Yoshimura Suzuki Returning to WSBK?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (VTtwinner @ Sep 10 2009, 09:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>gpone.com reports that Yoshi Suzuki was @ Nurburgring, showing clear interest in returning to WSBK next year. Also notes that they are almost certain to leave the AMA sbk series. Maybe they should rename the series the Yamaha Cup next year...
http://74.125.93.132/translate_c?hl=en&amp...5JpFjTTnADwlLxg
Why would you say that. If Ben leaves for GP,i dont see a Yamaha being at the front unless maybe Toseland takes Spies ride. Sykes is not the answer. It wouldnt suprise me to see both Ducati's,and Honda's in front of the Yamaha next year if Spies is not around. As far as Yoshimura leaving AMA and joining WSBK, Mladin anyone?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (VTtwinner @ Sep 10 2009, 10:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Hey Povol. I was referring the the US AMA series, where it appears that the only official factory effort still in place for next year will be Yamaha.
That makes sense.

Very interesting stuff, I'd love to see that team in World Supers. I wonder who they'd get to ride for them, someone already in WSBK or bringing over riders from AMA?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Austin @ Sep 10 2009, 04:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Very interesting stuff, I'd love to see that team in World Supers. I wonder who they'd get to ride for them, someone already in WSBK or bringing over riders from AMA?
or possibly a motogp refugee or 2?

i would love to see yoshi take over the suzuki WSB effort. results would improve drastically IMO

If they do make the move to WSBK I really don't see them bringing their current riders over. Maybe Hayden, but thats a BIG maybe. But I couldn't imagine a factory WSBK team with Blake Young in it.

SBK just gets better and better

Yosh and Vermeulen would be a tasty combo.

My first option would be to offer Mladin a one year stint,2 if he wanted it. After that, i would simply hold a tryout. Invite Blake Young, Tommy Hayden Josh Herrin etc: from AMA and whoever is available from WSBK and GP. Do a test at Laguna or Miller and a European track. Analyze the data and pick a rider. Its not rocket science.

I'm surprised it took them this long. They've been winning everything in the AMA for over half a decade and they still can't make any sales ground on Yamaha or Honda. The AMA hasn't sold bikes for a long time now so I hope Yoshimura move on (like Mladin probably should have) to greener pastures and stop screwing with the AMA rule book.

And you have this

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/090910a.htm

Doesnt sound like a guy who will be back next year,does it?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Sep 10 2009, 02:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>And you have this

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Sep/090910a.htm

Doesnt sound like a guy who will be back next year,does it?

This just sucks. The manufacturers always win, and every time they successfully squash the AMA, we get screwed. The manufacturers refuse to write a decent set of rules, and they refuse to follow another rules package whether it's FIM or DMG. They show up with bags of money, and then they play country club politics.

Why anyone would side with the manufacturers is beyond me.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mylexicon @ Sep 10 2009, 09:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>This just sucks. The manufacturers always win, and every time they successfully squash the AMA, we get screwed. The manufacturers refuse to write a decent set of rules, and they refuse to follow another rules package whether it's FIM or DMG. They show up with bags of money, and then they play country club politics.

Why anyone would side with the manufacturers is beyond me.
Damn Sybil,will you pick a side and stay there.

It is the factories show,they make the bikes,they hire the riders,they pay the bills. Why shouldnt they have things their way.And for the millionth and one time,there was nothing wrong with AMA racing before DMG. A few tweeks of the rules was all that was needed with the biggest one being not to let OEM's cherry pick classes. This year went a long way towards proving my theory that the only reason Suzuki ran away with the series for years was the riders.Mladin dominated the first half of this season on a not so dominant bike till he lost interset and coasted home to the title.If we still had real Superbikes,I would dare anyone to bet big money on who would win the title with Mladin and Spies gone. It would be a toss up, and you couldnt ask for more than that.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Sep 10 2009, 08:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Damn Sybil,will you pick a side and stay there.

