HRCA#1

I watched a condensed version of a Motost race from the new track in Jersey on Speed last week.

What can I say hilarious as well as boring. Watching Jimmy Filice tip it over in the pits was hilarious, watching the Buells blow up at various points was boring (nothing new there).

Really it was mostly like watching paint dry or grass grow. You know it's happening but not nearly fast enough.

I've also been following the Daytona Tire Tests, remarkable for who is not there (Suzuki,Kawasaki, only one Honda superbike, almost none of the factory support teams, although Erion literally hitched a ride with Honda so they could save money on transportation).

As far as racing under the lights I quess we'll have to see, some of the rider's seemed to really enjoy it.

So far I'm completely underwhelmed by the DMG show, and the saga of how this season is going to develop continues to develop. I'll bet if DMG's crystal ball could have predicted the current economic conditions they probably would have done the right thing and carried the rules over for 09 and worked on something new, with input for 2010. Ah the benefits of hindsight.

captainchaos

Very well put...I miss the excitement when I'd go every year back in college...Gobert, Slight, Bayliss, Hayden, Mladin, Bostrom bros, Chandler, Duhamel, Russell, Yates, Roberts, etc, etc. And a little before my time it was THE place with the biggest names from all over the world racing here. No offense at all to the guys there now, but it lost some of it's magic, no? Yeah I think if they would have left things alone there would have been some good competition this year. I mean Spies is gone, and Mladin may have dominated again, but otherwise it actually looked pretty good. Who the hell knows what we'll see now most of the damn teams and riders aren't even there.

nuhawk

My 02 here but I think the entire racing world is going to change because of the current economics. Multimillion dollar Nascar teams are the first to be butchered.

Turning left is not so cool anymore and 3400 lb cars on a road course is an even bigger joke. Nascar will be the Bear/Sterns of racing.

Indy cars and NHRA are likely to be untouched because of deep manufacturer support in Indy and lower costs of running dragsters with lots of aftermarket parts promoters in NHRA.

This is what American racing is all about.

RCVTR

I think Yamaha will have a good package for the American series. Hopefully, Honda will have figured out the chassis issues. I wish they would send Miguel out to pasture. He hasn't brought any excitement to the field in years. He looks like he's just out there riding around. But then the American Honda hasn't been a competitive package.

The Ducati 1198R for '09 will be far more affordable than the 1098R. I believe it will be below $30k. Throw some skins on and go super bike racing. That will bring some competition from the Ducatis.

I think the biggest problem is that there are no development riders as good as Mat Mladin. He knows how to make the Suzuki go and doesn't spend any time chasing his tail.

Time for some fresh talent, or the series will continue to circle the drain.

CNI Dawg

I kinda like the MotoST series
It's for 2 cylinder motorcycles ONLY !
And takes some strategy to win - not just going fast for xx number of laps

07 last race was great - the Aprillia team beat the BMW team cause the BMW ran out of gas just before the finish ! DOH !!!

jbaxx

I agree, I'm enjoying MotoST as well. Granted the intensity level is more akin to a baseball game than a UFC fight, but I enjoy the storyline and narrative as well as the drama of overcoming crashes, mechanical brakedowns and enjoy seeing race strategy play out. I also just plain enjoy motorcycle racing of any kind, and the fact that it is a sport-twin series is an added bonus!

Ok, and it was kinda funny to see the vertically-challenged Jimmy Felice fall over in the pit because He was trying get the bike in gear with the left foot and couldn't touch the ground with the right!

HRCA#1

Ok I can't stand it I just watched Moto-st Daytona 8 hr....ridiculous! Aside from being slower than most good 600 Supersport bikes, these guys seem to have the mechanical skills of your local shade tree mechanic.

I was on the winning Open Production Endurance Racing team in WERA in 1978, we never broke down and ran races as long and in some cases longer (Remember the 30 hours at Rockingham). Now I'll concede that some of these twins are overstressed out of the box...but hey you've got 130hp limit (about what a good 600 supersport makes)..these twins should be able to run 95% of maximum all day long with good preparation.

And excuse me why the hell would anybody buy a Buell, especially a Harley engined Buell. Does it come with a pin like a hand grenade or does it just break ever few hours or so. I actually cracked up when one team owner/mechanic was explaining that since the fuel is stored in the frame and that was leaking they were going to try to epoxy it and go back out...oh please just pull the pin!

MotorToad

I've been a fan of endurance racing for eons and am an intense motorcycle racing fan. I went to Daytona for the 24 Hours from '94 till I think '98 before DMG fucked that series all up. So I went to Sebring every year until '02 or so. I've worked races and tests for AMA, WERA, CCS, F-USA, AHRMA, Moto ST, Bland Am, CART, and just about every track day organizer that can put 40 cars or bikes on a track. The gist of all that is to say I'm no stranger to endurance racing, or keeping track of different classes on the track at the same time, or keeping tabs on a strategic endurance race rather than tactical sprint race. When Bland Am was at Barber this year they had Moto ST run an endurance race in the mornings. B-o-r-i-n-g. And that's in comparison to watching VESRA walk around the competition in a 6 hour WERA endurance race.

I'm not very enthusiastic about the future of the AMA series. DMG sunk a ton of money trying to pull Moto ST off as a serious, professional, televisable series, and they have almost succeeded in making a decent club series. Plus, some of the classes seem laughable, if I'm reading them right. I can't recall exactly (and am too lazy to check right now), but aren't they running the 1098 Ducati and 1125 Buell in the same class as the 600 fours? There's something goofy like that, anyway.