Ducati Monster Forum

Honda says sayonara.

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38149 (http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38149)

Not at all surprising. But it still sucks.

not surprising at all... quite honestly, i think the only reason they offered any support to corona this year was because they already had hodgson and some wrenches under contract.

I think the next domino to fall is Kawasaki....

It's a great plan because this way Buell will be the only manufacturer in the series & DMG can claim that it wasn't their fault.

the recent PR about Rachel Hacking being pregnant referred to Jamie as a "former" Kawasaki rider...

I hope he ends up with a WSS ride for 2010 or maybe even a WSBK?!?!?

Tense About '10: What's The Future Of US Superbike? (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/090922tensein10.htm)

Empty seats.

(http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/PRE1735.jpg)

They have seats at Superbike events?

I think it's a testing ground for DMG supported seat manufacturers... i.e. Harley Davidson.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/090922uysx.htm (http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/090922uysx.htm)

Ray Blank interview: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38197 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38197)

Comparing penalties - WSBK/DMG: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38226 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38226)

There goes Yamaha.  Graves will still be there though.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Oct/091027m.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Oct/091027m.htm)

Suzuki next? Or just more of the GSXR Cup?

Since they can't build a WSBK ride to save their life, I assume they'll stay in Nasbike. 

who, suzuki?

Does that mean that Tommy Hayden can finally win that long-deserved AMA championship? I mean come on...he's a Hayden.

Oh wait...Pegram's still in it. Nevermind.

Yah.

hmm... tommy hayden: ama supersport champion 2004, 2005.

the problem isn't the bike, it's the team.

the (us) yosh crew is just flat out better at developing a bike than alstare.

2005, when Corser won the WSBK title on a Suzuki, wasn't that long ago.

That was like 14 years ago.  Your math sucks.   [cheeky]

I agree completely.  There's nothing wrong with that Gixxer (as shown by the last decade of AMA). 

Hey, 3rd place wasn't bad this year either. But at this rate they'll have to invite Johnny Rock Page back just to fill the grid.

Plus I read the article as Yamaha shifting some of the burden of supporting the racing team onto Graves, not eliminating the team:

For Road Racing, we will continue to partner with Championship-winning Graves Motorsports who will now assume additional responsibilities for Team Yamaha within the current AMA class structure.
 
This new direction for our racing efforts for the 2010 season has unfortunately resulted in the elimination of some internal race department positions at Yamaha's Cypress headquarters.

So would it be like the Ten Kate non-factory team in WSBK? Or something else?

how much more are they going to shift? graves already run yamaha's entire supersport and daytona sportbike programs.

Dunno. I guess the next move is up to Graves?

well, then now they're gonna run superbike.  duh!   ;)

yup....illegal cranks and all!

too bad they don't have the chassis and telemetry options to deal with that Alstaire does. Spies and Schwantz and Blake Young can all agree on that one...

lets face it, SBK in AMA and SBK in the rest of the world are 2 different animals with the limitations on what and how they can do things....and from the looks of things, the world scene of SBK's have a whole lot more money on the table to deal with than the AMA guys in terms of sponsorship money and winnings/earnings...

there was a point earlier this decade where the only suzuki factory team that was doing anything notable with the gixxer was american yosh. all the other factory teams, bsb/worldbsk/etc, were calling yosh to get some direction.

... where's that Kool-Aid emoticon  [roll]

DMG/AMA thinning out the events schedule too....

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Nov/091106b.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Nov/091106b.htm)

no Topeka, no Miller, no Laguna...

Bastards! They couldn't even figure that out earlier so that Dorna could arrange to have Moto2 and the 125s at Laguna? Idjits.

yeah, so what would the support classes at Laguna possibly be?...and how pathetic will Laguna be in comparo to Indy now?

Cart races? Or maybe NASCAR...

shifter carts, okay....fugg that NASCAR crap...go with USGPRU or maybe have a special WERA support class or something....AHRMA even....just not NASCRAP....

Boy am I glad I'm going to Misano next year instead of Laguna.

I would rather watch a foot race around Seca.

Hey, they're mostly left turns...

And now the scapegoats get the axe:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38637 (http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38637)

Sounds like a bunch of MBAs running the show there...they all know the same play: cut investment in people & products, make the product crappier but try to sell it for the same price, make the numbers look good for a quarter, get your bonus, then get out. Except DMG's doin' it wrong.

