Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By David Swarts
A January 30 press release announcing Yamaha as the sponsor of the AMA Superbike event at California Speedway in Fontana, California omitted mention of Superstock (formerly 750cc Supersport) as one of the classes that will make up the AMA program April 5-7.
But AMA Pro Racing Road Race Manager Ron Barrick and California Speedway Director of Public Relations Dennis Bickmeier quickly confirmed the omission as a mistake and said that Superstock will be part of the program at the second round of the 2002 AMA series.
“Actually, what I took that from was from our original release when we announced the event because we didn’t have the 750 Supersport listed on that as well. So yeah, that’s an adjustment that we have to make,” admitted Bickmeier.
While we had Barrick, Bickmeier and California Speedway Operations Manager Craig Hatch on the phone (in two, separate phone calls), we tried to clear up some of the questions that were raised during recent outings on the Fontana facility’s new, 2.36-mile, 21-turn infield road course. We started with the turn one chicane formed with traffic cones.
“That’s not how it will be for our race,” stated Barrick, from his home office in Virginia. “In fact, I think they’re anticipating delivery of the curbing that they had specially made for that. You can check with Craig Hatch from the speedway on specifics of that. But they had some stuff constructed just for that that will be full curbing.”
“Yeah,”agreed Hatch. “We’ve investigated several avenues and we’ve come up with the design, and it’s a piece that could be feasibly just set on the track, although we’re looking at different ways after this test (2/12-14), once we’re sure with the configuration, we may find ways, off the oval in that chicane area to actually bolt these things down. They’re all still in late construction and design phase right now.
“The front of it is literally flush with the track, the race side. The back side at most will be a couple of inches (tall). So anything facing the track will basically be flush with the track.
“The curbings will be made from a fiberglass with a coating over it, and actually it’s a very dense fiberglass with some sand, some different things on theinside to get a solid density. So they’ve been experimenting with different densities. We’ve tried some honeycomb centers down to some real heavy stuff. We’re trying to find something that’s manageable to move around because they’re so awkward–they’re thin and long–but also something that’s going to be stationary that when cars and bikes hit it, it’s not going to break up. It’s a combination of fiberglass and some other products that I couldn’t even tell you what they’re using, but basically fiberglass.
“Length-wise, I can’t remember how many linear feet. Several hundred linear feet.”
Technically, the road course consists of five different chicanes and four of those could easily be cut through. We asked Barrick how he planned to police so many chicanes during timed qualifying and the races.
“We hadn’t discussed that specifically,” revealed Barrick. “But the Race Control tower (has) got a good view of the entire track, and they
can sit up there and kind of eyeball what’s going on down on the track. And then of course, the corner stations will be up close and personal to those areas and can call in any transgressions as well if we don’t see them ourselves. But, you know, it’s basically just going to be human spotting. And we haven’t discussed any penalties for that kind of thing yet. Obviously, the traditional business in practice is we don’t really care that much as long as it’s not a safetysituation. In qualifying, we would discount that lap. And in the race is when we have to make a decision on what we’re gonna do.”
Will the races start on pit lane? “Yes. Well, you know actually, that’s something that we’ve talked about, having the starting grid on pit lane, but that’s not 100% firm yet. But probably that’s what will happen,” said Barrick. “There’s another test coming up the 12th, 13th and 14th and Gary Mathers (AMA Pro Racing Road Race Operations Manager) will be out there for that one, as well as our scoring crew and some other people for some other testing that we’re doing out there. But that track should be closer to set up how it will be for our event then because the curbing for the turn one chicane and everything should be there and all the rest of the curbing that’s to go in around the road course should be in place, all the apex and exit curbing should be done, I think, for this next test.
What about Eric Bostrom’s expressed concern with bikes potentially running off-track in one corner and coming onto the course at another part of the track? “Yes,” acknowledged Barrick. “We plan on a barrier that would prevent traffic getting in between those two areas.
“They purchased Air Fence, Australian Airfence, for themselves. I don’t know if you want to quote me on this, but I think they ordered 1000 feet worth, however many sections that is. You can check with Craig Hatch on the specific order. They did place that order, and I think that deal just did get signed within the last couple of days. So they will have that in addition to our Air Fence plus straw. So I think we’re gonna be able to cover things pretty well.
