Black eye for NASCAR

[oldbuckster]

What a joke that race was yesterday, Empty seats, terrible tires, 10 lap sprints, NASCAR's greed is starting to choke them. Never mind Toyota has won 14 of 24 races in year number 2, took Dodge 8 years to win first one, Chevy and Ford cried, so now Toyota has to cut their horsepower ........ They should be ashamed, that was the INDY BRICKYARD, a legend in speedways, and they present a show like that ...... Shame,Shame,Shame ...... [:$] .. [bs]

[Daddy Dee]

What was the deal with all the tire blow outs?

[Hifi jim]

I agree ob. I stopped following religiously when Rusty retired. I miss the old Nascar. I don't care for the "car of tomorrow" either. Toyota, Ford, Chevy and Dodge should be forced to build what they race as it used to be. So right about their greed, it's ridiculous how greedy they are. They had a beautiful sport that is now in my eyes ruined. Baseball won't be far behind. A couple years ago that lamo commissioner pulled advertisements from the basepads at the last minute before the All-Star game. All the bases were to have a Spiderman logo and web. WTF! Is nothing sacred? Corporate greed and marketing make me want to puke.

[Islander]

You guys should check out MotoGP. Star riders on 800cc 220hp 325lb bikes that hit over 200mph even on twisty tracks and reach 60 degree lean angles in the turns with their knees dragging and their elbows a few inches above the pavement.

The most recent race was the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca in Monterey on July 20th. Valentino Rossi, the 7-time World Champion, was banging elbows with Casey Stoner, this year's World Champion, as they really fought for the lead. One of the best races ever!

The summer break is on now, but the next race, the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic at Brno, will be on CBS on August 17th (2-3pm).

On September 14th, NBC will show live coverage of the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP. Maybe former World Champion Nicky Hayden, the Kentucky Kid, will make it back onto the podium after finishing in the top 5 at some races this year.

More info here: http://www.2wf.com/content/view/1700/2/

MotoGP is usually seen on Speed Channel, but this site lists all the racing on TV, not just bikes: http://www.tvracer.com/

[oldbuckster]

NHRA, and Modified Tractor Pulls, 2 wheel and 4 wheel Truck Pulls are better to watch than Nascar. It's a shame what greed has done !!!!

[Coytee]

Tractor Pulls, 2 wheel and 4 wheel Truck Pulls

I watch the 4 legged dog pulls.... best of all, they're free! []

[Klipsched with Yamahas]

Maybe NASCAR will bring back the "dirt" tracks[]

What a joke of a race!

[colterphoto1]

I 'won' tickets to the inaugural Brickyard 400 in the lottery, but only managed to go about every other year. It was like watching a train going around in circles- the Indy track is made for open wheeled cars.

Yesterday I was so glad that I'd turned my tickets in last year.

I agree that greed in sports is killing many of them. I helped pay for the RCA dome which will be torn down (won't get that tax removed either), and have to pay another tax to subsidize the rich folk who can afford tickets to the new LucasOil Stadium. Hope all the Beemer-drivers enjoy the show, I'll be at home.

[Islander]

It's a shame what greed has done !!!!

If you want your car racing team to join the Formula One competition, you have to cough up a $50 million fee and commit to competing for at least two seasons. Of course, the fee is in addition to the cost of equipping and maintaining the team. That sounds pretty greedy to me.

Bernie Ecclestone, the head of the Formula One organization, has one of the most expensive houses in London, a city with no shortage of millionaires and billionaires.

[colterphoto1]

Bernie bent Tony George over the yard of bricks...

[Fish]

What a joke that race was yesterday, Empty seats, terrible tires, 10 lap sprints, NASCAR's greed is starting to choke them. Never mind Toyota has won 14 of 24 races in year number 2, took Dodge 8 years to win first one, Chevy and Ford cried, so now Toyota has to cut their horsepower ........ They should be ashamed, that was the INDY BRICKYARD, a legend in speedways, and they present a show like that ...... Shame,Shame,Shame ...... ..

I agree 100%!