Have they done anything right?

They fired a bunch of people...I guess you could call that half-right. Then again, they probably fired the wrong half.

[laugh]

You mean the half that thought the DMG was retarded like we do?

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse:
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091202purseinfo.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091202purseinfo.htm)

Who the hell is gonna race SBK for that money?

Dunno...but I think the competition in WERA, AFM, and the other club leagues is gonna get pretty intense ;D

(http://lovedelicgames.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/tumbleweed.jpg)


mitt

I think that's the new pace car bike.

It's never really been about the purse, has it?  It's about the contingency $.  As long as Dunlop and Suzuki are still paying out contingency and there are still factory bik . . .  oh, yeah, the factories.    :'(

for the factories? no... for everybody else, yeah.

i know a lot of people cancelled their ama season when this announcement went out.


the club-racing bounty hunters are going to be significantly deeper this year.

I'm not up on what the contingency payouts are.... anyone got some round $ numbers for '09 and '10?

Damnit...I was hoping to see Tigre win an Open Twins race this year. Now he'll probably have to race Larry Pegram...

http://www.wera.com/contingency/?x=1098 (http://www.wera.com/contingency/?x=1098)

Was actually thinking of what the AMA/DMG series contingencies were, but that gives me a good feel for the club stuff.  :)

http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/events/contingency_rr.aspx (http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/events/contingency_rr.aspx)

http://www.suzukicycles.com/Racing/Road%20Racing/~/media/Documents/Contingency/Road%20Racing/Schedule/09RoadRaceSchedule052109.ashx (http://www.suzukicycles.com/Racing/Road%20Racing/~/media/Documents/Contingency/Road%20Racing/Schedule/09RoadRaceSchedule052109.ashx)

http://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/racing/contingency/rrpay09.pdf (http://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/racing/contingency/rrpay09.pdf)

http://powersports.honda.com/documents/Contingency/2009_road-race.pdf (http://powersports.honda.com/documents/Contingency/2009_road-race.pdf)

did DMG take bailout money?





 [laugh]

No...'cause then they'd get limits on executive compensation ;D

Wow, derb.  I didn't realize how good the purse used to be for privateers.  That'll defray some of the cost of running a campaign.  There's not gonna be much SBK this year is there?  


The web tells me that '09 doubled the purses from '08.  For '09 it was supposed to be $125k per class per weekend.  $15k for first, $5k for 2nd-20th, $3k for 21stand back.  That was for two races, not for each race.   They lowered those numbers right before the season actually started.

For '10 is the purse is $6500 for the entire SBK class for the race weekend.  $3.5k for 1st, $2k for 2d, $1k for 3rd.  Nothing for 4th onward.


Some big guns are rumored to be running Open Twins this year (like maybe Siglin with a pair of 1098RSs  :o).  Don't get your hopes up.  

I won't be watching any DMG races or supporting that series in any way.

DMG = Vertical Scope

make the beast with two backs them.

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Bravo...

Hmm...turns out Larry's going racing. With or without DNA:
http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2009/12/03/pegram-going-racing (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2009/12/03/pegram-going-racing)

That $3500 purse may be more important than ever ;D

Kawasaki hits the eject button:
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091218a.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091218a.htm)

...going out with a whimper.

Who's left? Yamaha?

Not even them...only what Graves can support by itself. IIRC, it's just Suzuki...and Pegram, if you count that ;D

What was just a dull series just got dead... on a nuclear winter level. I really feel sorry for the track owners and promoters who are tied to AMA/DMG. Sure, some folks will always show up for the races but the crowds have to pale in comparison to years past. And I'm sure even then it wasn't standing room only. I also feel for the racers with no rides and their crews. Times are tough but it is very convenient that the beat up economy coincides with the DMG take over. I'm sure the manufacturers aren't happy with DMG... how could they be?

Who would want to sink money into a race team when the fan base is shrinking fast and DMG cuts the race payout to virtually nothing? Who do they think will show up to race? What's really sad is I am sure DMG thinks they are doing a great job. [bang] Ugh... Thank God for MotoGP and WSBK!

...and club racing [thumbsup]

Yeah, club racing for sure! [thumbsup] I was only referring to good race watching on the tube.

