Dumbing down: a case study

Dumbing down: a case study

It seems the assumption is that the new owners will dumb down
Superbikes, and even moreso than what the AMA’s proposed 2009 rules
would have done. It’s also assumed that in addition to making the bikes
cheaper it will make the racing closer, not only between the OEMs but
also between the factories and the privateers. The goal being at least
giving the better privateers some outside chance of actually winning a race.

The bottom limit to “stock” in SB is probably AMA SS rules, and to at
least some people that’s the fear, that NASBike will dumb the bikes down
that far to create real competition, and in order to reach their stated
goal of eliminating all “unobtainium” and making all parts available to
all, perhaps that’s a necessity. So what has the past taught us about
SS? Let’s look at the history of AMA 600 Supersport in detail.

1987-89: Privateer beginnings.

1987 – The new class is all privateer, and it’s dominated by Honda’s new
CBR600F, winning every race. More specifically, Doug Polen wins every
race but one.
1988 – Suzuki’s new 600 Katana gives Honda a run, and Polen is entered
on it for the factory Yosh team, and wins the championship but only two
races; Hondas still win 6 of 9.
1989 – The new Yamaha FZR600 is the machine of choice and wins all 10
races and the championship, Scott Zampach’s the second and last by a
privateer.

1990-96: The factory era begins.

1990 – Yamaha fields their SB riders Stevens and Sadowski on the new V&H
team, and Muzzy
Kawasaki hires Russell from Yosh and has him race both SS classes as
well as SB on their new machines. Jeff Farmer wins two races on a
private Yamaha, otherwise the factory teams win the rest and Sadowski
edges Russell for the championship.
1991 – The CBR600F2 is the new bike this time, and it dominates, winning
every race. Duhamel wins his first championship, for Commonwealth Honda,
now heavily factory-connected. Miguel wins 7 times, the other two go to
Two Brothers’ Kirk and Farmer.
1992 – No new 600s means Kipp of Camel-Commonwealth Honda wins the
championship and Honda all the races but one, won by V&H Yamaha’s
Schwarzbach (hours before his death). Four Honda guys win races, the two
on the factory team (Kipp, Smith) and the two on the supported Two Bros.
team (Crevier, Kirk).
1993 – Duhamel lands at Muzzy and wins the championship on their new
Ninja, taking 7 of 10 races. Smith wins two for Camel Honda and
Turkington one for Yosh Suzuki, their first entry since 1989, a
reduced-displacement version of the new water-cooled 750.
1994 – Smith (Camel Honda) and James (V&H Yamaha) on the new YZF600
battle for the championship, winning all 10 races between them. Crevier
on the Muzzy Kawasaki is a very close third.
1995 – Another new Honda arrives, the F3, and wins every race, 8 by
Duhamel and 2 by Hale, his factory teammate. Muzzy Kawasak’s Crevier and
Picotte are down in 7th and 8th on the other new bike as Hondas dominate.
1996 – The Kawi gets better, winning 3 times (Muzzy’s Smith, supported
Kinko’s Stevens, privateer Harrington), but Duhamel wins 6 times and
another championship for Honda. The last race was won by Gerald Rothman
on a Honda, a real privateer anyway you define it, perhaps the last to
win, and on the eve of true factory dominance...

1997-2003: All in.

1997 – For the first time all four Japanese factory teams entered riders
in 600SS, and all are also SB riders. But the battle at the front was
Duhamel and Crevier of American Honda vs. Yates and Picotte on the new
twin-spar-framed Suzuki, the two Yosh guys who battled for the ’96 750SS
championship and the first truly serious Suzuki 600. Suzukis won 6
races, Honda’s Duhamel the other 5 and his 5th championship.
1998 – Kawasaki had the new bike and this time talked Chandler into
riding it. He won 6 races, but Yosh’s Crevier won the championship with
one win and consistent finishes. American Honda’s Duhamel and Bostrom
each won once on the tired F3, Yosh’s Pegram and Yates joined Crevier at
the top of the box, but the most notable winner was 16-year-old Nicky
Hayden on the HyperCycle Suzuki - depending on how you define it, the
last privateer winner in the class, ten years ago next month. And three
different OEMs won races for only the second time in class history (’93
was the first).
1999 – The Hayden brothers dueled for the championship, Tommy for Yamaha
and champ Nicky for heavily-supported Erion Honda. Yates’ win in the
finale gave Kawasaki their only one, a 3rd OEM winning.
2000 – For the first time all four OEMs won a race. Kawasaki’s Bostrom
and Erion Honda’s Roberts tied in points but Roberts won the final race
over E-Boz by a wheel and the championship on more wins, 3 to 2.
Yamaha’s Hacking and Hayden were 3rd and 4th, first true privateer Rich
Alexander way down in 9th.
2001 – Again all four OEMs won, and Kawi’s Bostrom the championship,
Yamaha’s Gobert 2nd, Honda’s Duhamel 3rd. The Loudon winner was a true
privateer, Geenwood, but that was after all the factory guys boycotted
the race.
2002 – Yates finally won the championship for Yosh Suzuki, over
Kawasaki’s Hayden. Honda’s increasingly mainstream 600 won only one
race, and Yamaha none.
2003 – Hacking finally won the championship, for Yamaha, and all four
OEMs won again, and 7 race winners in 11 races. Yamaha was now focusing
on the support classes, having withdrawn the R7 project here two years
after WSB and not yet supporting the R1 in SB, rather backing Graves in FX.