“I know as you guys tested there, there were probably a few barriers that are to be moved around a little bit. In particular, there’s a concessions building. I think it was a concessions building that has some ‘Jersey’ barriers around it that will get moved around differently than they exist now. So you know there
are a number of things that will still change before our event.
“A lot of the tricky parts were designed with input from Jake Zemke and Mark Miller and some of those guys who have been there testing from the inception. Hopefully, we’ll be better for that or as good as it can get.”
“We’re looking into the possibility (of purchasing Airfence units),” Hatch said, clarifying Barrick’s statement. “At this point, our plans are to rent. Obviously, the AMA brings their own and we’re still working on the feasibility of purchasing also from Airfence.”
In your decision whether or not to purchase Airfence, would you be considering the need of Airfence by other motorcycle clubs that will be using the road course?
“Yeah, it would be a combination of utilizing during these events to go along with what the AMA brings along with. We’ve gotta weigh the number of days we’re going to use the track in its full configuration, in the short course with bikes and how feasible it is. What areas? Is it more feasible to use the bales as opposed to the Airfence? We’re kind of weighing our options as far as how often this stuff is going to be put out there and taken back off throughout the year to figure out what to buy and how much to buy.
“And as you probably know, Airfence has several different designs, too. The Airfence ‘Bike’ and the Airfence ‘Two’ are the different configurations. Again, there are positives and negatives from setting them up, to taking them down, to maintenance while they’re up, to storage that we’re looking over all those things to decide which route to go.
“Again, we’re in the middle of most likely purchasing, the possibility of purchasing, along with renting, again just for this first event, to augment what the AMA has, so we have what we need here on-property for this first event. We made some drawings and figured out where we think we need it, but until we get out here and have a true race we don’t know. So we decided to rent some extra linear footage to augment what we have and what the AMA is bringing.
“We’re renting approximately 500 linear feet (or 18 28-foot sections of Airfence barriers).”
Together with the AMA’s 35 sections, that would make nearly 1500 linear feet of Airfence and Alpina Air Modules available for use at the California Speedway AMA race in April.
One problem that popped up recently at the sparkling new facility was water drainage. Heavy rains on Sunday, January 27 revealed a drainage problem: There was standing water on the track where the infield road course exits onto the front straightaway during a Fastrack Riders’ day Monday, January 28. Although rain in Fontana, California in April is rare, it is still a possibility. And considering the AMA Superbike Series’ unlucky history with rain, the question of how the new drainage problem was being handled needed to be asked.
“That’s the first it’s rained since they put the road course in,” pointed out Barrick, already aware of the drainage problem. “So they discovered that they have some drainage issues that they’ll deal with. I’m not sure how they will address that specifically, but they’ll come up with some kind of game plan to deal with that.”
“As you know, this thing is just finishing up construction,” started Hatch. “As you can see, most of the curbing was painted, but we’re just finishing things up. And when you have a facility this large, you’re going to run into situations like that on your first rain and we certainly had a large rain.
“It’s already being addressed with ourselves and our corporate, internal engineers and some outside engineers–civil engineers who helped us build this place and build that road course. But we are certainly looking at it and coming up with the best possible solution to negate the water.
“Again, the first thing Monday morning, our civil engineer was here before you guys went on track already trying to come up with solutions, already working on solutions of how to fix that. It was just unfortunate that the first rain we had, had to be the morning of a rental. It would’ve been much better if we wouldn’t have had anything going on the track because we would have seen it and we would have fixed it before anybody got to see it.
“One thing you’ll find here with the speedway and the crew here, we respond to things very quickly and we take a lot of feedback,” interjected Bickmeier, speaking via speaker phone with Hatch. “We take feedback to heart. We listen to what people have to say about the facility right down to the guests that come here on the race weekends and listen to what people have to say and make adjustments where we have to adjust. We’re not so stubborn in our business where we’re not going to listen to people and do what we can to fix a problem.”