I've been thinking about the pull out of Kawasaki from AMA road racing this afternoon and my mind wandered to all the years they have been involved and all the great riders and champions they helped along the way. I'm AARP age so my memories go back aways. My first solid Kawi/AMA road race memories go all the way to the H-1 triples and Rusty Bradley who tragically lost his life at Daytona. He was a local Denton, TX rider who was just awesome. There was a local Kawi shop mechanic I knew that actually owned the street H-1 that Kawi gave Bradley as a gift. He bought it from the Bradley family, I wonder if he still owns it.

Here's a really neat read from '03 about Bradley. Who knows what that guy could have accomplished.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2003-Aug/e/n030808a.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2003-Aug/e/n030808a.htm)

iirc, graves is running the "factory" effort for 2010. they've been running half of it (the supersport/daytona superbike side) for the last few years.

This just made me sad:  http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/01/06/hacking-nothing-yet (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/01/06/hacking-nothing-yet)

yeah.

don't worry....Hopper will wreck and hurt himself and Jamie will be a Johnnie-on-the-spot substitution!

he'll wreck what?

whatever bike his manager arranges for him to ride in American Superbike

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39028 (http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39028)

yeah i know what you meant.. i was just saying that nothing is done

yeah, nothing is done for sure....but given the appearance of the current attricion rate of the DMG/AMA road racing series...they'll be giving out liscences to race like the Federal Govt. is giving out bailouts....just to get and keep players in the game for the idea of having it out there.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100108-92-interview.htm (http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100108-92-interview.htm)

I know that gm2 already posted this link elsewhere in regards to the Ben in general, but this comment stood out for me to mention here...

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100112-11.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100112-11.htm)

What's happened with the American roadracing scene, I'm really disappointed to see for a lot of different reasons. For friends that are racing. There are so many talented people that don't have rides right now. The economy hasn't helped at all, but if rules would've stayed like they used to be, I believe every manufacturer would still be racing right now. It's just their budgets might be super minimal, and it wouldn't have the spark that it had, but everybody would still be racing. And now you've got guys with no jobs, guys with rides are probably riding for nothing, if anything. And what it really hurts in the end—who it's really affecting—are the young kids right now, that are coming up, that are right on the brink of doing something. This whole power trip could've cost four kids their future in racing, just because they missed that jump. It's pretty upsetting, just talking to people about it and seeing what's going on. I hate to say "I told you so," but there are a whole lot of people who were saying that if this kept going on like it's going, there wasn't going to be a series, or nobody racing. And right now, there's barely anybody racing. Unless anything changes, I don't know who's going to be really racing any more. It's a bad time right now, and I'm definitely not happy to see it, but what do you do? It's one of those things that happens, and hopefully it gets itself sorted out.


and then Nicky spoke out here saying this in this Q&A and these 2 Q's and A's stood out worth mentioning ( I think)

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100113-69.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100113-69.htm)

Q. What is your opinion about Daytona 200 race, which is 600 now instead Superbikes?

A. That is sad, man ... really sad. It is the greatest race in USA, and they are running it on some 600s. You know, I really have strong feeling about Daytona. I have won many races in my life so far, I was MotoGP world champion, but winning the Daytona 200 is a special feeling. That race and win still has a special place in my heart. Winning there was something special, especially because it was the track of Mr. Daytona, Scott Russel. He was my childhood hero ...

Q. I need quick answer with my next question. Straight thinking and no diplomacy. Do you think that Mat Mladin is one of the top five riders in the world?

A. No.

he really shoulda followed that mladin question with a "how about spies?" that coulda made for some good drama going into the season.  ;D

vesrah is (likely) coming to play:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39157 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39157)

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100118-disalvo.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100118-disalvo.htm)

more attricion....to the World scene!

good for him!

Looking forward to an exciting American Superbike race at Daytona, AMA/DMG just released the entry list:

http://www.amaproracing.com/rr/events/entrylist.cfm?eid=2010011005&class=SB (http://www.amaproracing.com/rr/events/entrylist.cfm?eid=2010011005&class=SB)

The rest of the season is shaping up in the same spectacular fashion, links to the other events:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39166 (http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39166)

i bet Ulrich finally breaks into the top 5.

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...and then he writes about his triumph in Boy Racer.

That is funny.