It is the factories show,they make the bikes,they hire the riders,they pay the bills. Why shouldnt they have things their way.And for the millionth and one time,there was nothing wrong with AMA racing before DMG. A few tweeks of the rules was all that was needed with the biggest one being not to let OEM's cherry pick classes. This year went a long way towards proving my theory that the only reason Suzuki ran away with the series for years was the riders.Mladin dominated the first half of this season on a not so dominant bike till he lost interset and coasted home to the title.If we still had real Superbikes,I would dare anyone to bet big money on who would win the title with Mladin and Spies gone. It would be a toss up, and you couldnt ask for more than that.

Please. The AMA has been in need of a few tweaks for a long time, and the manufacturers (mainly Yosh Suzuki and Honda NA) have thwarted the necessary tweaks at every opportunity.

It was not the dominance of Mladin and Spies that kept Yosh at the front, and Yosh knew it. They believed a big part of their wins were related to the AMA rules and that's why they refused to adopt the FIM rule book. The manufacturers are 100% opposed to letting the riders decide which constructor takes home the championship, and they don't care about close racing, in fact, they'd prefer that the racing not be close. Over the years, Hacking, Hayden, Bostrom and Hayes have also proved that they can excel at the international level. I wouldn't claim they are as good as Spies, but they could hang with him if they had decent equipment.

The manufacturers cannot run the sport for the same reason Exxon cannot run the Department of Energy, or GM cannot run the DOT or the EPA. Legislators must have knowledge of the industry they hope to govern, but they cannot participate directly in the industry.

The manufacturers bankrupted the AMA and their own advertising departments, and the AMA (the association the OEMs run) ended up selling the sport to a group of people no one likes. The group of people no one likes has a leader who is hated within the sport and who was legally wronged by AMA pro racing. Furthermore, RE has a vision to completely change sportbike racing and sportbike market by creating classes that are not displacement limited and by encouraging--not discouraging--competition from new companies.

No matter how much we try to deny it, motorcycling is almost purely aesthetic. Look at the cruiser market and the naked sport market and the dual sport market. They have been growing by leaps and bounds. The sportbike market by contrast has been imploding. There is no variety in the fully faired sportbike segment. Everything is a clone of a copy of a bike that once won a championship under some arbitrary racing rules. Riders are forced to choose between children's bikes or highly tuned race replicas.

Why has this happened? Because the Western marketing companies who work for the Japanese have created this brokedown palace by creating from thin air the street cred phenomenon. Most sportbike riders want speed, good looks, and good feedback. Almost all of those things are extremely easy to manufacture. What's not easy? Building engines that put out well over 200hp per liter. What's not easy? Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a fence around your racing properties and then hyping them into the public consciousness.

Enter Roger Edmondson. He is trying to push power to weight racing. He's trying to recreate the supermono in the form of 450 sportbikes, and he is performance indexing SBK's because the AMA is broke. The new formulas are based upon common sense and the desire to add more variety in the American sportbike market. Could anything be better for the American sportbike rider? Could anything be farther from what the Japanese manufacturers want?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mylexicon @ Sep 11 2009, 01:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Please. The AMA has been in need of a few tweaks for a long time, and the manufacturers (mainly Yosh Suzuki and Honda NA) have thwarted the necessary tweaks at every opportunity.

It was not the dominance of Mladin and Spies that kept Yosh at the front, and Yosh knew it. They believed a big part of their wins were related to the AMA rules and that's why they refused to adopt the FIM rule book. The manufacturers are 100% opposed to letting the riders decide which constructor takes home the championship, and they don't care about close racing, in fact, they'd prefer that the racing not be close. Over the years, Hacking, Hayden, Bostrom and Hayes have also proved that they can excel at the international level. I wouldn't claim they are as good as Spies, but they could hang with him if they had decent equipment.

