we lost Calvin. :(

oc

[NismoZ]

Finally saw the Valencia replay. Commentators were full of praise for Spies. They showed a LOT of Ben on screen, esp. his passes from 10th to 7th in the closing laps. Looks good going into next season. Edwards 4th, Hayden 5th.:thumbup:

[oddlycalm]

Finally saw the Valencia replay. Commentators were full of praise for Spies. They showed a LOT of Ben on screen, esp. his passes from 10th to 7th in the closing laps. Looks good going into next season. Edwards 4th, Hayden 5th.:thumbup:

Yeah, with no action at the front he got a lot of air time. Good race for him. :thumbup: I've always been impressed with Ben's riding but I don't think I'd have predicted he'd have this kind of a season his first year in Europe. Great way to end it.

oc

[stroker]

Kawasaki's gone from AMA next year:

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-kawasaki-officially-out-too/

"Yamaha vs Suzuki next year, Honda and Kaw at home. And one Ducati. A thin field racing for peanuts in front of empty grandstands and not shown on TV.
Nice vision of the future."

[NismoZ]

Question. Is this all going according to plan? Is this what the AMA actually wants?

[extramundane]

In Roger We Trust done (http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-edmondson-to-leave-ama-pro-racing/).


Edmondson, a pioneer in motorcycle racing and one of the original Managing Members of the AMA Pro Racing organization, will be leaving to deal with some unforeseen health issues that necessitate his full attention.

I suppose having one's head buried up one's posterior qualifies as a health issue.

[oddlycalm]

...DMG only bought the Superbke series with an intent to destroy it, to silence those pesky riders, drive away the Japanese factories, to turn the Daytona 200 into some kind of club race, and position the series for a glorious return to Loudon.

Unfinished business (http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091230z.htm)

An interesting perspective on Roger Edmondson, DMG and the AMA senior management group that sold us out.

Whatever, they managed to do the same amount of damage as TG's 1996 split in 12 fewer years. :irked:

oc

[SurfaceUnits]

Roger Lee is off to ride a Kawasaki in world superbikes