What Happened to Lange at Detroit

Detroit Lites main, "the big one." Lange is 3rd in points, and in the hunt if Townley and Morias screw up. Lange is slow off the gate, and Mike Alessi is about in the middle. Alessi high sides and actually runs past where is bike lands since he doesn't fall down! He ends up standing in front of Lange's front wheel.

Strange.

Detroit SX, Saturday Morning

Weekend Window is in Detroit to watch the final round of East SX Lites, with the title up for grabs. These are always exciting and anything can happen.

A few other points about this weekend-

- It's past April 15, so it's "new fuel weekend" for the race teams. This means the deadine is past for the fuel suppier to get the offending chemical out of the fuel that caused all the problems starting at A3. The new cans were spotted outside Reed's semi and were labeled Pro 4.1. So OK, they are racing dot 1 fuel and not dash 1. Nice huh?

- Weather is great outside!

- AMA Racing's Steve Whitelock held a round table with media after the track walk to go over the meetings in Spain last weekend. It went pretty well and he explained to the US moto media how the process worked.

- Motocross dot com's editor Tim Olson is replacing Terry Beal at Yamaha. Congrats to Tim.













Quick summary of the more controversial part, the 350/450 thing:

What happened last weekend in Spain is the FIM and AMA Racing agreed to work on problems together, and they have already asked the MSMA to take a proposal to OEMs to make 350s or something close available to racing.

This is not a demand and they can't and don't want to tell OEMs to not make 450s any more. They are just saying together, "Racing wants 350s, give us 350s, or something close."

The MSMA actually met for 7 hours before the meetings because they had advance notice of the concerns. Then the FIM and AMA brought up the issue in a GP Commission meeting and agreed. Then they held the round table you read about on WW. Lots of meetings.

Resistance on the team side is quick. They are questioning the logic and the items that came up in defense of the 350 proposal. These are like "do the 450s really tear up whoops, who says only a few guys can really race them, who says they are too powerful, don't you know how expensive it is to change things, etc."

Whitelock explained their side and said he will probably be in the followup meeting in June.

As far as the AMA side, they are convinced 450s are too much for racing, and after last weekend, you could say the train has already left the station. The FIM agrees and the issue is already on the table in Japan.

FIM/AMA/Youthstream meeting at Bellpuig on Displacement, Noise, and 2-Strokes

(Ray Archer photo)

AMA Pro's Steve Whitelock traveled to the Spanish GP on his off weekend, and met with FIM, Youthstream, and manufacturer's representatives about standardizing rules between the AMA and FIM. This trip and meeting signaled a new level of cooperation between the AMA and FIM, and showed they can sit down and work on problems together.

In fact, they didn't use the word rule standardization, they used "harmonizing," which sounds nicer. The AMA and FIM in harmony? Did I just type that? Yes, it's real.

On Saturday, Whitelock, Youthstream's president Guisseppe Luongo, and the FIM MX President Wolgang Srb held a full "round table" format meeting to explain what was discussed at an FIM GP Commission meeting this morning. Whitelock was in the meeting as an invited guest.

The focus was on keeping 2-strokes alive as an option for development riders, noise, and getting the manufacturers to agree to a 350cc 4-stroke for MX1, and SX/MX in the USA.

The FIM, Youthstream, and the AMA together have submited their opinions to the manufacturers through a representative here in Bellpuig and are expected to get answers in June of this year.

The meeting went over an hour and a full report will be out soon. Here's a quick summary:

- "The 2-stroke is not dead." Both Whitelock and the FIM asked the manufacturers to keep 2-strokes - minis, 85s and 125s and 250s going because 4-strokes just keep the price of admission. The American side needs 2-strokes as entry level bikes with events like Loretta's in mind and the FIM wants them because of European minibike championships.

- AMA Pro wants FIM Noise rules. They are now taking steps to "harmonize" sound rules and testing methods with the FIM. That's good news for the noise activists in the US. In fact, this changes AMA Pro's approach from previous interviews when they said they were adopting noise rules to get stadium noise down and not for some global goal. Now matching what the FIM does is a goal.

- 450s out, 350s in by 2009. AMA Pro and the FIM asked the manufacturers to develop 350cc 4-strokes, because 450s are seen as too much, just like 500cc 2-strokes were years ago.

- Just the fact that Whitelock, Luongo and SRB were at the table with media was significant. They seemed sincere in working together and that this signals a new era of AMA/FIM cooperation.

Whitelock also explained a lot about past meetings in the US about displacement and some of the things that caused the various inaccurate reports on the internet about 250cc only racing in SX, and some of the problems. You could say he's taking his case to a higher level and it makes sense for the AMA and FIM to stay on the same page. They were receptive and went to the manufacturers direct with everything. So the proposals they want to hear about by June went to the FIM and AMA together - and they went direct to Japan.

There will be a lot of detail forthcoming (by tomorrow)

I Left My Molars in Barcelona - or Pre Bellpuig Road Trip!