2004-08: Middleweight and heavyweight competition.

2004 – The conversion to 1000s in SB was complete, and the AMA made
Superstock a 1000 class and FX a middleweight class, now also including
750cc twins, unlike Supersport. Honda’s dull-edged 600 under SS rules
was moved to FX, including SB riders Duhamel and Bostrom for American
Honda and Erion’s Zemke. Kawasaki followed Yamaha’s lead and withdrew
from SB to focus on the SS classes. Kawi’s Hayden brothers won 8 of 11
races and Tommy the championship, with Yamaha’s DiSalvo taking two and
Yosh Suzuki’s Spies one.
2005 – Tom Hayden repeats, Rog again 2nd, DiSalvo and Spies round out
the top four, with Geoff May in 5th being the highest non-factory rider
since Nicky’s 4th in ‘98. Kawasaki and Yamaha win all the races.
2006 – Hacking wins again for Yamaha, running away with the championship
over May in 2nd, winning 7 races with Kawi’s Rog Hayden taking the other
3. With Tommy now focused on SB and Yamaha on FX, these are the only two
real factory riders in the class (after Spies dropped out).
2007 - Roger wins it for Kawasaki over teammate Hacking, the pair taking
four wins in ten races. Erion’s Hayes wins Honda its first race since
’03, four in total and goes down to the wire in the championship. Graves
Yamaha’s Herrin gets their only win, the factory boys now focusing on
SB. Yosh’s Tom Hayden never really gets in the fight, Suzuki again doing
little more than flying the 600 flag, but finished 5th on consistent
finishes.
2008 - The factory boys are the Haydens at Kawasaki and Yosh Suzuki,
Graves’ Bostrom and Herrin, Erion’s Hayes and Zemke, and Attack
Kawasaki’s Rapp and Davies, the class moving more toward a top support
team structure. But these guys fill the box at Daytona.


In summary what we saw was a class has been utterly dominated by the
factories, to the extent that they were participating. Since 1990 the 18
champions have been 17 factory team riders (13 of whom also raced in
SB), one rider from teams with very heavy factory support, effectively
the factory B teams, and no privateers. From a race win perspective in
that time it’s been 157 for factory team riders (114 who also raced in
SB), 18 for major support teams, and 10 wins for minor support teams and
privateers. And no privateer wins in a decade, if you consider Hayden
the last - in 2002 Greenwood won that Loudon boycott race and Zemke won
at Brainerd for the Bruce Transportation team that was a satellite of
the Erion team.

We also see in the earlier days a pattern of dominance by the new
machine, in general a bike with the latest technology and also with more
high-priced parts adopted from the high-end 750s or 1000s. At some point
the machines reached a sort of equilibrium, and superior performance was
more due to less radical updates that were done specifically for racing.
But more recently we have seen Honda unwilling to compete on that level
and dropping out, and Suzuki perhaps not as committed either and
suffering as a result. In 03-06 Yamaha and Kawasaki were the most
committed to the class, and they won the championships and 36 out of 42
races. That they didn't bother with SB played a part in this, of course.

In the 21 year history of 600SS, a single OEM won every race four times,
all in the earlier years, and two OEMs shared all the wins eight times;
all four won races only three times (and those over a four-year period).
Compare that to SB over the same time, where only last year did the same
OEM win all the races, and two of them won all only four times (87-88,
05-06). What we also see is that when the factories were supporting
production-based racing more and GP less, the racing was more
competitive in both classes, but when they weren’t, it wasn’t. So SB
peaked here in maybe 97-02, the same time 600SS was reaching its peak,
but when the Japanese moved their focus from WSB to MotoGP, the
ramifications were felt in the AMA, big time.

So what happens if NASBike moves to 1000s in SS trim? The factories will
still win all the races, even if they require spec tires (which is close
to the case in SS anyway) and even if they limit testing. Who wins will
depend more on how much the factory in Japan is willing to shape their
street machine to racing and how often they update it. That’s because
post-production modifications for racing will be much more limited, of
course. The factories will have that theoretical advantage resulting
from controlling the stock parts, but there's nothing that can be done
about that if standardization and equalization is the goal.

If the factories still run major support or B teams, they will likely
come next, although a very good and well-funded private team like Jordan
could certainly challenge them with the right riders. And the usual
privateers will follow, in their own race. What we know about these guys
is they will follow the path of least resistance, which means the best
combination of fast bikes and high contingencies. That's why all the
600SS wins went to Honda in 1987 and Yamaha in 1989, the only two
privateer years in the class, and why Suzuki had the top 12 finishers in
SStock at Daytona this year. A privateers class does NOT mean good
competition between OEMs, rather the opposite.

In other words, it ain't gonna work. But then, it doesn't seem like
Edmondson or a lot of other supposedly knowledgeable people really
understand what has been going on in racing anyway...