The manufacturers cannot run the sport for the same reason Exxon cannot run the Department of Energy, or GM cannot run the DOT or the EPA. Legislators must have knowledge of the industry they hope to govern, but they cannot participate directly in the industry.

The manufacturers bankrupted the AMA and their own advertising departments, and the AMA (the association the OEMs run) ended up selling the sport to a group of people no one likes. The group of people no one likes has a leader who is hated within the sport and who was legally wronged by AMA pro racing. Furthermore, RE has a vision to completely change sportbike racing and sportbike market by creating classes that are not displacement limited and by encouraging--not discouraging--competition from new companies.

No matter how much we try to deny it, motorcycling is almost purely aesthetic. Look at the cruiser market and the naked sport market and the dual sport market. They have been growing by leaps and bounds. The sportbike market by contrast has been imploding. There is no variety in the fully faired sportbike segment. Everything is a clone of a copy of a bike that once won a championship under some arbitrary racing rules. Riders are forced to choose between children's bikes or highly tuned race replicas.

Why has this happened? Because the Western marketing companies who work for the Japanese have created this brokedown palace by creating from thin air the street cred phenomenon. Most sportbike riders want speed, good looks, and good feedback. Almost all of those things are extremely easy to manufacture. What's not easy? Building engines that put out well over 200hp per liter. What's not easy? Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a fence around your racing properties and then hyping them into the public consciousness.

Enter Roger Edmondson. He is trying to push power to weight racing. He's trying to recreate the supermono in the form of 450 sportbikes, and he is performance indexing SBK's because the AMA is broke. The new formulas are based upon common sense and the desire to add more variety in the American sportbike market. Could anything be better for the American sportbike rider? Could anything be farther from what the Japanese manufacturers want?

Go check out this kid named Ben Spies. He rides in WSBK and is dominating under FIM rules that you say Yosh was so afraid of.He also won 3 straight AMA titles under a slightly different set of rules.I say that makes him pretty damn good


Out of that group of riders, Bostrom is the only one i would say "excelled" on an international level and his level of excellence lasted about 2 months and then he was done.


It appears that making 200hp per litre engines is very easy for the Japanese, it only seems to be a problem for a certain manufacturer that is not willing to spend the money to make a competitive. bike .

The sport bike industry is imploding because of dealers who couldnt see the forest for the trees and stuck inexperienced 18-24 year old kids on 185 mph bikes. The results were as predictable as the sun rise.Certain Insurance companies have quit writing insurance alltogether on sportbikes and the ones that still will,get a huge premium for it. How do you get around that,another stroke of stupidity from the OEM finance arm. We will let them put a bike on a credit card so they wont have to get insurance.Another result that was predictable as the sun rise. 18 year old gets new 185 mph bike,puts it on credit card so he doesnt have to pay 3k a year in insurance.Wrecks the bike in the first 6 months like statistical clockwork and quits paying. DUH. I am so against government involvement in my everyday life, but if there was ever one place a regulation should have been put in, it was a graduating liscense in the sportbike world .


Enter RE,the man you want to call if you are running a weekend club racing series. Think WERA on steroids. This is supposed to be the premier racing series in North America. Can you name me any other country that has turned out multiple,multiple, WSBK and Moto GP champions that has a national series as amatuer and inept as we have in the US today. RE's dream has no business on a national scale,it is bush, small time ,and we are the laughing stock of the motorcycle world. This country deserves a better series than we are getting. I dont care if DMG gets their events to run like a swiss watch, i will never support performance idexed racing as a premier racing series. It would make for good support classes in a real series. This ........ is like going to a a local dragstrip and watching bracket racing,there is a place for it,just not on the national scene

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Sep 11 2009, 01:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Go check out this kid named Ben Spies. He rides in WSBK and is dominating under FIM rules that you say Yosh was so afraid of.He also won 3 straight AMA titles under a slightly different set of rules.I say that makes him pretty damn good


Out of that group of riders, Bostrom is the only one i would say "excelled" on an international level and his level of excellence lasted about 2 months and then he was done.


