Huh? Where in my post did I even mention DMG? I was talking about Buell. If DMG creates rules and Buell can race under those rules and develop bikes, what are they supposed to do? Say: "No thanks, we'd rather not race." Have you read any of my many posts in which I've specifically said that I hoped DMG would take the 1125R out of Sportbike? If you want to rant against DMG, go ahead, but don't use a post that doesn't even mention DMG as a justification to vent your unrelated frustration.
If you are DMG and know going in that RE's involvement in the series will likely cause American Honda to drop out, you probably need to muster up a few new brands quick. It's a good thing they did too. With Kawasaki dummed down, Honda all but gone, and Suzuki going with private teams, 2010 could be mighty thin without Buell and Aprilia. RE made a lot of concessions this weekend. They announced they are dropping rolling starts for starting a race, while keeping rolling re-starts after red flags. They also announced several communications initiatives. These will be committees put together among constituants to address things from track safety to technical issues. They stated they would only make a few class refinements, which allows OEM's plenty of time to decide about 2010. It sounds to me like they are responding to their many critics quite well. I must say, I am surprised they are keeping the Buell 1126 in Sportbike, but maybe they won't be by the time the season starts. Clearly, Buell wants to race Superbike and they proved they can be competitive at NJMP. It seems counter productive for them to continue in the handicap class. If they were going to take the Buell out of Sportbike, they'd have to wait until after the awards banquet anyway. There could be three really strong Buell teams next season; Erik Buell Racing, Richie Morris Racing, and Latus H-D. I bet all of them will be in Superbike and have top riders. There might even be another team on the make too. I figure that constitutes at least six paid seats capable of running near the front. Not a bad thing at all under the circumstances.
It isn't. For the purposes of homologation in the DMG Playground, there is no such thing as a 1125RR. It's a single-R, says DMG, except that it's not because an R with the RR's mods would not be legal, says DMG. Clear now?
How many times in the past 10 years have Ducati, Honda, Suzuki etc. etc. etc. tried to twist and form the rules to give them the best advantage? How many times have Ducati or Honda threatened or actually followed through with "taking their ball and going home" if the rules didn't go their way? Yeah. Motorcycle racers are way above trying to get the best advantage for their particular situation.
You wrote approvingly of Buell taking baby steps. Those baby steps are made possible by DMG's pandering "rulemaking." The two are as related as could possibly be. If Buell was the straight-up competitor you allege them to be, they'd have nothing to do with the Sportbike baby-step-DMG-red-carpet class and concentrate from Day One on Superbike, where their bike (or one of them, anyway, the R) is clearly legal. If DMG or Buell could ever be bothered to share with us what makes an RR an RR, there might be reason to cut them some slack with respect to Superbike, but until they do . . .
When did Ducati or Suzuki or Honda seek to obtain a 2X displacement advantage over their competitors? When did Ducati seek to race its 1098 or 1198 against GSXR600's? You may remember it wasn't long ago that the AMA wouldn't let Ducati race its 748 twin against the Japanese 600's. But for Buell, hey, let Daddy see those wee little baby steps . . . The difference, of course, is that Honda and Suzuki are major backers of the sport at all levels. Their involvement is meaningful to a whole lot of people at a whole lot of levels. Buell is not at that level and won't get there until they behave like racers rather than a charity case.
??? From buell.com "News" section when the 1125RR was introduced, http://www.buell.com/en_us/experience/news/detail.asp?news_id=1459 The Buell 1125RR features a modified Helicon 1125cc (103mm bore x 67.5mm stroke) liquid-cooled 72-degree V-Twin engine. Power increases come from components including a larger airbox and intake manifold, revised valves and camshafts, a higher compression ratio, titanium exhaust system and other weight-reduced components. The 1125RR chassis is the standard 1125R design with fuel-in-the-frame, plus a billet axle adjustment system and chain-drive to allow gearing changes. Suspension travel is managed by fully adjustable units, with a Showa 43mm front fork and a remote-reservoir rear shock. A ZTL2 (Zero Torsional Load) eight-piston front caliper is mated with a modified front rotor. Buell 1125RR features: 1125cc (68.7 cid) Helicon Powertrain: 4.055 inch (103 mm) bore and 2.658 inch (67.5mm) stroke Dual 61mm down-draft fuel-injection throttle bodies Titanium exhaust header and mass-centralized muffler 6-Spoke cast magnesium racing wheels Front: 3.5 inch (88.9mm) x 17 inch (431.8mm) Rear: 6 inch (152.4mm) x 17 inch (431.8mm) Buell ZTL2 reversed rotor front brake with eight-piston Nissin caliper 43mm Showa fully-adjustable inverted forks Showa fully-adjustable rear shock with remote reservoir Cast-aluminum swingarm machined with billet axle adjustment system Center position wheelbase 55.5 inches (1410 mm)
HOW many CCs??? It's not like DAYTONA motorsports group has any inclination to play favorites with Harley Davidson~ Can't imagine why they're interested in helping out an individual brand. Couldn't possibly have an effect on the local economy or their bottom line now, could it??? If you're a racing fan and you view this as anything other than a bad joke, you're blind.
Here is the parts kit on the 1125r riden by Barney http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/77/4022/Motorcycle-Article/RMR-Buell-1125R-Daytona-SportBike-Review.aspx I thought I saw an article on the RR, but can't remember. Seems like the motor is uprated over the Barnes race conversion above and I think the suspension is too. It must have more power, less weight and better handles because yesterday at NJMP, Eslick ran a best lap of 1:24.6 with his R to Cory West's 1:21.8 on the RR. Barney ran a best of 1:26.7 to Knapp's 1:22.1. That's too big a spread to be a attributable to a little refining.
