AMA Pro Roadracing: We're in Kansas, Toto

Quick recap of the season so far:

1. DMG/AMAPR can't find their ass with both hands with a guide.

2. Mat Mladin is still largely invincible

3. Mat Mladin isn't completely invincible.

4. Non Suzukis can win races.

5. The racing isn't horrible, in spite of DMG/AMAPR's best efforts to fuck it up.

6. Al Ludington is very, very sorry that he yelled at Johnny Rock Page and said "fuck" eleventy billion times on Youtube.

This weekend the soap opera reconvenes at a *gasp* new (Sort of, the AMA raced here 1989-91) venue, which is one of the few things that DMG/AMAPR hasn't hopelessly fucked up. Track management has responded well to rider safety suggestions, actually being ahead of schedule by a year. Ok, so this place ain't Laguna Seca, Road America, or even Mid-Ohio. There hasn't been a venue to see the show in the non-coastal west since Pikes Peak bit the dust.

It's true that Mat Mladin is a bazillion points ahead in American Superbike and it's probably going to take an act of some minor deity to keep him from taking another championship. But, you never know -- Mat says he doesn't give a shit anymore and he might fall asleep mid-race. Even if he doesn't, Josh Hayes looks like he has finally gotten his Yamaha the way he likes it.

Daytona Sportbike is a lot closer with but a 10 point gap between Martin Cardenas and Danny Eslick. In Moto-GT... well, who gives a shit about MotoGT.

This commentator is going to something rare and climb up on his soapbox. Forget all about the AMA for a couple days and support the racers. They're what this is all about. If the fans continue to ignore the show, the allegation that motorcycle roadracing in America is becoming little more than glorified club racing will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you live a few hundred miles from the track, show up -- tickets are only $50 for the whole weekend ferchristsakes. If you are active military you get in free. Bring your kids, tickets are only $5 a day. If you can't make it to the track, Speed is showing the races SDD Saturday and Sunday. If the telecast is past your bedtime, tivo it, gramps.

Oh, BTW, bring your Videocam -- you might be able to catch Roger Edmundson with his pants down.

I will work on being fully gruntled by the weekend.

I predict this round will be a big draw. The 'required' autograph session will be packed. It was remakably so for Moto-ST a couple seasons ago. The real deal should be big.

I have to agree. I will be at Laguna Seca to watch the racing and the riders. The atmosphere is way more relaxed than a Motogp weekend. You can actually talk to the racers. Support the racers, they deserve it.

AMA Schedule for 2009: http://www.amaproracing.com/rr/events/

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=37498

Here on the internet we get pretty spooled up about DMG's missteps, but they are bringing us some new faces to root for. David Anthony has been making his mark this season. This vid introduces him and he comes across a good bloke. MM could take a lesson...


Edit: Ooops - I see now that Aussie Dave crashed and broke his leg badly at Mid-O. Seems the team folded since. Probably had to give back that hauler too...

I am glad you mentioned this. When it was Moto-ST, and a quasi-endurance class, I thought this was one of the bright spots in US racing. The Daytona event was something to talk about, the initial win by the BMW twins was exciting and generated a lot of discussion, some name riders were participating, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Now that DMG has taken over AMA roadracing, it's like they took this great idea and tossed it on the trash heap. They saw fit to merge it with all the other classes (rather than keep it as a separate series), and changed the name, adding confusion and causing people to wonder if this was the same class as before. Rather than being the headliner in its own endurance series, it's been relegated to being a diluted support class.

What a wasted opportunity.

I LOVE the idea of Moto-GT, but the execution has been poor.

Endurance racing is fun. The Daytona 200 is a great spectacle. It's great to be able to watch a race that takes a few hours and gives you some time to really get into it.

But with so few competitors and with it basically being a place where old riders seem to go to die, there's not much excitement. I also don't like the horsepower limits. I'd like to see teams pushing the limits of their machines and not held back by horsepower restrictions.

An endurance race with Superbike equipment standards and some top riders would really be something to see (and provide a very different experience to the other sprint racing we see at an AMA weekend).

I think Moto-GT may be like a microcosm of the whole AMA/DMG situation.

As it stands, it's not much to see, but if it can grow and attract better teams and riders and more sponsors, it could be fun.

Endurance racing and excitement are mutually exclusive terms.

I look forward to seeing this at HPT up close and personal as a Corner Marshal. As such I can't speak about the good or bad of how AMA is run. What I can say is that HPT has worked very hard to make this happen and my hope is that we get some people out to watch it in person.

For me, it is all about the riders and doing what I can to make it as safe as I can for them. It's all I can do at this point. That is my job. Someone has to do it!

I got a three day pass from a friend that at the last minute could not go and I made two people very happy. I hope to see more people at the Show...

Unless your a rider. Of course, then we are back to club racing.

You don't like the Daytona 200?

My earliest memories of seeing racing on TV were of the 200, so I guess I've got a spot sort of ingrained in my brain for it.

Since they went to Formula X-Treme, it's never been quite right. We're no longer watching the best, fastest bikes out there and that leaves me with a little bit of a "kissing your sister" feeling when I watch it . . . but I still just get a certain thrill from the event that no other specific races ever seem to match.

And it's always seemed strange to me that they couldn't expand that into a real racing series. . . but now that they've got an actual endurance racing series they still run the 200 as part of a sprint series . . . but not the top sprint class . . . and the whole thing just leaves a feeling of "huh?".

I'm riding down to Topeka on Friday to spend the weekend soaking up some sunshine and take in some racing.

No, it's not MotoGP or WSB. But it's only 3 hours away.

Any of you FFs going?

You didn't ask me but I'll answer: No, I don't like the 200. DIS is a stupid place to hold a motorcycle race generally, and the 200 specifically is usually pretty damn boring with riders just circulating, trying to survive through the pitstops until they can draft for the win on the last lap. The change to 600's and slow Buells certainly hasn't helped the situation. :snooze

Wow- 14 whole posts before we had a negative Buell comment...

You know Eslick could actually win the championship. Can you imagine the kerfuffle that would cause?!!

As someone who has raced at DIS, I have to agree. Crappy place to race motorcycles. Very fast, which means its dangerous and you beat the crap out of your motorcycle pinning it all the way through the oval sections. You also beat the crap out of your bike when you crash on the slippery infield sections...

And Moto-ST? That's a series I'd like to race in, not watch.

Team Hammer promoter practice is underway today at Topeka. Apparently some (namely: Mladin) are not happy with the track. He rode a few laps and parked it. There is talk of Mladin or Team Yosh or additional others not racing this weekend. Discussions are ongoing.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=37526

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