The Man With the Plan

With the 2005 AMA Superbike Series winding down and the 2006 race schedule and rule changes yet to be announced, Series Manager Ron Barrick’s brain is ripe for the pickin’. Barrick—who has unique thoughts on what makes a good interview (namely, eating chocolate while answering, which isn’t really all that great for the person who has to transcribe your gooey words, Ron)—sat down with us at the recent V.I.R. round.
by Laurel C. Allen

A lot of people think that one of the 1000cc classes should have been cut for next season. Can you explain why you’ve decided not to?
Well, also what we’ve heard from a lot of the teams and manufacturers was that they wanted consistency in the rules for some extended period. And obviously it’s very important for OEMs to market the 600 and the 1000cc bikes, so now we basically have two classes for each of those categories, and for the sake of consistency we decided to go ahead and maintain status quo for ’06. We’re also currently looking at proposals for ’07 and will be putting together some meetings with OEMS and have another advisory committee meeting later in the year. So, yeah, there is a possibility that in ’07 we could look at having one 1000cc class. Then again, some of the smaller teams that go head-to-head with the better-funded teams would like to see the 1000cc stock class remain so they have a place where they can feel they have the opportunity to be competitive.

Is there pressure from promoters to have lots of different classes, so that there’s always something on the track?
We have a variety of thoughts from promoters on that. There are promoters who think there should be tons and tons of things going on constantly on track; there are others who feel that as long as you’ve got a quality program you don’t have to have something on the track at every minute, and that breaks in the action give spectators the chance to go visit the vendors, who also pay money to be there.

What steps can the AMA take to get more manufacturers involved in Superbike?
Well, I think that’s somewhat the overall health of the industry and motorcycle sales. I know motorcycle sales have been going up consistently over the past 10 years, but that doesn’t mean that all manufacturers are enjoying that same financial boom. We’ve had interest from other manufacturers that aren’t as common brands, like MV Augusta, Aprilia…. Their moons or stars of whatever haven’t aligned or something, but there is interest. It’s just very expensive to do, and that’s I think really the barrier, the cost involved. And that’s something I think we need to look at for ’07, as well, is how to control no only some of the speed of the 1000cc machines as they continue to evolve but also how to control the cost of racing.

Would the AMA like more manufacturers to take part in Formula Xtreme as opposed to Superbike?
No, not necessarily. We’d like to see the manufacturers be involved in both modified classes, because they’re the ones who have the capacity to do that more than anybody else. The indications that we’ve gotten so far are that there will be more involvement in the Formula Xtreme class next year from various manufacturers. My personal perspective is that I’d like to see the manufacturers be involved in the modified classes and then help support the stock classes with B-level teams or whatever you want to call it and just keep the factory involvement out of those classes and give the other guys the chance to fight for the wins and exposure.

How’s the hunt for a title sponsor going?
Well, to be honest, I don’t have a lot of time to focus on that myself. We’ve got other people on staff whose job it is to search that out and I don’t know where exactly they stand with that except that they’re working every day to see what’s out there. Our economy obviously isn’t the best it’s ever been and I know there are a lot of concerns about where all that’s going with our current involvement in the war or “peace-action” or whatever they’re calling it and oil costs and so forth, so it’s going to be tough I suppose, but we’d love to bring in a good outside sponsor to help us grow the sport.

Do you anticipate having more rounds on the schedule next season?
Yes, very likely. The schedule will expand and in 2007 I think we’ve got some more interesting things on the horizon. We’ve heard from our advisory committee members—when we’ve asked them what their comfort level is budget-wise for the number of events, what can be supported—we’ve heard a number around 12. So we’ll have to be careful not to just keep adding on events but that also gives us the option in the future to be selective and be in the markets we want to be in, as well as the most important thing, which is to find the safest venues.

Is there any news on whether the Miller Motorsports Track in Utah will be included on next year’s schedule?
Well, there will be a forthcoming announcement about that within the next week and a half or so.

Will the forthcoming announcement relate to 2006 or 2007?
I think we’d be looking at 2006.

Ok, last question. There are several rule proposals out now that would limit the grid size in Superbike. Do you think that they’ll pass, and do you think that they’ll help?
Yeah, I think they’ll help, but mainly just by sort of keeping things where they are, because the bikes themselves keep getting faster every year so even if we restrict modifications and limit the fuel that can be used it may be that tightening up the rules is only going to keep things where they are. I would hope that they’d create the desired end result, but we don’t know exactly what the manufacturers are doing; it’s a guess. They’re not able to share with us what their future development plans are, and for sure right now they’ve told us they want to continue to market 1000cc machines for the foreseeable future. What the foreseeable future is and whether they’ll continue to feel the same way, I don’t know. MotoGP bikes have obviously gone through a lot of restructuring and downsizing, and perhaps the street bike market will eventually follow that in displacement. We’ll just have to see.

Oh, you’re talking about limiting the speed of Superbikes.
Right.

Ok … thanks.
Sure.