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http://cyclenews.com/articles/editor...rial-chicanery
Editorial: Chicanery
When racing just isn't fun anymore
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By: Henny Ray Abrams
Article Comments MORE IN EDITORIALS >> Fun Or Funereal?
To catalog the multitude of transgressions perpetrated by the new AMA Pro Racing on the road-race paddock would be futile. The list is long and varied and constantly growing. But if there's one thing they've done that's inexcusable, other than laying waste to their own credibility, it's that they've taken the fun out of racing.
Very few people get rich racing motorcycles. The hours are brutal, the physical demands are demanding, the return on investment is minimal. People race motorcycles, people work on racing motorcycles, people support motorcycle racing, because it's their passion, because they love it, because it's fun. But if Daytona didn't convince you, the evidence was stark at Fontana - this just isn't fun anymore.
The atmosphere in the AMA road-race paddock is funereal. The central topic of conversation isn't racing, but what's wrong with racing and how much worse it's going to get. Because, make no mistake, it continues to get worse.
That part of the Fontana weekend not spent recounting the AMA's innumerable sins from Daytona - did you know that race control didn't authorize the red flag that caused the debacle during the 200, but that it was a rogue element in the chicane? - was spent lamenting the current situation and the future.
On Saturday afternoon, AMA PR made the decision to move the SuperSport race from Sunday, when it was expected to rain, to Saturday. Had they said it was because of rain, that would have been an admission that they didn't want young riders racing on a track that's barely tolerable in the dry to one that's lethal in the wet. So instead, AMA PR issued a press release in which AMA Pro president Roger Edmondson was quoted as saying, "The only class that does not have provisions for rain tires this weekend is AMA Pro SuperSport, presented by Shoei, so the decision was made to run their feature at the end of today's schedule."
Completely false. Not a shred of truth to it. Dunlop, the control-tire supplier, had a truck full of rain tires for all classes and at least 200 for SuperSport. That should have been enough, since each rider gets two wet fronts and two wet rears. Did I mention there were only seven riders in the SuperSport race? Given the size of the field, they could have held eight wet SuperSport races before the supply became an issue.
Was Edmondson ill-served by a minion who provided him with bad information? We don't know. But if there was any question, it would have been prudent to ask the question before throwing one of his partners under the tire truck. And if AMA PR is willing to treat a company that's paying a substantial sum of money like that, what hope is there for the rest of the paddock?
At the end of the weekend, Monster Attack Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking reportedly dropped a few f-bombs while making a less-than-graceful exit from the press room. For that, and for his behavior at the postrace news conference, he was suspended indefinitely. Press rooms aren't for the faint of heart, and the atmosphere would be monastic if cursing was prohibited. Hacking will miss the next round of the series at Road Atlanta, which will almost certainly guarantee that a Buell will be leading the championship. If you can't beat 'em, ban 'em. It isn't enough that they've designed a class where one machine is twice as large as the rest, has the greatest list of special allowances, and can weigh the same as the twins? Now they have to put the toughest competition, a multiple-time champion, in the docket.
Now Kawasaki has a decision to make. With Roger Lee Hayden out, is there any reason for them to drive cross country to the next round at Road Atlanta with just Leandro Mercado confirmed? Of course not. So the fans at Road Atlanta are punished by AMA PR and are denied the chance to see a successful son of the South, one less of a dwindling galaxy of stars.
Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Mat Mladin and four others were put on probation for missing a mandatory autograph session. The next time may mean a suspension. Knowing Mladin, he may make himself the test case. And why not?
What have they given to the teams or riders that helps them do their jobs? Nothing. Why should Mladin or anyone else be obligated to have to be somewhere? This is a one-way street, with money flowing south. Until they start treating the paddock like partners and not serfs, they don't deserve the respect of the riders. Had they come in amicably and offered to work together, the paddock would have responded. Instead, it's all about 'you're going to do this, you're going to do that, you're not going to do this, you're not going to do that. What? You don't like it? Tough s--t. There's the door and leave.'
Who would benefit from Mladin's absence? Definitely not the fans, who wouldn't get to see the greatest racer in the history of American Superbike racing.
One team owner predicted: "Suzuki will try and make Mat do the right thing so it doesn't look bad in the eyes of the public. They're not doing anything for us but taking and making our jobs more difficult to do. And not paving a good road to go to the future. I don't see them improving anything in the future. They're not helping us; why should we help them?"
The promoters, as much as anyone, deserve better. They're trying to sell a damaged commodity in a dismal economy with far too many restrictions. For instance, tracks are only allowed to give out trophies to the race winner. Second and third place get medals - the winner does also. Tommy Hayden's medal fell off its ribbon on Sunday. One winner leaned over to another and said, "I used to get these in WERA."
It's one more example of the monomaniacal compulsion to change every single aspect of motorcycle racing, to take something that's unique and mold it into the shape of some other series for no good reason. The pace car - in Fontana, it was a lumbering four-door that clearly wasn't made to go around corners - should be banned. What happened when the pace car came out for the mandatory three laps in Sunday's SportBike race? The fans were treated to three less laps of racing.
The rules from now on are, there are no rules. If you screw up, we'll tell you, but we won't tell you in advance. Will we race in the rain? Don't know. We'll get back to you. Racing in the rain at Fontana is insane. The daffy curbing that makes up the chicane in turn one is lethal. Hit it in the dry and you might lose your front end. In the wet, you will crash and you will hit a wall. And that simply isn't fun.
Henny Ray Abrams' Chicanery columns can be found in the pages of Cycle News at least twice a month.. for more subscription information, visit www.cyclenews.com
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Originally Posted by Pookie
yeah I liked that one too. 
