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posted November 21, 2001 09:30 AM
AMA Superbike
I dont know what happened to the thread I started about 2 months ago about the rumors I had heard about a new track at Loudon NH ... but here is somthing that shows it may have had some credability.
http://www.amasuperbike.com/011120e_loudon.htm
How much of the "cup" track they will use, if any isnt stated.
If you remember the thread, what I had heard back in june 2001 was they were talking about a whole new track in the back lot area just for bikes hoping to attract a WSB event for the east coast.
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posted November 21, 2001 09:50 AM
And here is the reason there is no AMA race at Loudon this year.
As some of you remember Duhamel broke his leg there in 98? not shure.
Mat Strikes Back
by bill heald
"We like a man who comes out and says what he thinks-as long as we agree with him."
-Mark Twain
I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying it was a rather unusual press conference. As we were preparing to hear from the front row of the grid for Sunday's Loudon Classic, Mat Mladin began the proceedings by making a statement about some of the press coverage that he's been receiving, primarily in the local New Hampshire newspapers. If you may remember, the Loudon track owners and Mladin have had a sort of public feud in the prints about the safety of the facility for Superbike racing, a fight which seems to quiet down occasionally but never really go away (especially when it rains.) Mladin's comments have raised the ire of a lot of folks, so whenever Loudon and Mladin are in the same room, so to speak, there is a certain amount of friction.
But this time things boiled over. Mat's takling the issue head-on was catalyzed, in this humble scribe's opinion, by the pole sitter's anger over what he felt was some unprofessional riding by some of his competitors during qualifying. This ire, combined with some rough waters with the press on Friday (namely Larry Lawrence, who took exception to some things Mat said in an interview in a local paper) and other things that a local reporter said in a different article, spurred Mat to address the issues that were irritating him.
The press conference began when Mat was asked by moderator (and NHIS Director of New Projects) Ron Meade, "Mat, would you share with us your lap that set the record?"
"First thing I will share with you is this," Mladin began, "and I hope you guys are all going to get this on tape so none of this will get misquoted, because there's been a lot of misquotes in newspapers and stuff and I got one of them here."
Mat produced a clipping from a local paper, who's name mysteriously escapes me. I honestly didn't notice their name because print is dead and all.
"I don't know if the guy that wrote this is here," he continued, "but it says 'Mat Mladin zips around, blah blah blah, he finished second but refused to talk to reporters afterwards.'
"This is a bit of a joke, because that's not the case. I had a few reporters come and see me under the tent out there, Henny was one of them (referring to Henny Ray Abrams) and I gave him a full interview, if that's not correct (Henny nodded in approval) and I talked to a lot of other guys, too. OK? I'm pretty tired of seeing stuff in print that actually isn't happening, and I don't know who this guy is. . ."
He looked in the paper for a byline but didn't see one.
"The only thing I will say," he continued, "is that I don't know who organized these press conferences, probably Larry Lawrence from the AMA, but most of the time we don't have press conferences on Friday, only sometimes, so there's a lot of dis-organization so nobody knows what's going on. That's why I wasn't here, all right? So that's the second thing. The third thing is, I copped a lot of flack, from a newspaper interview that was done on Friday, mostly from him (referring to Larry Lawrence, who was standing over Mladin with several tape recorders and cleared his throat like a wildebeest). Okay, what I'll say about that is, is that I stated my opinions, and what I think is right. Okay? As far as I'm concerned, no money has been spent on this track in the last 12 months to fix it up for us. Money has been spent to fix it up for NASCAR, but not for us. And I think these blokes (referring to Aaron Yates, Eric Bostrom and Doug Chandler) will echo the same opinions. And I'll tell you now, I'm tired of reading some of this shit."
There was, as they say in theater, a pregnant pause. Mat folded up the newspaper clipping.
"I'll put this away," he continued, 'and I won't say much more."
