During the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series event May 13-15 at VIRginia International Raceway, there were several instances of riders “touring” on track. Touring is defined by the MotoAmerica AMA/FIMNA rulebook as riders riding slowly on the racetrack and not attempting to produce a fast lap time.
Most of the time at VIR the instances of touring were riders looking for other, faster riders to tow them to a faster lap time than they could do on their own, but the most graphic and potentially dangerous instance was when Josh Herrin and Claudio Corti were riding slowly on the track after completing their Superpole laps and they accidentally caused Josh Hayes to run off track while he was at full speed on his Superpole lap.
Several riders, including Hayes, complained about the unsafe practice of touring at VIR, but no action was taken by officials until they arrived at Road America for this coming weekend’s Honda Superbike Showdown of Wisconsin.
While addressing a group during the entrant’s meeting Thursday evening at Road America, Race Director Stuart Higgs said: “In the Superbike class and the Superstock [1000] class we obviously had some high-profile discussion and dispute with riders’ conduct during some of the qualifying practices. We will be proposing to have an informal meeting with some riders immediately after Superbike practice tomorrow [Friday, June 3]. We will formally write to the teams concerned. But just a general remark for all classes, just watch the cruising.
“Just respect other people. If you just done a fast lap keep to a reasonable race pace, not just cruising around, have good track position, be aware of where you’re going to be. There are a few sections here with blind elevations. No one wants to see a lap ruined.
“We have a provision for taking sanction against touring and unsafe and unfair maneuvers. So just as a general principle, please tell all your riders just respect everyone else on the track out there. If someone has a hot lap that’s ruined by someone cruising, especially in Superbike with the super-soft qualifying tires, it’s going to create a lot of aggravation.
“There’s nothing to stop someone from having a tow, but the sequence of events leading up to it where people are going at 50% race pace just to try to get the tow is the thing that we have the issue with.
“We’re going to be watching this more and more this weekend. We have much more surveillance with CCTV and the broadcast cameras, but sector times will not lie. So we can tell quite simply if someone is cruising at a percentage above what is considered reasonable then we will consider that as touring and we will start taking lap times away, which will have an effect on grid position. So just help us and help everyone else by not doing it in the first place.”