Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

CCS Florida is experimenting with running unmuffled racebikes at its events at Moroso Motorsports Park and at Miami-Homestead Speedway.

The experiment is the idea of CCS Florida promoter (and former racer) Henry DeGouw, who was inspired by crowd reaction to unmuffled MotoGP bikes at a World Championship Grand Prix DeGouw recently attended.

Last weekend at Moroso, three riders tried running without mufflers in practice on Saturday, although only Marco Martinez ran without a muffler in Sunday’s races.

“The crowd loved the sound,” said DeGouw afterwards. “I saw people run to the fences to see what was coming down the track as they approached. Everyone I spoke to after hearing the bikes on the track thought it was a good idea. I must say that before they heard it, some thought I was nuts!

“The riders who opted to go back to mufflers, said they needed to put extensions on to get the end of the pipe farther back. It was too loud for them but they are going to run with open pipes (after extending them) as it did not affect the way the bikes ran,” DeGouw added.

CCS Florida returns to Moroso on August 28-29.