Seeping Matter

Last Friday’s running of the Daytona 200 was our first glimpse at the new AMA Pro Racing as managed by the Daytona Motor Group.  Regular readers of my blog will recall my scepticism when the DMG originally announced their plans to “improve” the series.

This year’s revised Daytona 200 was a mixed bag at best.  Attempts to make that class (whatever it was called) more competitive only partially succeeded.  The Buells were surprisingly fast, well-mannered, and competitive compared to the Japanese bikes, much more so than in previous years in Formula Extreme.  However, the other makes, like Aprilia, Ducati, and Triumph, were merely aslo-rans.  Time will tell whether those race bikes can also be competitive – where “time” in this case could mean several seasons.

They also chose to run the race at night under lights.  This was done presumably to increase attendance, I guess, or for TV reasons; I can’t imagine why else they would do it, because it surely doesn’t make for a better racing experience.  Then, about halfway through the race, when Josh Hayes had a healthy six-second lead, that lead was erased when some lights in the upper part of the rear grandstand went out, presumably creating an “unsafe racing condition” and bringing out the yellow flag.

See, the DMG is all about avoiding “unsafe racing conditions.”

So while they were circling the track, under yellow for safety reasons due to an unsafe racing condition, one of the riders couldn’t see well and ran into a slower rider at a fairly high rate of speed, leaving that rider writhing in pain against the wall on the back straight.  So much for holding a caution period in order to make things safer.

Note, this all started because they decided to hold the race at night.

Actually, not true.  This all started when the DMG took over AMA Pro Racing.