Now that full traction control is legal in AMA Superbike and Formula Xtreme and limited systems are legal in AMA Superstock and Supersport effective immediately — who will have the time to obtain and implement the systems by the end of the current season, which only has five rounds remaining? That was the question raised by veteran AMA racer Miguel Duhamel when Roadracingworld.com contacted him Monday morning seeking reaction to the immediate legalization of traction control systems in AMA Pro road racing. “It’s surprising that they decided to do it so abruptly right now,” said American Honda’s Duhamel. “I don’t know how many people have the time to do it now that it’s legal or whatever. I don’t know who’s going to have time to implement a system like that. I don’t think it can happen overnight. It might be bad in a way, because whoever’s already been doing it or have an idea how to do it, for them to not have any more barriers might scoot them back in front. “I think Suzuki already has a pretty good idea. They got away with a system that was shades of that, I guess. Now that they can go full-bore, it will be interesting to see if they can go faster this weekend. “For sure, Ducati are the number-one guys everyone’s going to be curious as to what they can do at Laguna Seca. I think you put a guy like Ben Bostrom, who goes really good at Laguna Seca, with traction control, [and] it’s going to make life pretty difficult for everybody out there. “What I’m going to do, to be honest with you, I’m going to call my team and go, ‘Hey, how long will it take for us to react to this?’ I think I’ve already got an answer to that, and it’s probably going to take a while. Because Honda doesn’t really like to try anything they don’t feel like they have a good grasp on. But we just had a good test at VIR, and I think we should be able to be pretty competitive this weekend. We’ll see.” Several AMA teams just tested at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) a few weeks ago, and the next scheduled multi-team AMA test will be at Road Atlanta approximately two weeks after this weekend’s event at Laguna Seca. Duhamel did not know of any other scheduled tests this season. American Honda’s Chuck Miller is a member of the AMA Road Racing Rules Committee that approved immediate legalization of traction control during a meeting in Ohio on Thursday. However, Miller was unable to attend the meeting due to a scheduling problem.
Duhamel Reacts To AMA Legalization Of Full Traction Control For Laguna Seca
Duhamel Reacts To AMA Legalization Of Full Traction Control For Laguna Seca
© 2006, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. By David Swarts.
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