Ron Meade, clearly a trifle irritated, then asked him about his qualifying lap. It's interesting to note that none of the rider's dissented with Mat about the track, and one of the guys he publicly accused of amateur riding, Eric Bostrom, did in fact echo his feelings about the track:
"As far as the race track is concerned, it's the same track we've always been coming to and it's dangerous as always," he said. "I kind of agree with what Mat said. I think as riders last year we got a bad rap because someone was trying to say it's OK to run on this track in the rain. It's like, if NASCAR guys were saying they didn't want to run at a place, I would have to say I don't know [if it's safe] because I don't drive a NASCAR car. But we are the professionals when it comes to bike racing, and we have the best opinion on what's safest."
Now I'll change literary gears as things got more rapid fire, so here's a rough transcript:
MLADIN: "We're the ones to make the best choices on what we believe we're safe doing. As riders we know."
YATES: "Every year the tracks get rougher, because of more cars on them and everything. Bikes get faster, and tires get better, and you're just going faster and faster. We're going faster and faster in the turns, so when you fall and hit something because there's nowhere to go it's pretty bad. . ."
At this point Ron Meade interrupted:
MEADE: "And filling out the front row is Doug Chandler. . ."
MLADIN: "He doesn't want to stay on it, does he?"
Chandler then talked about qualifying for a few minutes. When he was finished, Meade asked the journalists if they had any questions. Mat responded.
MLADIN: "You guys need to understand what we're about. We're professional racers. We've stated that we've enjoyed coming here to New Hampshire, and in the dry the track is not the best, no doubt about it, but you can sort of put up with it. But when statements get made about the track's a lot better now, and millions of dollars have been spent, I've been reading a lot about that on the Internet, we're not going to cop that. Because we go around these turns every minute and ten seconds, and we were here last year and we can see what's changed, OK? And it's just not happening. It's crazy.
"As I said in my interview on Friday, modern day motorcycles have outgrown this racetrack. I believe that. Tire development, and bikes that are making 180 horsepower around this tiny little race track are the reason. We can put up with a couple of corners, but there's only one spot here where you can fall off and not hit something. One spot. I don't even know what it's called. It's a left-hander, with one little spot with some grass on it to go on, that's it."
At this point yours truly asked the riders if they had, as Yates mentioned on Friday, had problems seeing the bumps on the oval part of the coarse because the new surface obscured them better than the old surface. They indicated that yes, that was the case and the track was as bumpy as ever, but they had run so many laps by now on it that they knew where the bumps were. Then NHIS's Ron Meade chimed in:
MEADE: "That's an interesting point, because the engineers have lasers that measure the surface of the track all the way around the oval, not the road coarse, to less than an eighth of an inch. So if someone feels bumps, it might be the suspension, it might be the tires. . ."
MLADIN: Listen, buddy, I can take you out there and show you. I can stick my finger in them, all right?
A journalist in the crowd then asked Meade, "Do you think the track should have done the whole road coarse with a laser?"
MEADE: "I have no comment on that. But there is, you know, normally if someone has an objection to the track, and the track is so bad, then they're not going to be able to set a new track record. But yet we have a new track record."
MLADIN: "It's called motorcycle development and tire development. That's what it's called."
MEADE: "But it's the same thing. There's an accelerator and a brake on the bike, and you go as fast as you can."
MLADIN: (To the journalists) I just want to say, you can see what we're up against as riders. We're highly paid professionals. The manufacturers employ us, and want to see us race and promote their bikes in the best way we can. And that's why we stress safety so much."
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posted November 21, 2001 09:52 AM
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Loudon off 2002 AMA Superbike Schedule
alan wilson to help track, ama
by dean adams
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
The oldest roadrace in America won't have an official AMA sanction next year but it sounds like the AMA is working on bringing it back at a later date.
From the release:
Absent from the 2002 schedule is New Hampshire International Speedway. AMA Pro Racing has asked noted track designer Alan Wilson to consult both AMA Pro Racing and NHIS regarding modifications to the facility that would allow the return of AMA Superbike racing in the future.
"We're excited about our 2002 schedule," said Scott Hollingsworth, AMA Pro Racing CEO. "California Speedway brings the series back into the Los Angeles metro area for the first time in several years, and that's obviously an important market. We are also pleased with the success of our doubleheader rounds and are happy to add three more to the schedule."
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