Re: The Big Picture

Julian Bond wrote:

You seem to want to dumb it down but this is a support class that is
part of the pinnacle of the sport show not a support class in AMA. Now
go back and look at WSS this year. Ten Kate are nowhere. The fastest
Honda is a private team. A Yamaha is leading the way. A Kawasaki is
frequently in the leading bunch. So WSS tuning levels are too expensive
for Moto2? I don't think so.

And it should be apparent by now that I want to go the other way.
Because I want to find out just how fast a production engine based 600
can be made to go with a prototype chassis and slicks. And the cost
limitation at this level is rebuild intervals not raw parts so the
danger is that they push revs to the point where 500km rebuild intervals
are commonplace.

I don't really have a preference, I'd like to see faster more than
slower on a presonal level, but that's it. But to me what should drive
the decision would be cost considerations, both at the GP level and
then the national championship level. If it's so high and the mods so
great that GP ends up with two segments, the fast full factory bikes
filling all the podiums and then slower privateer bikes filling out a
too-small field of 20 bikes or so, and if the cost means no interest
in the class at the national championship level, then it's a loser.
But if it's too low it's probably not as interesting as it could be,
the bikes have to lap faster than WSS machines, and the best
production motor probably does most of the winning. So it's really a
matter of finding the sweet spot. Which could be different between GP
and the national level, of course, if they're running production-based
motors.

The bigger question is, will a national championship run a class which
both has little appeal to the factories (not their whole bikes) and can
only include the Japanese motors? If the chassis are cheap enough it
can develop as a support class, but may have the same problem as
middleweight FX had here - almost all the factory support remained in
more established SSport, and it was cheaper for privateers as well.

That's an AMA perspective not a world perspective. Whether it's better
or worse, it's different. In the rest of the world, senior club racing
and national championships all run to WSS rules with sometimes a 600
superstock class in parallel. And there is no factory support at all, at
all, in any of it. Even in WSS there's precious little factory
involvement. It's just irrelevant.

That may be the case in BSB, but I don't buy your usual "only in
America is it different" position. My guess is if you looked at all
the world championships worldwide, you wouldn't find every 600 class
everywhere using the WSB rulebook. And the claim about factory
involvement seems even more dubious, for instance I would be shocked
if in Japan they run WSS rules and there is no factory involvement at
all. The old AMA is probably at the end of the bell curve, the OEMs
had more to do with the winning 600s than in most places and the
privateers probably have had less resources upon which to build more
heavily-modified motors.

But I still think there is an issue regarding running bikes with
aftermarket chassis and heavily-modified motors in a national
championship, related to the financial and developmental support
structure, more specifically the lack of that from the OEMs. Less
modified motors almost certainly means a wider spread of the class.

If a national organiser wants to provide a clear route from Club to
National to Moto2 so that new national riders can get into the GP
paddock, then sure, they'll run a national Moto2 championship. Expect to
see a Spanish and Italian national Moto2 championship next year. Which
will mean yet more Spanish and Italian riders jumping straight into
Moto2 the year after. Right now the first Moto2 bikes are being raced in
Spain to shake all the bugs out. Of course their using WSS engines since
the fly in the ointment is exactly when Honda turn up with the 50 or so
that will be needed. Will it Jan or Feb next year?

It is the danger, of course, although I think Moto2 has to be better
than 250 in terms of spreading involvement beyond Spain and Italy, and
also not factoring rider size nearly as much. I really don't think you
need a GP2 class in national championships to develop riders for that
class in GP, although it helps, really it opens up the class to riders
coming off SS or SB machines at the national level or in WSB. That
simply doesn't happen with 250 today, or in a long time. The key to
opening up the series is breaking the 125 stranglehold - in MotoGP
today 12 of the 17 riders came from 125, probably the highest
percentage in premier class history, and that number keeps increasing.
Moto2 just has to be a step in the opposite direction; how far is the
real question.
.

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