FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Question: Does DMG stand for “Dopey Moronic Goobers?” The more I work at digesting DMG’s plans for motorcycle road racing, the more upset my stomach becomes. I’ve been pondering this for several weeks now and have re-written this letter 50 times. It’s too long and I apologize for that. I didn’t think things could get any worse. I fear, however, that DMG’s changes WILL make things worse, at least from my perspective. Here’s why: This year I drive 1200 miles (to Mid-Ohio & back) and get 4 days of entertainment. Next year I’ll drive 1200 miles and get 2 or maybe 2 1/2 days of entertainment? (Not much BANG for the buck there, eh?) This year I get to see two purse-paying, premier Superbike races with the most awesome bikes and the best riders, some being former World Champions from other countries. Next year the featured class will be 600cc inline fours and the equivalent in 2 or three cylinders? (Oh boy, oh wow.) This year it’s all sprint races; easy to follow, exciting and they’re over in 45 minutes or less. Next year I get an endurance race? (They gotta be kidding!) This year I get practice, qualifying and 5 important races with big name stars in each race. Next year I get 3 low horsepower sprint races, an endurance race (ZZZZZZ) and a “support” class yet to be determined? (This is an improvement?) Bottom line is, I may decide it’s not worth my while to drive 1200 miles, spend $200 in fuel, $1000+ in motels, food and tickets to see 3 races I MIGHT care about over a 2 or 2 1/2 day event. Here’s what I want: I want to go to the track Thursday and hang out while everything gets set up. I want to watch Chris Ulrich give rides to local media people. I want a FULL day Friday of practice and qualifying. I want a FULL day Saturday and Sunday of practice, qualifying and sprint races. I want the featured class to be SUPERBIKE. Repeat: SUPERBIKE! I DON’T want an endurance race. Another question: How are young American racers going to prepare themselves for the world stage of World Superbike and MotoGP by racing 130hp 600cc inline fours? Or BMW twins? Or Triumph triples? Just because many tracks in this country are dangerous for modern Superbikes doesn’t make it right to degrade the premier class to smaller, lower horsepower bikes. That’s just dopey moronic thinking! That’s going BACKWARDS, not forwards. I believe these DMG goobers are on the wrong track. De-railed might be the proper term. I could be wrong but I predict attendance will plummet like truck sales at DMG events next year. Let’s get real. In these days of financial hardship, we spectators need MORE bang for our buck, not LESS! If we get less, we’re probably not gonna come! It would seem that the DMG plan gives us LESS next year, and that makes me very, very unhappy. Ed Siccardi Jr. Eyeball Engineering Downingtown, Pennsylvania FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I am merely a fan, but at one time I hoped to field a competitive racing team in AMA Pro Racing. After a few years in club racing, I decided the pursuit was folly because the game seemed rigged by the four OEM manufacturers and there is no money in the sport below an OEM contract. There aren’t even any meaningful purses. To me that suggests the sport simply doesn’t have much value. From that perspective, it’s hard to even call it professional. I can understand why the North American marketing divisions of the four OEM’s are upset. They have invested decades cornering the sport for their private benefit by making it a low-cost marketing device. When American Suzuki cried poor as they did recently, I had to laugh. Suzuki is a $30 billion corporation! Talk about disingenuous”¦their entire motorcycle racing budget in North America is a fraction of what it would cost to run a modest television ad campaign. Now DMG comes along looking to raise the stakes and spread the fruits across a much broader front. It must seem like a good time to retire for those OEM guys. They should, too. I am very excited about the prospects. While DMG is shaky in the press box, they are crystal clear that they are looking to bring significant money into the sport; enough money to insure that competing teams are solidly financed before their haulers ever roll from their shops. Then they want their promoters and track owners rewarded for the risk capital they deploy to put on their shows. None of that can be achieved unless the sport wins a valuable audience; valuable enough to attract advertising dollars from all over the economy. DMG seems convinced that close competition and reliable programming are the two most important ingredients to that end. The racing formulas are clearly directed at raising the level of competition, and rain racing