It appears that making 200hp per litre engines is very easy for the Japanese, it only seems to be a problem for a certain manufacturer that is not willing to spend the money to make a competitive. bike .

The sport bike industry is imploding because of dealers who couldnt see the forest for the trees and stuck inexperienced 18-24 year old kids on 185 mph bikes. The results were as predictable as the sun rise.Certain Insurance companies have quit writing insurance alltogether on sportbikes and the ones that still will,get a huge premium for it. How do you get around that,another stroke of stupidity from the OEM finance arm. We will let them put a bike on a credit card so they wont have to get insurance.Another result that was predictable as the sun rise. 18 year old gets new 185 mph bike,puts it on credit card so he doesnt have to pay 3k a year in insurance.Wrecks the bike in the first 6 months like statistical clockwork and quits paying. DUH. I am so against government involvement in my everyday life, but if there was ever one place a regulation should have been put in, it was a graduating liscense in the sportbike world .


Enter RE,the man you want to call if you are running a weekend club racing series. Think WERA on steroids. This is supposed to be the premier racing series in North America. Can you name me any other country that has turned out multiple,multiple, WSBK and Moto GP champions that has a national series as amatuer and inept as we have in the US today. RE's dream has no business on a national scale,it is bush, small time ,and we are the laughing stock of the motorcycle world. This country deserves a better series than we are getting. I dont care if DMG gets their events to run like a swiss watch, i will never support performance idexed racing as a premier racing series. It would make for good support classes in a real series. This ........ is like going to a a local dragstrip and watching bracket racing,there is a place for it,just not on the national scene

Bostrom was the only one? What about Hayes' 1-off at a track he had never seen before riding for a Parkalgar team that appeared to lack about 5-10hp down up the hill and down the straight? Hayden and Hacking's Laguna 1-offs are debatable.

Yeah, Spies' riding ability is amazing but the main point was that Yosh believed that Mladin and Spies were winning because of the bike. If they knew Spies would continue to win big every weekend, do you think they would have thwarted attempts to adopt WSBK rules? I don't.

As far as the short-sided dealers, I agree whole heartedly, but I think the phenomena you illustrate are a consequence of the street cred phenomenon. Dealerships were certainly selling sportsbikes to riders who couldn't pilot them, but that's mainly because fully faired 250s don't have any street cred and therefore they don't have any profit margin. There is no doubt that you are correct about licensing and insurance. When new riders crash $10,000 machines that have been bought entirely on credit, the carnage keeps "real" riders supplied with lightly-rashed bikes that don't require a loan. Most "real" riders are hesitant to buy from dealerships because bankrupt teens and lightly crashed bikes give us incredible bargain purchases in the second hand market. I don't think government intervention is necessary. The first bike is always a rash rocket regardless of the horsepower. Obviously, more horsepower requires more restraint but I started crashing a 125cc dirtbike on residential roads and I still road it like a grandma (because it wasn't street legal and I didn't want cop involvement).

RE is not running a club series. He's trying to satisfy people who want to race astronomically expensive WSBK equipment on crumbling country lanes (aka American tracks) that are lined with walls. The AMA once worked that way, but that was when the manufacturers had more money than sense. Laguna was a terrible mistake, but thankfully everyone came away unharmed. Why does that make us a laughing stock? People will find any reason to beat up on you; especially in business. The laughing stock part is more a figment of people's imagination. The incident didn't make international press mainly b/c the world doesn't watch the AMA b/c it has been boring garbage for quite sometime.

The calamity at Mallory Park in BSB this year was no more embarrassing that the Laguna incident. I'm guessing you didn't see Mallory Park; that's okay BSB is boring as hell these days, too.

