Mladin back to AMA Racing?

[A.Alva]

DMG and Edmondson had a fair hand in kicking out the factories from the series, iirc.

Still sad to not see American Honda in it, the series could use their money and bikes in the game.

 

[Zerox]

mat had no motogp or wsbk offers, because as was already said, a 180 lbs plus guy nearly 6 feet tall, over 30 years old, was not a sound investment for a team.

And he'd already done MotoGP anyway when he was younger. The MotoGP (ok 500GP) thing had already left a bad taste in Mladin's mouth once before with that whole Cagiva dealio, he wasn't keen to go back to MotoGP or WSBK on substandard equipment, so he stayed in AMA.

I forget the year but somewhere in there during an offseason test, Mladin tested his AMA-spec bike at an overseas track where some WSBK boys were also testing...and Mladin was faster than all of the WSBK dudes. Point made. :teeth

 

[jrace]

I had an interesting conversation with publisher and race team owner John Ulrich about this a day or so ago, including the possibility of him fronting the team ...

http://www.motopodcast.com/episode/episode-364-year

-jim

 

[kevin 714]

Right. But viewership was still shit in the USA compared to other countries. Even at its most recent peak of 2003-2004ish.

Kev, you on fire man!! :clap

 

[jrace]

It was good. I kept nodding in agreement. :thumbup

-jim

 

[ratpick]

The Mladin hate is strong. He was up against Spies until the last year of his career in serious title fights so he wasn't coasting. Even in 2009, he was beaten by Hayes twice and Pegram twice (Road America).

Think of racers as operating a small business instead of some character in a Rocky movie.

You have worked your ass off to get somewhere in one of the most dangerous and competitive pursuits on earth. You have endured injuries an pain to reach this position. You have been at this since you were five or six years old so the rewards came after nearly two decades of hard work. You have only a few peak earning years and you have to make the most of them. What would most BARFers do? Give up several million dollars to go race on a 2nd rate team overseas?

I don't have a problem with anyone for staying in a particular series and getting paid vs. riding for peanuts on a shitty team just to finish 10th in a World Championship race behind other riders that may or may not be as talented.

very well said!
:teeth

 

[TTTom]

DMG and Edmondson had a fair hand in kicking out the factories from the series, iirc.

Still sad to not see American Honda in it, the series could use their money and bikes in the game.

Well, all that would require is that people start buying sport bikes again :laughing

That ain't the case though. You can see where Honda are putting their R&D money... bikes that get 60-80 mpg, 500cc twins, 700cc twins, 250 thumpers

factory racing died because sport bike sales died

 

[LongGoneJohn]

The factories out-engineered themselves.

We were all happy with 140hp, $9000 liter bikes or 105hp $7000 600's. The factories kept pushing more and more and before you knew it, you had $13,000-$20,000 180-200hp liter bikes and $11,000 600's. No one needs that shit. No one.

As a result, people kept their "old" bike which was in some cases lighter, more managable and less peaky (for the street), and didn't buy new bikes. Then the economy took a dump, and that made the situation even more apparent.

The problem all along was the factories though, developing things that people neither wanted, nor needed. The economy just sped up the inevitable.