GP Press rooms sure are nice. Here's the view from table center.

(wow, got some nice real estate on the RX main page, I better get busy on this Weekend Window!)

It's 10:30pm Friday, the Bellpuig press room is ready but empty, and its pouring rain outside. I might get stuck trying to get to my hotel. Tomorrow will be a muddy practice, not much else, maybe some meetings and some news. At least the room is nice here, and the Red Bull is low carb and cold.

But, before the news, a road trip log, the longest Friday the 13th ever!

This trip to round 2 of the GPs started in Dallas, about 2am Thursday to catch up on some work. Then it was waiting out plane changes and problems getting into Newark because of storms. Michelin and I made it, Bad Billy didn't - stuck in Pittsburgh, a dump of an airport. I'm not too sure about this trip to be honest, because I have a double toothache that's spreading and acting up. Not good.

My friend Mario Marini says, hey, come on to Europe, they have a doctor to see just like Asterisk in the US. Better yet, one of the guys at Solo Moto Off-Road magazine knows a dentist, he will hook it up. Friday is just nap day anyway after the redeye.

The flight to Barcelona is a redeye like many in Europe. At least I got to sit by some rare American soccer fans that were going to Spain to spectate at a soccer game. After customs, I find Pep Segales from Solo Moto waiting for me, who I remember meeting in press at Daytona a few years ago. He's going to take me into Barcelona after a redeye, and go right to a dentist!

If you are used to fancy American medical offices and their long waits and big bills and weak "take this and call us" approach, this is not that. The office is humble, just one room for the dentist and assistant, and you wait in a real hallway! I'm thinking, "what did I get myself into?" OK, I'm good, these people are not going to dig around in there. They are just going to give me some killer pill to make my weekend nice, and I can worry about it later.

So I thought.

"Wow, 2 molars really need to come out."

"Doh!"

Pep got 3 implants done at this office, and he says go for it. To make a long story short, they see my hesitation and the dentist, a very attractive young lady, pumps me full of shots and says go have coffee and come back in 20 minutes and you won't feel anything. So, after spilling cafe con leche on me since I can't feel it anything, I'm ready.

By the time the pulling starts, it's noon and my Friday the 13th is already pretty long. These people are not timid about going to work once it starts, the tools are out. It went quite well actually, much easier than expected, except the last two bits. This is a very informal office, and Pep stays and sits in, and they don't mind. At one point I'm looking up at a big light and two faces with masks, and the one with the grinder is getting frustrated. The last bit doesn't want to grind.

"You have a small mouth and a big molar," she said. Now she's putting her weight into it a little bit, and it doesn't hurt at all, just taking a while. In the light I see little tooth pieces flying and its grind grind grind. Everyone in the room is laughing that its taking this long. I feel like a 2-stroke cylinder on a tuner's workbench.

"Haha, now I have American molars for my collection!"

Finally it's all good, and I walk out of the pharmacy across the street with three things, one some strange fluid in a tiny glass bottle you break the end off and drink.

Pep from Solo Moto really went out of his way to make this work. Who else would pick a near stranger up at an airport and walk them through a dentist and pharmacy? We get out of there about 1, and, its just half over.

Now I need to get a rental car and find the hotel and the track, about an hour away, and its going on a full 24 hrs.

I turn down the Mercedes and get a diesel go-cart, about like they use in France. Hertz doesn't have any maps, so I dig around and find something and take off, with cotton in cheeks, who knows what chemicals buzzing around and I'm in Spain, and it's still Friday the 13th, and I don't even know if I can follow the street signs!

The hotel is pretty cool, a little old-school Europe, where everyone eats at the same time, and the internet is terrible. To get on line, its back to dialup. That would be OK but the chair in the room was made for kids, and it broke. (I shouldn't admit that)

I want to post something and sleep, and Mario is "Hey, the press room is 5 min away, get over here." OK, I'll sleep tomorrow. I drive over to the track about dark and we raid the nice Italian restaurant in the pits.

So after a lot of eating and talking, its back to press where there is good internet!

It's been raining steady since this blog entry started, so I have about 30 min of Friday the 13th left to get out of here. I've been up 2 days, had 2 teeth out, and drove across Spain, and made some new friends. I'm still amazing how well I got treated today, even when I was probably not myself much at all.

BTW-when you see visitors at the races in the US, treat them right.

Tomorrow is day 1, Bellpuig GP!




Everts new office.

The "Pit Board Triple"

Here's another kind of triple in supercross - Three pitboards at once! Here's Short, Millsaps, and Ferry battling in the main at Dallas.

Honda is Back

Happy Honda mechanics celebrate at least getting back on the map!

Short got the holeshot in SX and finished top 5. Millsaps was 4th. Hahn was 5th in Lites. That's a nice result for the guys that didn't have any riders on the track a few weeks ago.

Keeping it Interesting