Buell has been taking baby steps for the past 10 years and I don't, for one moment, wish they had done the Harley route of jumping in at the top level. Buell's racing program is much more solid than Harley's VR program ever was because they've been offering contingency money and support (in the form of Henry Duga and, more recently Dave McGrath) to anyone anywhere who wants to race a Buell. They don't have a factory program. "Buell" doesn't race anywhere, but when the DMG rules made it possible for Richie Morris to move from Moto-ST to AMA, he jumped at the opportunity and Buell supported him and learned from his efforts. I have been a much bigger fan and supporter of Shawn Higbee than I have been of RMR, because Shawn has been racing in Superbike and I would have liked to see RMR jump into Superbike, but the simple fact is he wouldn't have been on many (if any) podiums and Geico wouldn't have written him a big check if their lizard was less likely to be seen. If/when Buell fields an actual factory team, you can bet it will be in Superbike. It looks like we may see something like that next year with the 1125RR and, from that perspective, they will be "concetrating from day one on Superbike". And while we're on the subject of the 1125RR, here's a friendly little bet/prediction: I'm going to predict that you will be able to buy a street version of the 1125RR. And I'm further going to predict that, at the point the street version is available the race version will have raced fewer AMA Superbike races than the S1000RR raced WSBK races before it was available. I suspect that the 1125RR has some valve and piston work compared to the stock 1125R. The valve work is probably legal under Superbike rules, but lighter pistons and rods wouldn't be. . . . but we're not talking about anything that couldn't be incorporated relatively easily onto a street bike, so why in the world wouldn't they? I suspect the only reason we haven't seen it yet is they want to spend some time during the off-season analyzing the results and finalizing the design. My guess is we'll see the street 1125RR by next year.
Let's break it down. 1. Buell enters 1125R in the baby-step Sportbike class. 2. Sometime later, Erik Buell approaches Roger E. at DMG, says he wants to be in the Superbike class and that he has a number of race kit parts for the Superbike-homologated 1125R that he wants to be added to DMG’s Approved Equipment List. 3. Roger E. says no, he can’t approve them. He never said, nor has Buell ever said, why he couldn’t approve the parts. But in truth, based on the press release you helpfully provided, it isn’t difficult to surmise why the request was rejected. Items like the larger airbox and intake manifold, to name but two, are clearly and explicitly prohibited in the 2009 rulebook. 4. But wait! I can’t approve the additional parts for the 1125R, says Roger E., but I can approve a whole new bike! Mr. Buell is now confused. A whole new bike—call it the 1125RR (genius!)—isn’t legal for the class either, he thinks. It says so right in the rulebook! Not to worry, my friend, Roger E. says, it’s my rulebook, I can ignore it when and as I wish—call it “making a competition adjustment”—and anyway, we’ll claim the RR is already homologated as the R. 5. Mr. Buell is really confused now. But didn’t you say my kit parts were not legal on the R, and now you are going to homologate my new RR with those parts as the same old R? 6. Baby steps, Erik, baby steps, says Roger E.
That pretty much is the way it went, right? I'm OK with it if it gets 6 more paid seats on the grid. Ducati has something similar going with the Foremost bikes. Corse built them and shipped them over. Nobody is whining about that.
Who's building the bikes isn't the issue. It's what they are building that is the issue. Seriously: Do Pegram's bikes include items explicitly prohibited in the rulebook? And for the record, I welcome the Buells to the Superbike grid. I just wish they'd be a little more legit about it. And it may be in a sideways way that they are suffering from DMG's bumbling incompetence just as so many others are.
Is this due to his run in with Ludington a while back (and the resulting video of the altercation) or for whatever it was happened between him and Pegram over the weekend? http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/e/n090906e.htm I agree he is really too slow and in the way for the most part out there but it would kinda be complete bullshit for him to get suspended after putting it out there that Ludington was threatening him the way he was. Or was it due to whatever it was happened between him and Pegram (which I am not sure what it is other than JRP claimed Larry tried to take him out which sounds like bull). http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/e/n090906a.htm
It's due to him being a complete wanker. His incident with Pegram--Page chopped the throttle immediately after the checkered, nearly taking out Pegram who was coming fast from behind--was merely the latest in a series of assholery. There was a lot more to the Page/Ludington affair too, like Page parking on pit-lane mid-race to wait for a chance to go back out and get some tv-time with the leaders and then baiting Ludington into his (obviously inappropriate) response on-camera. Good riddance.
JRP is a JOKE...needs to go back to club racing.. oh has ANYONE seen his reality show he was pushing for the last couple yrs??
I agree that Johnny Fucking Page is a cartoon. Still, he has learned to ride at a pace well ahead of a few other back markers and well ahead of most of the shit heads that dominated the last 15 bikes in previous years. Just go check his lap times. They tell a different story. Insiders don't like him because he is an obvious contrivance, and JRP doesn't care what they think. In my opinion that Ludington shit head is worse. He should have been fired on the week that video was posted. He has zero judgement and he's bad for business. In any other business, he wouldn't be allowed to manage a mail room. He's your classic bad boss. Except he's really not anybodies boss now. He's DMG's principal representative to the paddock! Suspending JRP now is a bad call. Stupid, actually. Why would RE stoop to such crap. It will never fly and I hope JRP makes them pay dearly. Hubris is an expensive trait.