addresses the reliability element required to ensure TV revenue. I think the class formulas are terrific. They just have the wrong names. Literbike should be called Daytona Superbike and the small bike class should be called Daytona Supersport. The smaller class should run twice as planned. Why? Because it gives private teams twice the chance to perform for their sponsors and win purse. It generates more for them to sell and they need the added exposure to grow their respective budgets. The Superbikes are the factory show and they don’t need the money. They can run last on Sunday as the traditional feature event”¦ Maybe throw them a Saturday Superpole to soup things up. Racing in the rain should be required. As the Loudon community knows, TV will not be around for Monday shooting. TV revenue is gone if the races are cancelled and that just can’t happen. So as Mr. Edmondson suggested, they have to race rain or shine if at all possible. To me that requires they only go to tracks where racing in the wet is acceptable. If Sears Point is unsafe in the wet, then replace the venue with one that is acceptable. If Sears Point wants the race back, then they can fix the track. Nobody needs Sears Point to be on the schedule. The same can be said for Mid-O or any other venue”¦Even Daytona. If track owners can’t or refuse to make their tracks safe for motorcycle racing in the wet, they in can go the way of Loudon, PIR or any other of the hairball joints that have come and gone from the series. There are enough suitable tracks now and more are on the way. If I have a concern about Mr. Edmondson, it’s that he ran that Moto-ST race at Iowa last season. Even a casual observer could see from the website track map it was a sketchy proposition. Moto-ST never went back, but still… It doesn’t say much for his judgment when it comes to rider safety issues. He won’t last long at the helm if he doesn’t step it up in that area. Obviously, the France formula is to make their racers stars. They learned a long time ago that having their stars killed before millions of viewers is very bad business. Bob Holcomb Boston, Massachusetts FIRST PERSON/OPINION Vie e-mail: This letter is coming from the perspective of a die-hard race fan who would like nothing more than to see quality racing from the AMA. DMG apparently thinks their new structure will bring about better racing; I think differently. Roger Edmondson has more or less stated that the rule change making 600cc the new Superbike will win the fans over with closer racing and that he can’t guarantee the results won’t be the same (as they are now) but we won’t know until we do this. All Mr. Edmondson has to do is look at AMA Formula Extreme; this class is exactly what the “Daytona Superbike” class is and is going to be. Since this class was changed to 600cc, how close is the racing in that class? Who has won most of the races and all the championships in that class? How popular is that class? What has it done to the Daytona 200? Answers: Not very, Honda & Honda, not very, nearly killed it. One thing is for sure AMA racing needed some change, key word some change, not a complete remake. Similar to trying to get your bike to turn better or come off the corners easier you wouldn’t go and change seven or eight things for the very next lap and hope for the best. Because if it did work you would not know for sure what really did work and if it did not work you really won’t know what exactly did not work. Same goes for the formula in trying to find a successful racing structure. Whether it’s a 600cc or 1200cc Superbike, sooner or later one special team with that special rider will rise to the top and win everything. This will always happen; it’s called the evolution of competition. You either win or get beat trying to win. Every form of racing known to man kind has had this happen, for example: J. Force, L. Armstrong, V. Rossi, M. Schumacher, M. DuHamel, G. Agostino, M. Doohan, C. Fogarty, D. Earnhardt, R. Carmichael, all of these racers and their teams evolved into the best of the best. Why would you want to “control” this by leveling the playing field so flat, that the only thing that will evolve is mediocrity? DMG should understand, motorcycle road racing will never become as popular or even nearly as popular as NASCAR in the U.S. Even car road racing is not very popular in the U.S. This is okay. I would not want our sport to get whored out to the main stream public who would only be interested in the victory wheelie stands and multi bike crashes. No matter how close the racing is, corporate sponsorship from outside the industry won’t happen on a significant or meaningful scale because motorcycle road racing is too much of a niche sport. Aaron S. Millar Lake Zurich, Illinois