Re: Interview with Ducati re AMA Superbikes

"Pat Farrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I think in 84, Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson lapped the field.
> They finished side-by-side. They were on special 680 CC versions
> of their GP500 V4s, which were probably 20 MPH faster than
> the privateer TZ500 and TZ750s.
>
> The field is always thin at the top.
> That is the problem with AMA road racing,
> there are no fast guys in 9th or 10th.
> Or no guys on fast bikes.
>
> Superbikes were supposed to fix that
> in 86. Right. Supersport was supposed to
> fix it a couple of years later.

That's where I think you're wrong - I don't think anything is broken and
needs to be fixed, at least in the terms you're speaking of. You're looking
for 15 or 20 guys on roughly equal machinery and with equal talent. That's
not possible except against very long odds. The norm is that there might be
5 or 6 guys with the talent capable of winning multiple races and a
championship, and as often as not there are one or two manufacturers that
have an edge. Usually those two pair up, so how do you get 20 guys at the
front? 600SS has been very competitive, in large part because the bikes are
easier to master and not too terribly different from each other, but there
you still see the best guys out front most of the time.

15 years ago Michael Scott wrote of a testing injury suffered by Wayne
Gardener: "The problem is that the number of people who go fast enough to
unearth final weaknesses can be counted on the fingers of one hand; and even
they sometimes only do so when they are racing against one another. Gardner
would dearly love Honda to do more testing, but only if it is by riders as
fast as himself. But there aren't any. Catch-22." Same thing applies today.

SBs in the AMA have been about as equal as bike racing gets, since the
current era began in 1990. Since then Suzuki has won 4 championships,
Kawasaki 4, Honda 3, Ducati 2, Yamaha 1. In that same time Mladin's won 4
championships, Chandler 3, and Stevens, Russell, Polen, Corser, Duhamel,
Bostrom and Hayden one each. In terms of wins, Duhamel has won 26 times,
Mladin 24, Hayden 17, Russell 13, Eric Bostrom 11, Gobert 11, Chandler 10,
Polen 10, Yates 8; no one else has more than 3. For manufacturers' wins it's
Honda 50, Suzuki 32, Kawasaki 32, Ducati 31, Yamaha 14.

Compare that to GP, where over the same period it's Honda 9, Yamaha 3,
Suzuki 2 in championships, and Honda 130, Yamaha 45, Suzuki 29, Cagiva 3,
Ducati 1 in wins (and during 90-93 it was Yamaha 24, Honda 15, Suzuki 15,
Cagiva 3, and 4 of the 5 Yamaha/Suzuki championships, so much worse over the
last decade). For riders it's Doohan 5, Rossi 3, Rainey 3, and Schwantz,
Criville and Roberts one each in championships, and in wins it's Doohan 54,
Rossi 33, Rainey 20, Schwantz 17, Criville 15, Biaggi 12, Roberts 8,
Cadalora 8, Barros 6, Gibernau 5. Over the last decade it's been Doohan 50
(all on Hondas), Rossi 33 (all on Hondas), Criville 14 (all on Hondas),
Biaggi 12 (4 on Hondas), Roberts 8, Barros 5 (all on Hondas), Gibernau 5 (4
on Hondas).

In WSB it's been Ducati 10, Honda 3, Kawasaki 1 in championships and Ducati
210, Honda 66, Kawasaki 33, Yamaha 25, Aprilia 8, Suzuki 6, Bimota 1 in
wins. For riders it's Fogarty 4, Edwards 2, Polen 2, and one each for Roche,
Russell, Corser, Kocinski, Bayliss and Hodgson in championships, and Fogarty
59, Edwards 31, Polen 27, Corser 23, Bayliss 22, Roche 18, Chili 16, Hodgson
16, Kocinski 14, Russell 14, Slight 13, Falappa 13, Haga 11 in wins. If you
look at Polen, Bayliss, Roche and Hodgson, you see guys who essentially won
all their races over a year or two, while they were the top guy for Ducati.
Fogarty was in that position longer, and Corser, Chili, Kocinski, Falappa
also had many (if not all) of their wins on Ducatis.

So you can see there has been a dominant manufacturer in both those series.
In terms of wins, the guys who rode their bikes have most of them, of
course. The AMA has been much more balanced overall at the front, I think
you'd have to agree. But still clearly a few guys who have been better than
the rest.

But if your concern is how close to the front the guy in 10th, or 15th, or
20th is, then you're looking at the manufactured competitiveness of NASCAR.
As you said, that's not racing. I've always said it's the professional
wrestling of motorsports, and they manufacture heroes as much as close
racing. If bikes just went around in circles in drafting packs and the AMA
offset every advantage the teams could create, I suppose bikes could do the
same thing. Of course I wouldn't be watching anymore...