AMA silliness!

chunder · 10 Sep 2005, 12:29 (Ref:1403673)

Been good watchoing the AMA stuff on telly this year, but what is not so good is the sheer stupidity with which the backmarkers are not able to get out of the way!
I dont know if it is coz the championship basicaly lets anyone with a slick tyred bike enter or if the marshalls are useless, but the buggers carve the top guys up so often it is a joke.
Also, how ridiculous is it watching Mladin win pole by a second every week and win by miles, he was off the back a few weeks back and was leading by the fifth lap! He is sooooo much better than anyone else!
I tell you, NO-ONE could beat Mat in AMA at the moment. Look at Hodge, he has frequently had the edge on E Boz who has been Mladins closest challenger over the years.
And he is getting *****ed at by the likes of Carter over here for not winning the title, as I say, not Lavilla, Bayliss, Edwards or anyone else could beat Mladin and why the bloke is STILL happy taking his pay cheque year after year for winning every week I dont know. I can see his point but surely he would be that quick anywhere else, he must have such confidence.
Or, is the rest of the field in AMA rubbish!!

Hazza · 10 Sep 2005, 12:58 (Ref:1403685)

Well the way it works in my understanding is, and I belive they have just fixed this, is that the cut off point is very high. I do belive that they are cutting it down to stop the privateer problems.

The big problem (And I stress, this is just from what i've read, I havn't seen any AMA races) is that there isn't any substantial penalties for not jumping out of the ways of the leaders. Either that or the powers that be belive that it increase the excitement with the backmarkers. But from what i've read it's the exact opposite.

The field? Well I belive that it is hampered by a few issues, the first being that the bikes arn't at WSBK specs. I'm not sure what the exact differences are but it's enough to stop people grabbing a year old Corsa Ducati and going for a spin on that.

And that leads onto the next point.
There are factory Suzukis which Mladin developes, there are factory Ducatis (And I belive they were fairly serious in trying to get performance by homologating the new 999R early), there are factory "Kit bike" Hondas (Make of that what you will) and then, there are as you say "Any bloke on a 1000cc bike with a pair of slick tyres".

And finally the factorys seem to put more effort between Superstock and Formula Extreme (Formula Honda more like it.)

Anyway, just my 2c.

chunder · 13 Sep 2005, 06:55 (Ref:1406349)

Think you are right there Hazz, I know that this year Yamaha and especially Honda have put more effort into other classes. I think at Atlanta Zemke actually retired from the SB race coz the Extreme "Honda benefit" race was on afterwards.
I think they need to be a bit more ruthless with letting people race over there too, the new kids dont seem to get anywhere,you still get the Steve Rapps, Mike Smiths and Pegrams finishing behind the worls boys, their series just doesnt seem to kick out a load of quick guys like it used to. Okay you have Hayden and maybe Spies is gonna be hot. But Eric, Ben etc are good in AMA but nowhere else.
I think Superstock and Supersport are where the talent is in AMA right now. You cant blame the factories for ignoring Superbike, who the hell is ever gonna beat Mladin, so why not get better coverage and racing elsewhere.