[Dflip]

Indy has had problems with tires before. If you remember the ill fated Indy Formulae one race where only seven cars started and none of them on Michelins. The tires shredded on the track and were a danger to the drivers. We saw the equivalent this weekend where the new tires couldn't stand up to the track and after 12 -16 laps they were down to their cords. NASCAR did what they had to in the interest in safety. It was lousy racing and sad to watch, but it had to be done. NASCAR need to force Goodyear to test many cars on the Indy track to ensure that they can have a tire that will not force as many competition yellows. The difference in tracks is great and the "car of tomorrow" is much safer and is better in the long run. Goodyear just needs to come up with the best set up for the car. It might take a race or two to make it work.

In the mean time, there is nothing better than Dover or Bristol at night. A short track with tight racing and some bump drafting makes for a fun race to watch. Mind you three wide at Daytona is also pretty to watch until the big one occurs.

[BLSamuel]

Yeah. A travesty of a "race". Didn't even hear about it until I turned on the radio this morning. Glad I didn't bother to turn it on. GREED is ruining sports. Yeah, sure, a pro sports team does bring a lot of revenue into a city, but is it as much as they claimed, even if it is it still doesn't seem fari that the tax payers get stuck paying the bills and a large corporate entity gets to add their name for a fraction of the money the taxpayers pony up.

So what was wrong with the RCA Dome - not enough expensive over priced boxes for the people with too much money to spend or the big corporations to entertain their clients, probably written off their taxes as a business expense, and oh yeah too little revenue for the poor NFL (or NBA, or MLB, etc) owner to remain competitive. So when's the last time a major pro sports franchise owner has actually seriously hurt for money?

So the realy answer to what was wrong with the RCA Dome, or Market Square arena - not a darn thing! (Fill in just about any major sports venue built or rebuilt in the last 30 years.... and haven't a few owners (very few) actually privately financed their stadiums?

Winning seems to make the owners more money so they keep paying more and more to beat the other guy. Oh, right, it is difficult to feed your family on 6 or 16 million a year. Darn crybabies should try it on 30 to 70K or even 100K. Can't totally blame the athletes. I'd go to work for a new employer tomorrow if the price is right and it's ethical.... Offer me a paltry 1/2 a mil a year for a job that many would consider fun and I'd sign on in a heartbeat. And with a 2 to 40 month off season. Hmm...

Yep. Agree with CP1. Too much greed. Big concerts are getting prety expensive, but I'd guess I could take the family to a couple pretty good ones for what it'd cost to attend a couple of Colts games or at least one? Don't really know, haven't priced either for a few months.

[billybob]

Last time I took a bike out, after years awhile back, I reached 135 without batting an eyelid. Just unreal,1995 Honda VFR 750, but prototype I rode was a 700cc.

Turn that screw down Yota. Go Chevy![au]

[Guest srobak]

You guys should check out MotoGP.

NOW we are talkin! However... there is, was, and always will be only one Master BadAss when it comes to 2-wheel supersport terror...

Mr. Scott Russell - AMA & World Superbike champ from way back...

Addressed to me Signed by Scott, and Rob Muzzy

I will be at MotoGP in Indy this Sept - hopefully it doesn't do to bike tires what it does to cars.

...

[Islander]

NOW we are talkin! However... there is, was, and always will be only one Master BadAss when it comes to 2-wheel supersport terror...

Mr. Scott Russell - AMA & World Superbike champ from way back...

Scott Russell was the man, at Daytona for sure. Pity he ran into some bad luck a few times.

Here's a shot of me with Yvon Duhamel in 1993, one of the fastest Canadian riders of all time, in front of his son Mario's pit at Shannonville, Ontario. I raced against Mario in 1985 in Pro 750 Production and Pro Superbike on my Yamaha FZ750. He may have been the slower brother, compared with Miguel, but even a "slow" Duhamel was faster than me. That was my last year of racing, since I was getting older, but Miguel and Mario were around 15 years younger than me.

I also rode the Nelson Ledges 24-Hour in Ohio in 1984 and 1985 with Team Leonard, for 1st in Lightweight Superbike (8th Overall), on a stock Yamaha RZ350 in '84 and 3rd in Middleweight Superbike (5th Overall) on a stock Yamaha RZ500 in 1985, in spite of crashing in Turn 1 and breaking my ankle. The Canadian RZs were thought to be faster than the US bikes, so they had to compete in Superbike, although they were showroom stock bikes.

