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Fairly Big News for Road Racing in the U.S.


Hollywood33

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I hope all the sponsors tell the AMA/DMG to take some notes, or their money will definitely dictate where the top talent ends up.

WERA has not published a lot of details, but the top tier class will be virtually unlimited. With that said, it will be a "pro" class (WERA determines which of its own experts are "pro" caliber.)

The support classes are something I would lie to do, if just for the story and to say I raced against some pros when they were kids.

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10 round pro series with TV... I'd say its goin to shake some things up. The key is going to be contingency and purses that will make it worthwhile. I have a feelin the manufacturers will get behind Sean and Evelyne and post some coin

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This is great news.  Coming from someone that was there during the FUSA years and seeing the unlimited bikes racing for a few years before it went away, this should be a great time for road racing in this country.  The only issue I see is that the factories will still be doing AMA.  However, I see factory riders coming around at times.  But, that's not the important side of it.  It will attract the young guns that will be racing 600 and 1000 level bikes and using this series as a stepping stone or seat time for keeping that edge IF - IF the purses and contingencies are there.

 

Basically, WERA has a National series, but is missing the TV element and money aspect.  Plenty of the up and coming kids have and still use WERA for that seat time and competition.  However, they leave and do not return.  I think this promotes return and some really cool possibilities for teams like EBR, KTM, Ducati, and speed shops and satellite teams to build true Superbikes for racing. 

 

A quick story of why the FUSA stuff was so bad ass...  We were racing during the years that a speed shop in Texas had two twin brother racing CBR900RRs with TURBOS attached.  They were so strong in power, they would wheelie every lap coming out of turn 10 until the flag station.  Every lap.  During Rider's Meeting, Jim stated that they would black flag racers doing wheelies out of 10.  One of the brothers spoke up and said that Jim was welcome to try and keep the wheel down on their race bikes.  Jim responded with he recognized that some of the racers were racing some very powerful bikes and asked for them to try as hard as they can.  :D

 

Awesomeness.  That and the 500 GP bikes at Road Atlanta.  Great racing.  Run whatcha brung is always great to see.

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I get MavTV on Time Warner.  Its a pretty good channel.  Lots of racing and other motorsports.  They even have truck and tractor pull shows.  I love the European off road racing series.

I think they are running Australian Superbike races too.

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can one purchase a package to view it online?

 

I would pay a reasonable amount of money to watch this series, but there's no way I'm paying $100/month for cable or satellite TV to do so.  Frankly, I think online subscription is the way of the future for virtually all "television" networks, but that's somewhat beside the point...

 

I'll be looking into MavTV over lunch now.

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Does Supercross have that much of a bigger fan base?  Beause that shit is always on TV.

yea, i'd say it's about 10 fold atleast. Just look at even SX compared to the outdoor MX. SX has been promoted extremely well and offers that stadium atmosphere Americans want.

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I think this sums up a large part of the problem that goes un-addressed quite often: 

The problem is American fans are fairly provincial

 

The US (and Canada) is really large to have a single pro series.    I think AMA Pro's East & West division for the SuperSport class is really the largest any series can be at this point.  The travel costs just become too much for teams to run the full series right now.  DMG screwing things up with the 6 round 2014 schedule actually helped demonstrate that this year.  There are fewer truly professional teams on the grid, but the grids themselves are about the same number of bikes.

 

Jordan Motorsports and EBR moving to WSBK were moves made at least in part based on travel costs and the like.  I have seen this posted several times on the WERA board, but never here to the best of my recollection:

 

004c9769fbee4436b8b43c35155e39a1.jpg

 

The AMA running at Laguna Seca and New Jersey Motorsports Park is just a huge ordeal for teams to make both rounds...

 

I don't think it would be unreasonable for there to be 3-4 U.S. regions, and then have a double-header (or even a triple-header) "Grand National" style finale somewhere in the Southern/Central portion of the U.S. (probably Barber or COTA) at the end of the season.

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It's expensive to travel the country, yes.  But that isn't a huge deal when you are talking about a top-level pro series.  Running regions would be horrible, that's for the club racing.  A truly top-level series HAS to be national just to be taken seriously.  WERA has been doing it for years and years as a "club" series and with the new developments for next year, will continue to build toward an even more respected pro/am style series.  The manufacturers are going to back whomever can deliver, and right now that's not the AMA... the door has been opened by DMG... and it's clear there are more than a couple looking to push on through.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Who is running the AMA SX/MX series?  And why aren't they at the helm of the road racing? 

 

Given what's left of the AMA  series, anything as an alternative is a good thing.  Plus it shows that the people putting these events on know there is an interest in the US to support it.  I'll be very interested to see who prevails.  Whatever happens, we should be out supporting them.

 

About TV, I hope they all have a streaming option online, because I refuse to buy cable tv, let alone pay for added packages so I can get the one channel I'd want (something about paying for a service that only shows me commercials turns me off)  Truth be told I'd watch any series I can get my hands on.  I still even catch the AMA races when I'm on a decent internet connection and still enjoy them.  But if WERA or Dorna can do better, then that benefits us all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think this sums up a large part of the problem that goes un-addressed quite often: 

 

 

The US (and Canada) is really large to have a single pro series.    I think AMA Pro's East & West division for the SuperSport class is really the largest any series can be at this point.  The travel costs just become too much for teams to run the full series right now.  DMG screwing things up with the 6 round 2014 schedule actually helped demonstrate that this year.  There are fewer truly professional teams on the grid, but the grids themselves are about the same number of bikes.

 

Jordan Motorsports and EBR moving to WSBK were moves made at least in part based on travel costs and the like.  I have seen this posted several times on the WERA board, but never here to the best of my recollection:

 

004c9769fbee4436b8b43c35155e39a1.jpg

 

The AMA running at Laguna Seca and New Jersey Motorsports Park is just a huge ordeal for teams to make both rounds...

 

I don't think it would be unreasonable for there to be 3-4 U.S. regions, and then have a double-header (or even a triple-header) "Grand National" style finale somewhere in the Southern/Central portion of the U.S. (probably Barber or COTA) at the end of the season.

 

Or back to back weekends with Mid Ohio? Our crew have to rush to tear down and then be on the road back towards Ohio Sunday night or Monday morning at the absolute earliest.  

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