Daytona - How Ben Spies sees it...

[smileyman]

From Superbike Planet

Spies: "The Series Is Jacked Up"
by dean adams
Thursday, March 05, 2009
There was a time when the only thing that American Ben Spies wanted to be was the winningest AMA rider of all time. In 2007, Spies told the media, repeatedly, that he didn't yearn to go to Europe and challenge for world championships the way Kenny Roberts, Kevin Schwantz, and Nick Hayden did before him.

Now he's glad to be gone.

"The series (in the US) is jacked up," Spies said. "I think, on every level, you can see that there are holes in it now, and I wonder how much fan interest there is going to be in 2009."

The AMA sold the series outright to the Daytona Motorsports Group in 2008, and the new regime made many changes to the program for 2009, including making Superbikes easier to build for privateers, changing the Supersport class to a two-division entry series like those in Supercross, and even dovetailing the much-maligned Moto-ST class (now MotoGT) into the AMA Pro Racing weekend of activities.

Spies, a three-time AMA Superbike champion, sees few positives in the series, which has yet to hold a race. "It's a mess," he said, "I'm glad that I got out."

"My fear is that there won't even be an AMA Superbike series in 2010," Spies said. "I think if you talk to promoters, they'll tell you that this was the worst time to have this changeover happen, and they're really scared about trying to sell tickets to it."

While it may be very early to be talking about 2010, many observers are watching the series right now to see how it shapes up.

ENDS

[Dave]

yeouch! any word on how he feels about wsbk?

[Trip]

[t-homo]

God. After 4 hours of studying stat, this picture is hilarious.

[Porkchop]

So let me get this correct. There are going to be 3 classes now, instead of 4?

American Superbike- Self explanitory, litre bikes.
American Sportbike- A melding of classes, including 2, 3, and 4 cylinder bikes?
Supersport- An entry level class of 600's. Riders between ages 16-21. Can only have 3 years in class?

[t-homo]

You guys remember the AMA/MotoGP Rookies race at Indy last year? A bunch of 14 year olds who could outride me any day of the week. Easily.

[smileyman]

Originally Posted by Porkchop

So let me get this correct. There are going to be 3 classes now, instead of 4?

American Superbike- Self explanitory, litre bikes.
American Sportbike- A melding of classes, including 2, 3, and 4 cylinder bikes?
Supersport- An entry level class of 600's. Riders between ages 16-21. Can only have 3 years in class?

Correct. And it appears that it is going to be OK to race Marquis events on Thursdays and then televise them late Saturday nights.

BTW the SS race from all my reports was more of a club race. I feel like anyone of us track experienced coulda taken an off the shelf 600 and run in the top ten. The class according to DMG is to cultivate the next generation of rider by allowing them a place to showcase their talent.

My take on this is these kids should be getting schooled the old fashioned way by more experienced riders in the club racing circuit and leave profesional racing to professional skilled riders. Yeah I know at 16-17 I woulda died for the chance, but you only get better by running against faster people, not your peers...