FIRST PERSON/OPINION By John Ulrich BS: This is all the fault of (pick one) DMG, MIC, AMA, big motorcycle manufacturers, other”¦ FACT: There is plenty of blame to go around. If I had to write a script detailing the worst possible way to introduce changes to a racing series, I could not have dreamed up any piece of fiction to top DMG’s ham-fisted approach. Topping the list of insanity was a series of press conferences, press releases and public statements held or issued by DMG President Roger Edmondson and his staff, BEFORE the contract transferring the assets of Paradama, Inc. from the AMA to the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) reached its final form, got approved by both parties and was actually signed. A unified public relations strategy and consistent message–or even a consistent plan–never made an appearance. It made sense to send a DMG delegation to each motorcycle manufacturer involved, to make introductions and gather input, but the initial meeting between DMG representatives and executives from American Suzuki instantly degraded into a public pissing match between Edmondson and American Suzuki Vice President (and racing stalwart) Mel Harris. The way Harris tells it, Edmondson and company stormed into a Suzuki conference room and laid out the way it was gonna be, whether Suzuki liked it or not. Edmondson’s version of reality differs, but clearly that first meeting did not go well at all. It didn’t help that Harris and Edmondson are old adversaries; Harris was on the AMA Board of Directors when it was involved in (losing) litigation with Edmondson over a professional road racing joint venture gone bad. Meanwhile, Edmondson seemed determined to make as many enemies as possible, as quickly as possible, with public statements–often in response to questions from racing writers–that were, to put it mildly, not well thought out. It was almost as if Edmondson was brainstorming aloud, in a stream-of-consciousness format with no planning, no fore-thought and no sense included. Blame for the first half of this racing disaster saga lays firmly at the feet of Roger Edmondson and DMG. By mid-summer, cooler heads had convinced Edmondson that a middle ground and some compromise was preferable to open warfare. As a result: –Proposed dyno limits came off the American Superbike 1000cc class. –Proposed licensing restrictions that would have kept factory team riders out of some classes were relaxed. –Fears that the proposed dyno limits in Daytona Superbike would lead to high-dollar engine internals designed to fatten the torque curve under the horsepower limit were allayed by adopting existing AMA Supersport engine rules. –The idea that the 600cc-based Daytona Superbike class would be the premier event was scrapped. –And in response to input from Honda and Suzuki, a Factory Superbike premier class was established with a commitment to run FIM World Superbike rules–along with no limits on testing, tires and fuel and with its own one-hour of TV coverage from each event. But when a chastened Edmondson presented his new reality to the manufacturers during a meeting at American Honda headquarters on July 10, the men who had said they wanted World Superbike rules (~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=33607~), now rejected them. “We don’t want that,” said American Honda Senior Vice President Ray Blank, explaining that American Honda had no source for World Superbikes because there were no factory bikes in World Superbike, that American Honda had been self-developing Superbikes for years and couldn’t build anything to World Superbike spec, and that he had budgeted for the 2009 racing season based on a Superbike rules package developed during 2007 by an AMA committee (which included American Honda’s Chuck Miller). Blank also complained that the Factory Superbike class would not attract a large enough field, and then explained that lapped riders created a serious problem that had to be addressed. He ended his monologue by asking for a copy of the AMA committee rules! (In theory, the meeting was supposed to be confidential. In practice, Harris was giving meeting details to a reporter in what seemed to be about 10 minutes after it concluded. By my book, that makes the meeting contents fair game.) (It is worth noting here that in the 18 AMA Superbike races held in 2008 Year To Date, there have been a maximum of nine factory Superbikes on the grid, joined by a few non-factory Superbikes; the rest of the field has consisted of riders on Superstock machines. In those 18 races YTD, the leaders have lapped eighth place once, lapped ninth place twice, lapped 10th place five times, lapped 11th place eight times, and lapped 13th place 11 times. At the last two rounds of 2008 YTD–VIR and Road Atlanta–the leaders lapped 11th place in all four races, lapping ninth in two races and 10th in one race. Having a full grid and avoiding lapped riders at the same time is gonna be tough to do.) In response, Edmondson and Company retreated to Florida. Nine days later, on July 19th, DMG announced that the premier Factory Superbike class would be run under the AMA Committee rules. At which point Blank and company started demanding existing 2008 Superbike rules. Reacting to that development and the fact that he’d not gotten any commitment to participate in Factory Superbike from motorcycle manufacturers, Edmondson then scrapped that idea and went back to Plan A, as seen here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=33706~ Less than a month later, the non-profit Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) announced that it had established a new for-profit subsidiary and would sanction a new professional road racing series built around factory Superbike teams, as seen here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34127~ Following that, Edmondson met with Blank during the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix weekend at Indy, in another attempt to reach some compromise, as seen here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34221~ What the meeting actually revealed is, that the motorcycle manufacturers represented by the MIC do not have a uniform list of demands that Edmondson can address in an orderly fashion, as seen here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34277~ Which means that most of the blame for the second half of this racing disaster saga lays firmly at the feet of Ray Blank and his band of MIC cohorts–with special additional notice given to Edmondson for scrapping Factory Superbike after reaching an artificial deadline. Even with that special additional notice given to Edmondson, MIC prime mover Blank maintains a lead in the madness index, if for no other reason than completely changing his position at least three times with no reasonable explanation other than maybe, “I just don’t like the motherf–ker.” I’d score it about 65-35 in Blank and company’s favor. The award so far? A giant gold key held by a small stuffed animal for the Motorcycle Industry Council and its USSB Series. I call it the MIC-KEY MOUSE Award. To be continued…