Someone Has Finally Said It: New Racing Series?

I'm not going to belabor this too much tonight but there are a couple of interesting articles over at Superbike Planet that have been posted over the last two days. As an astute reader might have guessed it's more information concerning the Daytona Motorsports Group and their takeover of AMA Racing and subsequent proposed debasement and brutalization of the series. Or possibly "emasculation" is a more apt term for what they plan. No, I'm not in the mood to mince words about it tonight. I just finished watching the Superstock and Formula Xtreme races from last weekend's Barber Motorsports Park round and frankly, the only racing that sucks in AMA Roadracing right now is Superbike. The races in the rest of the classes were actually quite entertaining and eventful. And yet this is the series that DMG wants to gut.

Anyway, the first of the articles is an interview with two of the higher-ups with Daytona Motorsports Group, Collin Frasier and Bill Syfan. I'm not going to delve to deeply into an analysis of the interview but suffice to say it provides some insight into why the DMG is doing what it's doing. Some of it sort of makes sense, some of it I don't agree with at all, and some of my major concerns weren't even mentioned. Not that that's really too surprising. All in all it looked like an attempt at spin control as much as anything.

The second of the two articles is an interview with a Senior Vice President with American Honda, Ray Blank. Again, I'm not going to do a line-by-line analysis, but Mr. Blank's interview is very interesting. He seems to feel very much like I do honestly, and he pretty much comes right out and says that the DMG is aiming for a NASCAR-like final picture for AMA Road Racing. Specifically, they have no interest in making a series attractive to enthusiasts, rather they want John Q. Public to show up at the races. I, like Mr. Blank, can understand their reasoning there, but I don't like it. Furthermore, I think the same thing could be accomplished without dumbing down the sport. Either way, the long and short of it is that I am an enthusiast, and I want the sport to be an enthusiast's sport. I don't mind if John Q. Public comes to the races and I certainly hope he has a good time if he does, but I don't want the quality of the experience sacrificed to get him there.

Finally, and probably the most interesting thing to me, is that Mr. Blank seemed to hint very strongly that he might be open to the idea of the manufacturers getting together and starting another, competing, series. He stated that he didn't think it would be that difficult and, at least from the way I read it, practically invited some enterprising promoter to get the wheels rolling. What's more, again from the way I read it, he practically promised his support should those wheels begin moving. I'd wondered how long it would be before talk this very thing started to rear it's head. This kind of coup has been used before, successfully I might add, when some sanctioning body was doing things the racers and/or manufacturers didn't like. King Kenny Roberts himself pulled something very similar in a bid to get changes made in the Motorcycle Grand Prix series years ago.

Things certainly appear to be hotting up and we could all be in for a truly interesting ride. Stay tuned.