Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace
The AMA Pro Racing board will, apparently, have the final word on which promoter is chosen, but what they should understand is that that will probably be the last major decision that they make in professional racing.
I've seen it before. When a federation hands off the rights to a hands-on promoter like Dorna or FGSport, the inexorable process of stepping back to become the seal on the official results page and the judge and arbitrator of rule disputes has begun and there is no turning back. The FIM made several attempts to regain control of their old absolute rule-making powers during the early years of the Dorna contract, but these were as futile as the ghost shirt dances of the Lakota Sioux. The FIM, once despised by GP teams and savagely attacked by the press, now is the dignified and proper sanctioning body, responsible for the orderly running of the events and holding rights holders to the conditions of their lease agreements, but no longer, at least in roadracing, making the technical rules that are best made by the party that takes the financial risks.
The Big Four: MotoGP, WSBK, BSB, and AMA
There are really only four significant roadracing championships outside the inscrutable All-Japan series, which is micro-managed by the factories via the Japanese Federation. In MotoGP, and after a long and bitter struggle, technical rulemaking now falls to the MSMA (manufactures association). The FIM retains certain powers and the protocol requires approval by the FIM, but agreements between Dorna, the MSMA, and the FIM establish the authority of the factories over the rules. In MotoGP, then, you have true, full factory racing. And, under the 800cc limit in 2007, there was not a single victory by a satellite team. This is the first time since the move to four strokes in 2002 that all races have been won by factory teams and that seems to be the tendency for the future with high-revving 800cc machines with intelligent electronics.
But when we move away from unobtainable prototypes toward production-derived Superbikes, the two championships that are comparable
with the AMA Superbike series have bucked the trend toward factory-dictated technical regulations. In World Superbike FGSport rebelled against the MSMA, helped by the convenient support of then FIM President Francesco Zerbi. Zerbi actually went on record at an FIM Press Conference at the start of the 2003 season saying that he personally was recommending that World Superbike change to a single tire rule and that he was looking closely at the technical rules proposed by the MSMA for World Superbike.
No one really picked up on those remarks at an extraordinary press conference that most media believed was called to deal with the repercussions of Daijiro Kato's fatal crash at Suzuka in the opening round of the MotoGP season that year. Apparently the tire companies were either not paying attention or believed their position in World Superbike was unassailable. I remember hearing those remarks and being amazed that there were no questions. Zerbi and FGSport had managed to sneak a flaming sunrise past the MSMA rooster!
In Great Britain the MCRCB (Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board) rebelled against the British Federation (ACU), threatening to start a breakaway series, and won the day without having to buy the series, but that is a story for another day. The British Federation is now the sanctioning body but the MCRCB runs the show and calls the shots… making fast decisions. For example, they announced at the end of the summer that they were asking for bids for a single tire supplier and in early December they sealed the deal with Pirelli.
So, as we wait for an announcement or a convincing leak from AMA HQ, this has been a variation from the original plan for this series or articles. We'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming in Part 3 when we look at some AMA rules, especially the points system and the red flag protocols, that will, if things go as they usually go when rights are sold, be reevaluated by the new promoter. And we will also look at one of the most explosive, hot-button topics in racing when we ask the big question: Should the AMA go to a single tire rule like World Superbike, Canadian Superbike, and British Superbike?
