[zrx]

I sent a message to Two Wheel Tuesday about the lack of Super Stock coverage and how the Daytona Super Stock race peaked my interest.

A problem with Super Stock class is money. The purse for winning the Super Stock race is on par with 12th place in Super Bike.

 

[Bluethundercat]

coan someone tell me why Honda isn't entered in the supersport class and Yamaha isn't in superbike?

 

[13630]

Honda isn't in Supersport because they are still smarting after having their asses handed to them last year by Yamaha and Kawasaki. Now they're throwing their weight (pun intended) around to have Superstock taken off the air because they're not racing in it and would rather deprive fans of good racing than look bad themselves for not competing with a production bike in a class with all the other manufacturers.



I'm not sure why Yamaha isn't in Superbike, but the reason both them and Kawasaki gave was that the rules changed late in the game and they were unable to develop a bike that is legal to run.

Another reason is that the AMA made up a brilliant rule that prevents factory riders from entering both classes. So, a factory would have to hire a completely separate team to run Superbike than to run Superstock, which would be horrendously expensive, and there also really isn't a talent pool big enough to do this right now in the AMA.

 

[kpaul]

Good idea. I'll do the same.

 

[Bluethundercat]

Thanks

 

[44501]

It appears that the Formula Extreme and the Superstock coverage will appear on April 13th. Check it out.



At least that's what my TIVO tells me.

 

[rock06r]

Let's start a new class

Let's start a new class, you know one that really reflects how people ride out in the real world. Let's call it the "SUPER DUPER EXTREME STOCK BIKE" class. Only harley V-twins, no matter what size or chassis, minus anything that even resembles an exhaust/silencer (louder is better!), leather luggage is mandatory, and riders are only allowed chaps, bikini tops, and sunglasses for safety. I'd watch that.

 

[Blue_Are1]

SPEED is going to be splitting the hour between Superstock and Formula Extreme, showing as many laps of each race as is possible. So at least we will get some coverage of the Superstock class and not just recaps.

 

[obandoj]

Lets face it guys, SPEED is not very interested in having motorcycle racing on the air, and despite what Dave Despain says, they are only filling the gaps on their programing schedule with it.

I personally sent many e-mails to SPEED about their coverage of motorcycle events, only to realise that I had wasted my time, it made no difference at all, sure send all the e-mails you want, it will do no good, they rather have luge racing, go figure.

What we really need, is for a different network to take it over, there are two that come to mind, Spike and the OLN channels, lets write to those channels and maybe we will get a progressive change to take place and improve our plight.

 

[3810]

It's hard to know where to start when TV coverage and the AMA's thoroughly FUBAR'd rules for this year enter into a discussion. I agree that the Superstock class ought to get full coverage--wasn't that the class that had five riders go across the finish line less than a tenth of a second apart at Daytona? And SPEED, in all of their wisdom will give full coverage to Formula Xtreme--wasn't that the class that has hopped up 600cc bikes on slicks going slower than the 600 Supersport class? Jeeeez.....



The real blame for this insane scenario is how the AMA has so miserably screwed up the classes and rules this year. You'd think after 50 years of racing, they'd get it right. Fat chance. Last year's Formula Xtreme worked pretty well. This year we have 600cc superbike spec bikes that are going slower than the Supersport class. Honda put their factory riders in it because they couldn't compete in the legitimate 600 Supersport class.



In the Superbike class, we have Suzuki, Honda, and Ducati factory efforts, while Kawasaki & Yamaha put their factory riders in the Superstock class. The net result is the racing public gets cheated out of the best factories going head-to-head to determine a championship. This really sucks. While Mat may whine about it, the fact of the matter is that the Superstock bikes perform within a knat's derriere of a Superbike costing tens of thousands more. The future seems to be with the Superstock class in this regard. The 600 Supersport class still offers some of the best racing in the world, no change here except being allowed to run slicks as the Superstock guys do.



As for other classes, maybe bring back the 250cc class (gotta be better than the totally lame Formula Xtreme class). I'd also like to see a 1000cc & 600cc Superstock/Supersport class, on DOT tires, without factory riders to highlight the up and coming young guns. That was the original concept of the 600 & 750cc Supersport classes until the factories jumped in. To me, that sounds like a pretty good line-up. If another class was needed, perhaps a Formula Extreme (somewhat like the original Formula USA class) where it is truly a "run-what-ya-brung" unlimited class, as long as the model is available for sale in this country, that any Pro licensed rider could compete in.



Not that the AMA will listen to us, what do you folks think the class structure for AMA Roadracing should be? Cheers, Jack

 

[jpmst3]

AGRRED!! Either eliminate SuperBike altogether, or eliminate Formula Extreme. The AMA has lost their minds with encouraging this madness! This year's superbike should not even count as a legitimate class. Mladin and the fans are the ones getting cheated. It should be failry easy to win (as perdicted) on a bike in it's 4th year of developement and with only a handful of competitive riders!! What a waste!

 

[jpmst3]

Forget coverage, what about the complete lack of content for 2-Wheel Tuesday in general. Speed my as well remove it altogether. They spend 42 of the 47 minutes of programming on ice racing, scooters, or some other crap which no one, I mean no one cares about! When was the last time any of us raced on ice or took our scooters across country?? What happened to the old show where content was actually related to the viewers?!?! Sure throw in a 30 second segment about ice racing, but a whole show! Gimme a break.... I don't even want to get started on the lame SuperStock coverage!

 

[GSXRWolf]

I agree. Give us coverage of the Superstock race. If it means giving up Formula Extreme, that's fine by me.



Furthermore, if AMA wants to stick with the current classes, they should ban factory riders and factory support in the Supersport and Superstock classes. Let the factories duke it out in the Superbike and Formula Extreme classes.

 

[ysr50crasher]

Remove Superbike all together?? Blasphomy! Sure the grids are small and it's pretty much the matt show all the time but think about all the great years we've had. We can't just scrap it. If the rules need to change to squeeze more top tier riders back into superbike than that's what we need to do. F-x is a joke this year. I really don't get it though...the class structure sure seemed to be a boom all though the mid to late 90's and things didn't really start sucking 'till they started jacking around with the rules. I liked pro-thunder. I liked the 250 GP bikes. Now it's all f'd up, there is no longer any tv coverage that seems to care, the talent pool is totally diluted...ggrrr....like someone said a few posts back, where to even start when it comes to AMA Pro Racing. At least we might get a GP at Barber in '05. I hope...