[laugh]

<Rolls Eyes> I can see the RRW headlines already.... I DID IT MY WAY! [cheeky]

ouch.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100128d2001.htm (http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100128d2001.htm)

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100129b17.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Jan/100129b17.htm)

What a shame

Clint Shobert, son of racer Bubba Shobert, will return to college and medical school and has decided to end his racing career.

Sure, it's sad to see another racer leave, but I can't say that college and medical school are a bad thing.

Absolutely agree. If he'd chosen to get an education because that's what he wanted rather than because racing in the US is FUBAR then that would have been preferable, that's the shame of it.

DMG: driving racers to do social good since 2009.

More like "driving people to personal enrichment which may indirectly benefit others"... ;)

That's way too complicated for DMG people to remember.
(http://local.yodle.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/hairy-nascar-fan.jpg)

that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for me to take in at that moment...thanks!

The man's an artisan...

Lucky woman. 

 [laugh]

Oh.....my........goodness........

There's just soooo much wrong with that pic.

no.  she's got an 88 shaved into her back, just has to have a shirt on, damn sexist laws.

jordan motorsports is back with suzuki, yates, and jz:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39285 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39285)

wonder what mrs. may has to say about that   ;)

nope...missed it....by THAT much!

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Mar/100304d.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Mar/100304d.htm)

hey thanks, any other races you want to spoil?

 >:(

friggin amazing

"A torrid race with many changes for the lead,"

sounds like it would've been a good race to watch on tv... too bad we already know the results  [roll]

 >:(

So, wait, you guys are grumpy because you clicked a link that contained the results? Did I miss something?

Maybe DMG can alter the results by the time it gets aired. :P

there was nothing to indicate that clicking would get you results.  i actually thought i was going to see QP results/took it for granted that since there was no spoiler tag, i was not about to look at race results.

Now that we're having our first spoiler argument, race season has officially started.  

And they're off . . .

P.S.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and--without having seen the results--predict that Hopper didn't win.   :P

hardly an argument... i know it's only AMA, but come on.  web 101.


hopper was THISCLOSE

Note the big red text that appears above the box when you post in this particular forum.


Don't post results, links to results, hints at results, etc. without a spoiler tag.

Who wants to bet on the number of pages of whining over this?

this weekend or for the season?

you just made me spit vodka. [thumbsup] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh]

edit....

your choice.

the wagering around here has been lame...we should spark it up a little. 8)

Pages? I would say total of 12.

http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=29659.msg622130#msg622130 (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=29659.msg622130#msg622130)

If I know the finally tally ahead of everyone else, would my wager have to also include a spoiler alert?

BURN THE SPOILER!!!! BURN HIM!!!!!

Too easy to throw the results for personal gain.

In other news, Rosebud is really Luke's father and Kaiser Soze is totally a pre-operative transsexual.

i thought Rosebud was actually dead the whole time

my bad...sorry...due to the underwhelming nature that the AMA brings to the table these days, it didn't even occur to me in my thinking...I am sorry.

let me go and put on my Nomex Underwear 1st!

+6.0221415 × 10²³

that must be scientific notation for...

11ty billion.

nein.  it's the number of molecules in a gram of oxygen.

Didn't your mom teach you guys not to trust strange links?

I'm with zooom, the results of the race would need to be interesting for there to be any spoiling. That is of course my opinion and is not, apparently, shared so fair enough.

Bad zooom, no! *hits nose with rolled up newspaper

monty python-witch scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU#normal)

no worries!


yep, i get that.  though it's hard, i still try to be excited for the AMA.  at the rider level.

That's ok. Speedtv.com last night had and article that said "SPOILER: AMA SBK results" and then 3 articles above it with the race result.

Yeah, but we're talking about Speedtv here. You're lucky they don't float an ad over the race results or discussion of lead changes. Not exactly a high bar.

< geek jack >

it's been a long time for me... but isn't that incorrect?

1 mole of Hydrogen is about 1g, right?

< /jack >

i think you are right, been a little while since hs chemistry

maybe 11 years? for me... ahh, the second time I dropped out of college...

Been 10 years since I won a chem prize at university and it still stays with me.

1 mole is defined as the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. It used to be defined off hydrogen but is now done off carbon-12. This gives Avogadro's number, or 6.0221415×10²³

So, yeah, about this whole DMG saga - seems a bit crap from this side of the world :).