KK, this is one junkie that is NOT buying into the DMG trainwreck. Radical changes along their proposed lines are NOT going to make professional motorcycle racing better. See FIM if there are any questions.
Of course, it may well attract the Boogety-Boogety-Boogety lads, which is the idea I suppose. I predict DMG will become a reeking failure sooner than later. I hope there will be something left of our sport after they give up and sell off the rights.
I agree. Seems to me that the only place 1000cc Superbikes are too fast is Daytona. I say get rid of Daytona. The place has outlived it's use. Bikeweek in Daytona isn't about bikes anymore. It's about Harleys. The entire place could be shoved in the Atlantic as far as I'm concerned. Do they have faultlines in Florida??
How can they get rid of Daytona now that the people who run the series call themselves the Daytona Motorsports Group??
Exactly! They also own Daytona Motor Speedway. Nope, looks like motorcycle road racing is in for a very chaotic few years.
KK, this is one junkie that is NOT buying into the DMG trainwreck. Radical changes along their proposed lines are NOT going to make professional motorcycle racing better. See FIM if there are any questions.
Of course, it may well attract the Boogety-Boogety-Boogety lads, which is the idea I suppose. I predict DMG will become a reeking failure sooner than later. I hope there will be something left of our sport after they give up and sell off the rights.
I agree. Seems to me that the only place 1000cc Superbikes are too fast is Daytona. I say get rid of Daytona. The place has outlived it's use. Bikeweek in Daytona isn't about bikes anymore. It's about Harleys. The entire place could be shoved in the Atlantic as far as I'm concerned. Do they have faultlines in Florida??
How can they get rid of Daytona now that the people who run the series call themselves the Daytona Motorsports Group??
Last I heard, Barber will have trouble attracting MotoGp, and possibly WSBK due to the lack of long-enough staights.
That was brought up and Barber agreed to take the kink out of the back strait if needed.The last i heard, the safety matters had all been met.It is a world class facility,it deserves at least a WSBK date.I would much rather have seen the 2nd GP race go to Barber instead of Indy but money won out on that deal.
The article says that WSB is adding a second US race in 2009....anyone know where???
Almost guranteed at Barber.It was close to a done deal last year but Barber somehow dropped the ball and was back doored by Miller.Barber has lost Gp to Laguna and WSBK to Miller.I think he will quit his hard ball tactics and get it right this time.
Hard ball tactics?
I don't think that not wanting to lose money on a race is considered hard-ball.
ho, wasn't the issue that the mayor of birmingham tried to get the owner of barber to develop a warehouse building before approving the costs of security, etc.?
The article says that WSB is adding a second US race in 2009....anyone know where???
Almost guranteed at Barber.It was close to a done deal last year but Barber somehow dropped the ball and was back doored by Miller.Barber has lost Gp to Laguna and WSBK to Miller.I think he will quit his hard ball tactics and get it right this time.
Hard ball tactics?
I don't think that not wanting to lose money on a race is considered hard-ball.
ho, wasn't the issue that the mayor of birmingham tried to get the owner of barber to develop a warehouse building before approving the costs of security, etc.?
Can somebody explain how you can plug identical ECU's into 4 (or more) different makes of bikes, and have them all run right? I'm not really up on the current state of the 600's, but isn't there even a 1500-2000 rpm difference in redlines? Doesn't the ECU control fuel delivery, and wouldn't the needs be different for every bike? Or are they just going to build a "standard" engine. Heck, they could let Harley build it, it will make 100 HP for 10 laps, blow up, and we can finish the races under yellow behind a pace car.
But seriously, how can a single ECU work??
Can somebody explain how you can plug identical ECU's into 4 (or more) different makes of bikes, and have them all run right? I'm not really up on the current state of the 600's, but isn't there even a 1500-2000 rpm difference in redlines? Doesn't the ECU control fuel delivery, and wouldn't the needs be different for every bike? Or are they just going to build a "standard" engine. Heck, they could let Harley build it, it will make 100 HP for 10 laps, blow up, and we can finish the races under yellow behind a pace car.
But seriously, how can a single ECU work??
I'm no expert but my understanding is it won't work - it's works in F1 because every engine is a V-10 (remember that their control ECU's allow for a good bit of variance in RPM, etc, all the mapping can be changed, it just keeps TC out.
I think DMG was saying that they could potentially have stock ECU's from the various bikes that they could require a team to install. Sounds unlikely but that is how I read it.
The article says that WSB is adding a second US race in 2009....anyone know where???
Almost guranteed at Barber.It was close to a done deal last year but Barber somehow dropped the ball and was back doored by Miller.Barber has lost Gp to Laguna and WSBK to Miller.I think he will quit his hard ball tactics and get it right this time.
Hard ball tactics?
I don't think that not wanting to lose money on a race is considered hard-ball.
ho, wasn't the issue that the mayor of birmingham tried to get the owner of barber to develop a warehouse building before approving the costs of security, etc.?
local politics, really.
That was in 2004 (?) before MotoGP went to Laguna. It didn't have anything to do with the SBK race.
Barber said they were still negotiating when Miller just jumped in and grabbed it. They were still considering it but weren't sure the race fan 'economy' would support 2 GPs and 2 SBK rounds and wanted to review the situation. At least this was my take on it.
Barber said they were still negotiating when Miller just jumped in and grabbed it. They were still considering it but weren't sure the race fan 'economy' would support 2 GPs and 2 SBK rounds and wanted to review the situation. At least this was my take on it.
I think that's about it. The SBK sanction fee is pretty high.
Didn't Barber go ahead and make all the track improvments that the FIM had suggested? If that is the case then I would think they did it for a reason, or were fairly confident they would get a round in the future.
On the other hand, guys like Nic might have a legitimate chance at competing! That can't be all bad. I've always felt it was bad for the sport when you have to have a factory ride to be competitive. Especially when it became clear that the factories were dramatically reducing the number of rides available in the sport over the past several years. Folks like Jordan, Graves, Attack, Valvoline have an advantage to begin with, yet I think you can "purchase" a support package if you have the means to pay the bill.
I believe you will see many new teams crop up and with DG's promotion, more sponsership opportunities for all. First big obstacle is TV contracts and I expect they will take care of the business there. Once that is in place, loads of money for everyone. So in the final analysis, I think it is good. No gaurantees it will work, but worth the try to break the current trend ruining the sport.
Josh has it right. This is one "sport junkie" that is all for the change... Nascar style or not.
So how would a TV contract be loads of money for everyone? DMG would take all that, not spread it around amongst the teams.
The way I see it DMG is setting things up for all the revenue streams to flow into them and leave the teams to fend for themselves. Spec tires and fuel mean that money switches from going to the teams to going to DMG, TV contract would go to DMG, if they got any class/series sponsors that money would go to DMG, they would get fees for liscensing the riders, fees from the tracks for getting the event, entry fees for each race from the teams, and I am sure they will try and take their cut of any merchandising.
I actually met Mr George Barber during the races last month. I asked him about the WSBK and when they were going to get a race. His response was clear, they want too much money to let him host an event. He was concerned he would not get enough revenue to offset that sanctioning fee so they were going to relook at it for 2009. We can only hope they can come to an agreement.
