Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The new method of splitting AMA Supersport and Superstock qualifying groups, tried for the first time this year at Pikes Peak International Raceway May 30-31, was a big success.

Instead of splitting the Supersport and Superstock qualifiers into two groups sorted by odd and even bike numbers, AMA Pro Racing sorted racers into two groups based on their times from Friday practice, with one group for the fastest half of the field and the other group for the slowest half of the field. The new method was a big hit with racers in the faster group.

“Oh, it was so much better!” said Erion Honda’s Alex Gobert. “You’re out there sort of waiting to run into lappers, but they just never come. You catch up to someone and it’s just another fast guy. I really like the new rules. I think the AMA’s taken a big step.”

“I think it’s great!” said Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden. “I think it’s really good for both people. If I was three or four seconds off the pace…it’s a lot safer for them because they don’t have to worry about looking back, who’s coming, getting run into, getting flipped off and everything else. They can go out there and concentrate on their deal, and the faster guys can concentrate on their deal. All in all, I think it’s safer for everybody.”

“Absolutely! It’s great for a guy that’s towards the back of the pack,” said Dream Team Racing’s Thad Halsmer, one of the top Supersport privateers. “It’s great to have all those guys to pull off of. Every guy that comes past is a guy that’s faster than you. For the fastest guy in the slow group, he kind of gets screwed. He has to spend the whole sessions passing people.”

“I think they’re (riders) happy with being out in the riders who are more similar in performance level,” said AMA Pro Racing’s Ron Barrick. “Slow guys are happy to be out there in their own group as well. Next year we might look at doing that in more classes.”

Barrick also said that AMA Pro Racing planned to continue with the new method of splitting Supersport and Superstock qualifying groups for the remainder of the 2003 season.

The new method was not without its teething problems, however. “I think there was some confusion as to who was in what group,” said Barrick. “So, we’ll probably have to do a better job of informing everybody on how groups are split up.”

Halsmer was one of the confused ones, explaining, “I kind of made the mental leap that the fast group was group one. (The faster group was group two at Pikes Peak.) I actually read the addendums, but I realized three laps into the session that I was in the wrong session. I came in and told the AMA. They said don’t worry about it, go out in the next session.”

Halsmer was allowed to go out in the second, faster group.