Big-time racing's future (was Interview with Ducati...)

> It's going to be interesting to see what all of racing looks like in
another
> 2-3 years, see what crawls out of today's primordial soup. I don't think
it
> can easily be predicted.

Thinking about this, what should racing look like in 2-3 years? My opinion,
taking into account everyone's interests:

 - Flammini and WSB should go away. Now that the manufacturers have
officially shunned them, so should the FIM. Let Paulo run some funky Euro
championship or something, but stop him from messing up the works.
 - GP should dump 125 and 250, and adopt the SB and SS classes. Their class
structure should be MotoGP, SB, 1000SS and 600SS (with 600SS probably run on
Saturday).
 - MotoGP should at some point move down to 750cc, to deal with the power
issue. 250hp or more on motorcycles is getting out of hand, and safety is a
reasonable concern. A 750 MGP bike would easily make 180hp today, which is
about where 500s were. Let weight distinguish between the various
configurations, but have it make sense (i.e., don't encourage the makers to
build
bikes with odd number of cylinders).
 - SB should move to 600-4s, 675-3s and 750-2s, all with equal weight, and
with overboring allowed to the displacement limits. Significant
modifications
should be allowed, but there should be a large number of base machines
required to be produced, to get away from the specials we've seen in the
past. Specials like some of the past Ducatis and the Foggy/Petronas belong
in MGP.
 - 600SS shouldn't allow as many mods as currently is the case, particularly
internal engine mods, to create more separation from SB and keep costs down.
The AMA model is better, I think.
 - The national championships should run the same classes as the GP support
classes, plus another class or two or three if they want - twins, singles,
250s, whatever. In the AMA at least, the reduction in SB displacement would
help alleviate safety concerns. The number of manufactured/imported bikes
for the SS classes should be high, to avoid higher-cost, low-run specials.
More effort should be made to keep rules very similar across the board,
which means more of the power should lie with the manufacturers and the
national championship sanctioning bodies. Dorna and the FIM shouldn't decide
the rules for everyone.
 - GP should allow for significant wildcard participation in the support
classes, the benefit of keeping the rules essentially the same. Guaranteed
spots on the grid should be limited, certainly no more than 20, if retained
at all. Support class grid limits should be expanded to 32-36, as long as
there are enough fast guys to fill it. Make the world guys earn it.
 - GP should run more events, at least 20 and maybe 25. No country should be
allowed to have more than two a year, and the number that get that should be
limited to maybe a half dozen at most. That way Spain, Italy, Great Britain,
Japan, the US could have more than one and it wouldn't hurt the current
tracks/promoters as much, but wouldn't allow the interests of a few nations
to dominate the series as they have in the past. Make it a true world
championship.

With this structure the GPs would become huge events, the only world
championship series, a premier class that is unquestionably the best in the
world, a very high-level 2nd class that could support the series if MGP
falls on harder times, and two support classes that allow for new rider
development and participation by smaller and newer teams, and with classes
of real interest to the manufacturers. The wildcards would create additional
interest in the countries with viable national championships, make it easier
for new teams to move into GP, and perhaps help build those championships.
The national championship class structure would allow for rider development
in places like America, the UK, Japan that could easily feed into GP, and
riders from the European countries that currently use the small classes in
GP and WSS for this could still have that avenue in GP. The manufacturers
would have their promotional interests fulfilled with this class structure,
and their funding decisions might not impact the various series as much as
they do now.

Of course, it'll never happen...