As far as the new class structure, it doesn't make the AMA look club. If the AMA want to relax the rules by making a power to weight class, more power to them. Why do we race displacement classes? Would it be more appropriate to develop engines based upon total volume or total engine weight rather than something arbitrary like displacement. Actually that's kind of a cool idea. The engine must weigh no more than x lbs or the engine must fit in a volume of x cc. That would be an interesting concept and it would be much more appropriate to motorcycles. I'm also excited by the 450s. Imagine if they supercharged a 450 so that it could run at modest rpm and still put out around 75hp while weighing 300lbs. It would be just like riding an old-school two stroke while it's on the pipe.

Actually, we shouldn't try making new bikes. The 600s and 1000s are perfect already as evidenced by the massive sales figures.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mylexicon @ Sep 11 2009, 06:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Bostrom was the only one? What about Hayes' 1-off at a track he had never seen before riding for a Parkalgar team that appeared to lack about 5-10hp down up the hill and down the straight? Hayden and Hacking's Laguna 1-offs are debatable.

Yeah, Spies' riding ability is amazing but the main point was that Yosh believed that Mladin and Spies were winning because of the bike. If they knew Spies would continue to win big every weekend, do you think they would have thwarted attempts to adopt WSBK rules? I don't.

As far as the short-sided dealers, I agree whole heartedly, but I think the phenomena you illustrate are a consequence of the street cred phenomenon. Dealerships were certainly selling sportsbikes to riders who couldn't pilot them, but that's mainly because fully faired 250s don't have any street cred and therefore they don't have any profit margin. There is no doubt that you are correct about licensing and insurance. When new riders crash $10,000 machines that have been bought entirely on credit, the carnage keeps "real" riders supplied with lightly-rashed bikes that don't require a loan. Most "real" riders are hesitant to buy from dealerships because bankrupt teens and lightly crashed bikes give us incredible bargain purchases in the second hand market. I don't think government intervention is necessary. The first bike is always a rash rocket regardless of the horsepower. Obviously, more horsepower requires more restraint but I started crashing a 125cc dirtbike on residential roads and I still road it like a grandma (because it wasn't street legal and I didn't want cop involvement).

RE is not running a club series. He's trying to satisfy people who want to race astronomically expensive WSBK equipment on crumbling country lanes (aka American tracks) that are lined with walls. The AMA once worked that way, but that was when the manufacturers had more money than sense. Laguna was a terrible mistake, but thankfully everyone came away unharmed. Why does that make us a laughing stock? People will find any reason to beat up on you; especially in business. The laughing stock part is more a figment of people's imagination. The incident didn't make international press mainly b/c the world doesn't watch the AMA b/c it has been boring garbage for quite sometime.

The calamity at Mallory Park in BSB this year was no more embarrassing that the Laguna incident. I'm guessing you didn't see Mallory Park; that's okay BSB is boring as hell these days, too.

As far as the new class structure, it doesn't make the AMA look club. If the AMA want to relax the rules by making a power to weight class, more power to them. Why do we race displacement classes? Would it be more appropriate to develop engines based upon total volume or total engine weight rather than something arbitrary like displacement. Actually that's kind of a cool idea. The engine must weigh no more than x lbs or the engine must fit in a volume of x cc. That would be an interesting concept and it would be much more appropriate to motorcycles. I'm also excited by the 450s. Imagine if they supercharged a 450 so that it could run at modest rpm and still put out around 75hp while weighing 300lbs. It would be just like riding an old-school two stroke while it's on the pipe.

Actually, we shouldn't try making new bikes. The 600s and 1000s are perfect already as evidenced by the massive sales figures.


You can make all the engine configiurations and body styles you please but, it still is not a satisfactory platform for a National series. Why dont we just have a 'run what you brung' series and have classes broke down into rider ability,regardless of what you ride. I could ride my ZX12r against 450 singles. They would destroy me in the corners but i would reel them back in on the straights. What you get when you have a Heinz 57 mish mash of bikes competing against one another based on lap times, is the ability to sand bag the results.I guess we could take it 1 more ridiculous step further and have lap break out times. As far as the 450's, the concept is a winner but ole RE has already started down the road of ....... it up by running it in the Endurance series. 450 Singles are not made for 2 hour races,but RE has a vision. What a ....... .......

