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Monday Morning Grind

If you're a fan of professional motorcycle racing, can you tell me what the differences are between the AMA Superbike and Superstock classes? As a current racer who tries to be somewhat up to date on what's going on, I can't even tell you what every distinct difference is between the classes.

What I can tell you is that the Superbike, Superstock, Supersport, Formula Extreme class distinctions are far from ideal. Factory riders being spread throughout all the classes only starts the list of problems the AMA has in terms of knowing how to market a series. Dean Adams recently wrote a good article on Superbike Planet in regard to this topic.

To me, you need two premiere classes and two support classes. Superbike is at the top of the ladder. All factory teams must be involved in this class to keep it strong. There should be stricter requirements for privateers trying to qualify for this race, and it should only be the top 20-30 riders competing. No more are needed to put on a good show. In fact, more riders generally cause more problems with lap traffic. Additionally, the current payout structure is too high at the bottom, as a privateer would rather finish 30th in the Superbike race, than 15th in the Superstock race - solely because they can get more money (and who would blame us? It makes sense).

Move more of the money to the Superstock class. This is your primer for the Superbike class. Some of the top support riders going at it on 1000cc machines. And they're Superstock machines, so they're more affordable than competing in the Superbike class. The problem with the Superstock class is there's always a factory team jumping in to try and win the championship. Last year it was Jamie Hacking and Eric Bostrom. In 2007 it will be Ben Bostrom. Ben Bostrom I said. Whether you think Ben still has it or not, he's a big name. And shouldn't be riding with a factory team in a support class. He should be in the Superbike class with the rest of the Yamaha team. However Yamaha wants a Superstock championship (and again, who would blame them). The AMA should have all the factory riders in Superbike, and all the top up-and-coming riders in Superstock. You'll have great racing in both classes, and be able to market each class independently. Move more prize money to the Superstock class, as factory riders don't need the money like a privateer does.

The 600 classes are the same story. Pick either Superstock or Formula Extreme as the premiere 600 class. I've heard cases for both. The Superstock class has generally been the class for factory riders, but FX allows for more modifications, which makes it similar to a Superbike class for 600s. Either way, pick one as the premiere class and one as the support class.

There has to be a better way to market the AMA series. As Dean pointed out in his article, the AMA hasn't had a title sponsor since Chevrolet left a couple years ago. There's a lot that goes into marketing a series, but if you could at least have the right riders in the right classes, with tight racing across the board, that could ultimately market itself. If I as a racer can't tell the difference between classes, how are casual fans going to be able to? In order to take AMA Pro racing to the next level, something as simple as class structure needs to be addressed and ultimately figured out correctly.

Monday, December 18th, 2006 | POSTED AT: 7:19 AM
FILED UNDER: General

2 Comments on “Monday Morning Grind”

Alan wrote on 19 February, 2007, 2:33 PM
As a rider interested in doing more trackdays, and coming up to speed with the various AMA Superbike classes, it is very overwhelming to figure out the differences.

You bring up good points about the Factory guys staying in the Superbike class, and let the privateers work Superstock.

It would also be interesting to see a comparison of AMA Superbike vs. World Superbike.
Eddie wrote on 19 February, 2007, 7:03 PM
Thanks Alan. Maybe I’ll try to write some stuff covering World Superbike. One thing in particular that I do like about WSBK is the spec tire rule. It really has seemed to tighten up the field and eliminate the “have” from the “have nots”.

Thanks for reading ..

- eddie