“Yeah, and that goes right to the design of the track,” added Hatch. “Our first paving, the base paving of that track is just two inches of your basic asphalt. We put that down, and as Dennis said, we got as much input as we could. As soon as we had a surface down, we got cars and bikes out on it. And from that, we made some adjustments. And the comments we got back after the adjustments were favorable in areas where the riders and the cars were saying, ‘Well, this would’ve been a lot nicer if this was a little different here or there, and we make some of these changes.” And I can tell you, that made a big difference. A couple of small changes made a big difference in the configuration and how the riders and the cars like it.
“We’re always open to what people listen to what people have to say and what their thoughts are.”
What other feedback have you received? “Good, positive feedback,” answered Hatch. “Obviously, if you put 100 racers out there, each one of them is gonna have a little different idea. You got more technical riders, you got faster riders. Everybody’s gonna be a little different, but overall it’s been very positive.
“I can tell you there’s been a lot of interaction with the AMA and some riders from day one. Before we had asphalt, before we cut any dirt on the infield, we had a couple riders out here looking at things and doing some testing and different things. Obviously, it’s difficult when you put riders, racers, engineers, track designers all in the same room, everybody’s going to have different reasoning and different ideas. But we tried to take everybody’s input, hash it out and come up with what we feel is a good course and we’ve been getting that kind of feedback.”
“And I think that goes back to the first point you made when we started the conversation about the turn one, the transition,” said Bickmeier, proving that he had actually surveyed AMA riders during recent testing. “That’s a lot of the discussion that we’ve had in recent tests is the transition off the oval and…I think more than anything, it’s not really the transition. It’s what’s going to be out there. The riders’ are saying, ‘What’s going to be out there for us to eyeball as we’re going down the front straight knowing we have to have a braking point and where we can come off the oval?’
“That was one of the things, too, that those guys talked about a lot is we have signs like that are up on the turn walls now that they use when there’s an oval race here to show the braking points. Well, we got input from the riders about where those should be for them when they’re here. We’ll move those signs down at points where they’ve indicated that would be good visual aids for them.”
Finally, we asked Barrick about AMA Pro Racing’s new scoring system’s ability to record and display lap segments, or split times. “It was no problem for Laguna to do it because they already have multiple timing loops in the track. Whether everywhere else will? California Speedway thinks that will be no problem for them to do.
“We’re talking to Daytona about getting another loop installed near the exit of the infield. We’ll be able to break Daytona down into an infield section and a speedway section. It’ll be interesting to see the differentials between how fast some of the factory bikes are compared to how well everybody’s getting through the infield.
“And just the same thing with all of the other tracks on down the line. If they already have multiple loops, we can do it. If they don’t and we can convince them to install additional loops, then we’ll be in good shape.
“But that’s some new software and equipment that we just got over the winter, which is partly why we’re working at some of these tests, to help develop our systems.”
“We’re not sure if we will be adding that additional spot,” replied Hatch. “We’ve got a location where we would put that scoring loop on the infield part of the course, (but) we haven’t decided if we’re going to have that or not.”
After Hatch confirmed that there would not be a Thursday practice day included in the California Speedway AMA Superbike weekend, we asked how ticket sales for the April road race were going. “Last Monday, the 21st, was the first day that we went on sale, individual tickets on the Internet, and then first day of phone sales was this Monday the 28th,” explained Bickmeier. “I would term them ‘decent’.
“I don’t have specific numbers to give you, nor am I allowed to release specific numbers. But what I can tell you is signing a deal like we announced today with Yamaha and having the ability in a couple of weeks to sell tickets at the Yamaha dealerships, that’s gonna be something we’ve never done before, where we’ve done ticket sales outside the property or had someone help us sell tickets. I think once we get a lot of our collateral material in place, like posters and stuff in the Yamaha dealerships, the awareness of this event will increase and so will ticket sales.
“One important think to note, we weren’t able to include the bike race in our season ticket renewal packages because the deal was signed so late in the year, where we were already out for our 2002 renewals for our NASCAR and CART events. Going forward, future years, that’s certainly something that we’re going to want to take a look at because we do have a pretty good season ticket base here. And again, I can’t give you specific numbers but you can kind of gauge it off of what we do for a NASCAR or CART weekend and draw your own conclusion there.”
California Speedway has already sold out of “Ultimate Season Packages” in sections 1-31 rows 24-48 and all 1800 RV infield parking spots for the facility’s entire 2002 season of oval (car and truck) events.