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mylexicon @ Sep 11 2009, 08:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>This just sucks. The manufacturers always win, and every time they successfully squash the AMA, we get screwed. The manufacturers refuse to write a decent set of rules, and they refuse to follow another rules package whether it's FIM or DMG. They show up with bags of money, and then they play country club politics.

Why anyone would side with the manufacturers is beyond me.
Lex, that's your response to the meat of the article?

"Asked specifically why he graded them with an F, O'Rourke said, "Upper management. They really don't care about teams, riders, or anybody, really, but themselves. They can't even run a schedule. They change things at the drop of a hat. No one really knows what's going on from one week to the next. Pretty dismal, really. Especially when you've worked with good people. Back in the old World Superbike days, working with Flammini, I used to look after the riders, teams. Everything they'd done, you could set your watch by. What time you were practicing, what time you were qualifying, what time you were racing. Over here, you might as well - well, you can't get organized. It's impossible. And I think it's a real shame. They don't care about the manufacturers who've been propping the series up for years. It's sad, really. But anyway, they've got to do what they see is right, and screw everyone else."

For O'Rourke, the debacle of the Laguna Seca AMA Superbike race was humiliating. "You're there in front of the world, and it was a complete embarrassment. It just blows me away. I know a hell of a lot of people in the Grand Prix paddock, and they were laughing very hard at us. They say, "What the hell are you guys doing here?" They just couldn't believe their eyes. And then you tell them a few stories about what's happened at other races, and they just walk away shaking their heads. Yeah, it's sad. Very disappointing."

How the .... do you get this, "The manufacturers always win, and every time they successfully squash the AMA, we get screwed. Why anyone would side with the manufacturers is beyond me." from this, "They don't care about the manufacturers who've been propping the series up for years. It's sad, really. But anyway, they've got to do what they see is right, and screw everyone else."

I've read lots of these threads and not being privy to much AMA over here can't offer much of an opinion. I have admired your debating skills in what seems, to me, to be an indefensible position. Yet here you don't even seem to grasp the nature of the facts nor the experienced authority of its source. Why the out-of-context venomous attack at the manufacturers?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mick D @ Sep 12 2009, 08:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Lex, that's your response to the meat of the article?

"Asked specifically why he graded them with an F, O'Rourke said, "Upper management. They really don't care about teams, riders, or anybody, really, but themselves. They can't even run a schedule. They change things at the drop of a hat. No one really knows what's going on from one week to the next. Pretty dismal, really. Especially when you've worked with good people. Back in the old World Superbike days, working with Flammini, I used to look after the riders, teams. Everything they'd done, you could set your watch by. What time you were practicing, what time you were qualifying, what time you were racing. Over here, you might as well - well, you can't get organized. It's impossible. And I think it's a real shame. They don't care about the manufacturers who've been propping the series up for years. It's sad, really. But anyway, they've got to do what they see is right, and screw everyone else."

For O'Rourke, the debacle of the Laguna Seca AMA Superbike race was humiliating. "You're there in front of the world, and it was a complete embarrassment. It just blows me away. I know a hell of a lot of people in the Grand Prix paddock, and they were laughing very hard at us. They say, "What the hell are you guys doing here?" They just couldn't believe their eyes. And then you tell them a few stories about what's happened at other races, and they just walk away shaking their heads. Yeah, it's sad. Very disappointing."

How the .... do you get this, "The manufacturers always win, and every time they successfully squash the AMA, we get screwed. Why anyone would side with the manufacturers is beyond me." from this, "They don't care about the manufacturers who've been propping the series up for years. It's sad, really. But anyway, they've got to do what they see is right, and screw everyone else."

I've read lots of these threads and not being privy to much AMA over here can't offer much of an opinion. I have admired your debating skills in what seems, to me, to be an indefensible position. Yet here you don't even seem to grasp the nature of the facts nor the experienced authority of its source. Why the out-of-context venomous attack at the manufacturers?

