Back in the 1990s, everything seemed okay. AMA Superbike had strong entries from most of the Japanese Big Four, and the 600 Supersport class was a hotbed of super-trick factory specials in the hands of paid pro riders, built to show the undecided which 600cc showroom rocketship to buy. Privateers were supported by contingency programs which paid them for wins and top placings in regional racing, and there were “gypsy champions,” living out of vans, who drove to wherever the next event was, stopping along the way to freshen up engine top ends. The old doorway to racing had been Yamaha’s TZ250 two-stroke production racers, but as those had risen in price and more affordable 600s had risen in raceability, 600 sportbikes had become the new doorway. Back when production-based Superbike racing had begun in the U.S., it took major resources and fabrication skills to make a Kawasaki Z1-based or Suzuki GS-based bike competitive. But a new structure of racing was coming into being. Nationwide, hundreds of capable riders were taking to 600 and 750 Supersport. So when the AMA national came to town, everyone knew that factory Superbikes and 600s would take the top placings. But you could ride your “contingency bike” in its affordable Supersport trim and maybe pick up useful dollars from a lucky 8th or 11th place. Privateers knew that real Superbike technology was out of reach, so they raced what they had–Supersport bikes. A Supersport bike was affordable to begin with, and adding suspension, tire, and brake-pad upgrades plus a five-angle valve job were all within reach. So that’s what most people raced. Today, it seems efforts to revive U.S. racing center on putting things back as they were. I think of this as “archaeology”– digging up the past and trying to reproduce it in the present. Sadly, so many things have changed that the past can no longer be a guide to the future. First of all, the skills necessary to running a competitive bike have become less common and more expensive. In the early ‘90s, I spoke with a team of enthusiastic young men who had it down. When the race was over, they whipped the head off their 600, reseated the valves, built back up again and ran a leak-down test. They didn’t stop working until their bike was sealed up tight–ready to make maximum power for the next event. Today, this work can still be done, but chances are you’ll have to pay a specialist shop to do it. Most people today are too fascinated staring at their phones or Facebooking to learn unexciting stuff like changing tires or freshening-up a top end. Back when 600 Supersport was purely a factory sales and advertising operation, pro teams had the clout to make a two-year-old model competitive with this year’s model. Machine shop, track testing, dyno testing, fabricating–there were bikes to sell and winning races was the way to sell them. In 2009, Honda and Kawasaki left AMA racing and have not since then rejoined. Don’t they need to sell bikes? Yes, but the market has changed, and sportbikes are no longer hot. No one’s going to blow budget on roadrace contingency and hot race bikes when it won’t sell anything. Today it’s 4-wheelers, dirtbikes, and “ADVs” that are moving. So those two companies continue to stand aside. They’ve been doing this so long that employee turnover means no one in a position of power even knows or cares about racing. It’s not a question of “how to revive racing” when racing itself has become a non-subject. All this means that racing has to be looked at in new ways, and manufacturers have to be offered new roles. What if it’s just too expensive and trick to try to resurrect brand-competitive 600 racing? The present result is, if you don’t have a Yamaha YZF-R6, you’re nowhere. So are the other makers of 600s, so they won’t be interested. This changes things so that what’s left may be only spec racing–classes made up of identical near-stock machines. I never thought I’d be saying such a thing, but the dual problems of falling skills and rising costs leave no alternative. Racing will have to be tailored not only to these changes, but to whatever interests and needs the manufacturers may have.Gadget Reviews: mamaktalk.com
Car Reviews: automoview.com
Entertainment News: 38now.com
Today's Promotions: freepromotoday.com
