HRCA#1

Cycle News, Superbike Planet and Roadracing World are all reporting that the Emporor Edmonson has decreed that since the factories did not respond to His Royal deadline at the close of business Friday there will be no Factory Superbike in the AMA/DMG series for 09, this despite the fact that he has not yet met with the Track Promoters of the Roadrace Industry Council as he has agreed to do next week.

I won't be surprized if that meeting is cancelled, what would be the point. The RRIC wanted to meet to express their view of the absolute nessecity of maintaining factory involvement in Roadracing, that they along with their budgets are crucial to the successful promotion of any racing event. If the Emporors decree is a fact then there would be little to meet about.

This all comes about after a week in which the Emporor was probably told by MR France to keep his big mouth shut (my take on what Superbike Planet) reported. Only to be followed up by an anonomous "Industry Insider" report in Roadracing World that might as well have been written by the Emporor Himself (in my view it was).

What this means is AMA/DMG are going club racing next year with no factory support and obviously no Superbike or FX. Now you tell me who is going to pay serious money to see a glorified WERA race (no disrespect to WERA) and what network wants to buy the rights to it.

I guess the Emporor thinks that if he's the only game in town racers and fans will flock to it..I doubt it, but the reality may be there are only so many rides to be had in WSB so my guess is that the Factories will go forward with their own 6-10 race series, although that too remains to be seen.

On the upside Royal decrees often lead to revolution and revolutions almost always lead to deposing the Emporor often with terrible consequences. I think if Mr France hasn't figured it out no one in the Industry wants to work with this guy and it's his, not the Emporor's, money going down the tubes.

Stay tuned I know I will!!

killer5280

The factories will run their own series.
Roadracing in the US is going to go from fucked up to really fucked up. I hope I'm wrong.

LineArrayNut

It'll be like CART vs IRL. Went from bad to worse to suck. Everyone thinks cash cows don't need to be fed...egos get puffy and the next thing you know, it's chicks pulling hair that's the 'big story'!

HRCA#1

It may come as a surprize but I agree with Killer5280 and Line Array Nut, and in fact the most rational thinking I've seen on all of this is the position taken by Alan Wilson the track owner of Miller Motorsports park (see Roadracing World 8/15).

He basically say's what the hell is so broken with the existing structure that we have to trash it immediately? He would prefer to proceed as is for 09 and negotiate a new package by concensus amoungst all parties, OEM's, Promoters and DMG for 2010. Why throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Here is where Line Array Nut is exactly on point. This is all boiling down to Ego's and outright childishness on many levels. I still hope for cooler heads to prevail and the best hope for that is for Mr. France to reign in his pitbull, and I'm willing to bet that the other track owners are on the phone with him as I write this.

Promoting races is a business that promotes a show and what the Emporor of DMG is attempting to promote can be seen practically any weekend throughout the country for a ticket price of $20 including free camping (just bring your own food because there are few if any vendors). If that's DMG's show I'll just DVR WSB and MotoGp and wait till the future brings something new.

What may happen is groups like the RRIC (track owners) may side with the OEM's to do their show which will limit the number of tracks available to DMG. Oh but wait he's always got Daytona, and Mid Ohio in the rain and a return to Loudon or Watkins Glen (where no pro racer will race). Ah it must be nice to be the Emporor, I can't wait to see his new clothes!