It's not out of context. The manufacturers don't need the AMA, they never have and they never will. The real factory racing teams pulled out of the AMA a while ago, and the factory teams we've seen over the last half decade are just glorified marketing companies who employ some talented engineers and crew chiefs.

Contrast the AMA (which is run by marketing companies) with the international series' that are actually controlled by the Japanese factories (and Ducati to an extent). In GP the manufacturers are aware of the macro problems that plague the sport and the motorcycle industry as a whole, but they are usually have disagreements about what to do. These disagreements are worked out behind closed doors and the sport continues to march on even in the face of very serious financial troubles or competitive upheaval. The AMA by contrast is like NASCAR. It's a bunch of hypersensitive corporate branding personnel who think that winning is the only thing that goes into making a good bike, and a bunch of semi-educated wrench monkeys who fight amongst themselves at the drop of a hat like feuding hillbillies.

The branding personnel are so useless to the Japanese factories that they had their budgets cancelled at the first sign of economic trouble. The only people left in the AMA are the semi-educated wrench monkeys who have never exhibited one iota of common sense or even the slightest indication that they are able to grow financial resources rather than hoard them in an ignorant mercantile fashion. The AMA is nearly worthless b/c of the people within the sport (including DMG new-hires). The arrogance of RE was not so much that he had an exceedingly selfish plan to rehabilitate the sport, but that he thought he could turn a group of militant wrench monkeys, club racers, and aging hipster businessmen into a professional outfit.

I thought that a holistic approach to rehabilitating the AMA (as proposed by RE) was an extremely reasonable approach that people would buy into. I was wrong.

Exhibit A: Reg O'Rourke: A man who is more concerned with the schedule than he is with the viewership numbers or the total sponsorship money or the accessibility of our young riders to good equipment. Grade A numbskull.

Exhibit B: John Ulrich: A man who cares more about "due process" (an issue of Constitutional law) for JRP, a competitor who has hurt the sport intentionally to raise his own profile, while the sport is crumbling around him. JU cares more about pushing his Big Mac theory than he cares about figuring out whether or not people even want a Big Mac. Two more world-class imbeciles.

Everyone is coming up with 1 million and 1 excuses for why the AMA can't make it. The excuses range from bad equipment, to bad venues, to poor sponsorship revenues, to unfair rules. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the AMA lacks only 1 commodity--intelligence. Intelligence is the one irreplaceable ingredient that allows humanity to excel. GP is smarter than the AMA. WSBK is smarter than the AMA. BSB is smarter than the AMA. CEV is smarter than the AMA, etc. etc. etc. The more intelligent people who are capable of abstract reasoning from a group perspective, the more flexible the sport will be.

I think RE has what it takes to start moving the AMA in the right direction, but like any man, he is imperfect and there are a few glaring flaws in his vision. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be another human being in the AMA who can be of any assistance to him. The manufacturers tried intelligence but they found out that it was harder than they thought. It appears as though unreason reigns again.

So if the manufacturers can play nice in the sandbox with GP, WSBK, BSB, and CEV, whose fault is it when the manus and the AMA can't play nice?

I don't know R O'R from a hole in the ground yet it seems obvious that he is not a man who is more concerned with schedules than anything else... he was pointing to the scheduling issues as a symptom of a deeper and much more insidious disease within the AMA/DMG entity.

Maybe its intelligence, though I doubt it. Poor management, the bane of the AMA for over a decade, can be wrought by smart people as evidenced by RE (by no means a stupid man) and DMG.

Running a successful national series is not rocket science - look at the first class job done in Aus., population 20 million, by "a bunch of semi-educated wrench monkeys who fight amongst themselves at the drop of a hat like feuding hillbillies" . Australia's group of militant wrench monkeys, club racers, and aging hipster businessmen are a professional outfit...