Kevin Schwantz was in one of those races, riding a Yamaha FJ600 for Hurst Yamaha of Texas. He was starting out and became 500 Grand Prix World Champion in 1993, but in 1984 he was just another face in the crowd among 50 four-rider teams. His team crashed out, so he attracted no attention at that event. In the 1985 race, John Kocinski, the later GP star, was teamed with Dave Aldana, the former AMA star, on the Cycle Tech team, riding a GSXR750.

The Nelson Ledges 24 Hour always featured a mixed bag of riders, from the buddy teams that got together once a year for the annual fun, to national champions and young up-and-comers, so the speed differences could make things very exciting at times.

[Islander]

Here's a shot from 1984, in Turn 5 at Shannonville, with James Pletsch chasing me on his RZ500. I'm riding an RZ350 and the class is Pro 600 Production. Riding a 350 may seem small-time to some, but in the mid-1980s, if your racing budget was only $500 a weekend, that was the way to go. I did manage to win the Amateur 600 Production and Amateur 750 Production provincial titles on the 350 in 1983. Those 750 Interceptor Hondas just got in the way in the turns, plus they couldn't match the RZ350s and Kawasaki GPZ550s in braking, either.

[Islander]

Finally, moving fast on the 1983 RZ. The modern bikes lean over a lot further, but this was what was possible on street tires back then. It was fun!

[Guest srobak]

Awesome stuff! Someone who remembers back to the day I got into bikes. Very nice shots. As much as I love to ride (18k on the ZX9 last year, about 180k since 1992), I could just never bring myself to do a track day. I am really afraid it will completely ruin the street for me - what little bit of I can still enjoy trying to ride around Chicagoland :|

I never got the chance to meet the Duhamels - only Scott and Rob - and also only because I was attending a Kawi dealers convention at the time (was working for a Kawi dealer). I am sure you remember Scott's 1994 Daytona race... DNQ, starting in last place, passing the entire field and winning the opening race of the year for world superbike. On my bike (at the time... 93 ZX-7)...

So as not to ruin the street and turn me into a track ***** (which I know I would become), I just venture off during the weekends to find the curviest new roads I can. Long time ago I did the PCH from border to border... I really want to do that again. Now that I also have an ST1300, I do see that happening in the near future.

EDIT - and yes - it was amazing what could be done on those skinny rear tires back when... talk about having a lot of faith in them! They are more narrow than what comes on the Ninja 250's today!

[Islander]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the shots. I do remember Daytona 1994 and understand why it's special for you. For me, it was Daytona 1986. I'd driven all the way down from Toronto (1200 mi) to be there and seeing Eddie Lawson win on an '86 FZ750 really made my day.

As for doing track days (not racing), it can be a way to enjoy going faster than you ever could on the street, legally, so you're not tempted to take a silly chance on the public road and end up under a guardrail or worse. You could give it a try by going to a racing school (most tracks have them), where you may be able to rent a suitable bike for the day and ride around with others of comparable speed, so you don't feel like you're in over your head.

Your ZX-9 is a serious handful of bike and would hold you back from getting really comfortable on the track, since it's likely a bit intimidating when ridden at track speeds the first few times. Buying a beater Ninja 500 for the track would let you gain confidence and would be much cheaper to crash. Once you get skilled on it, it'll be great fun passing nervous track novices on their ZX-9s. Seriously!

Here's a safety tip: don't hang off on the street! Street pavement's not as sticky as track pavement. Hanging off lets you generate enough cornering speed to slide off the road, but keeping your body in line with the bike when you lean over provides a better margin of safety. On one of your shots, I noticed you have your toe out as a feeler. Not a bad idea. It's easier to raise your foot than your footrest or exhaust pipe when it starts to scrape.

As for the skinny tires back in the day, they were actually safer, since they would slide at lower speeds. To be safe, a tire just needs to slide predictably. The bigger, stickier, ones just mean you'll be going faster when it starts to give way on you. The RZ was wearing a 120/90-18 on the back, while the FZ750 wore a 150/70-18 or 160/60-18.

Here's a snap of me on the FZ750 taking off from a GSXR-750 rider in Turn 1 at Shannonville. It's not a great picture because my girlfriend shot it from near the stands. The track photogs didn't spend much film on the mid-pack pros like me. You can see the Sports Network video guy has his camera lowered because the big stars had gone by before I passed him.