AMA Pro Thunder Champion Jeff Nash condemned an AMA decision to run at least three AMA Pro Thunder races with the WERA National Challenge Series in 2001.

In a phone interview with Roadracing World, Nash said “You go AMA racing to go AMA Pro racing. I don’t see the point of going to WERA races to do AMA racing. I feel it is definitely a step backwards for the class, and I’m surprised and disappointed yet again.

“I’ve tried to have an open forum, open communication with them at the AMA the whole time and I’ve not heard a reponse,” continued Nash. “Nobody has ever called me back. It shows how interested they are.

“I’ve had many calls from guys in the Pro Thunder ranks and everyone is very disheartened with how we’ve been treated, the whole lack of communication and lack of respect for the privateers.

“It’s very typical that nothing been discussed with us and no great research has gone into any kind of decision that’s been made. It’s been done totally in-house without any input from anybody in the class, as far as I can make out. The most basic thing is that you don’t even get called back. It’s just a matter of respect, as in a business situation; the basic professional aspect of returning a phone call, can’t even be upheld by the AMA.

“I don’t think (AMA Director Of Professional Competition) Merrill Vanderslice has any professionalism. The whole program, the whole emphasis is to look after 15 factory superbike riders and screw the rest of us. They forget that the AMA Pro Racing circuit is made up of 400 totally keen privateers who spend every moment they can and every cent they can racing motorcycles, purely for the love of the sport. My earnings for the year, including Championship bonus, totalled $10,780 for winning an AMA Championship, which wouldn’t cover my tire bill.

“If I had anything positive to say I’d like to say it, but there being no sort of forum or lines of communication open, there’s really nothing positive to say about the whole thing,” concluded Nash. “It’s been totalitarian bulls–t, really. The Russian Motorcycle Association, as per Joseph Stalin. There’s nothing good there.”

Honda officials plan to release details of the new Honda four-stroke GP bike on January 29, sources close to HRC (Honda Racing Corp.) said January 9. According to the sources, the Honda V5 has three forward cylinders and two rearward cylinders.

The sources also said that Honda engineers do not think that engine costs will spiral out of control with the switch from two-strokes to four-strokes because it will be easy to produce too much power for existing tire and chassis technology. Compared to Formula One car engines, the Honda sources say, the four-stroke motorcycle engines will be relatively tame and will not require as much maintenance.

Minimum weight regulations will control the use of exotic materials and the main design emphasis will be on building a better chassis to maximize the horsepower that can be used by the rider.

Others in the paddock are not so sure that costs will not escalate beyond all reasonable levels, although the term “reasonable” is subjective. A two-stroke Yamaha YZR500, for example, uses four pistons each worth $500 with a service life of 300 kilometers.

At least three AMA Buell Pro Thunder races will run in conjunction with WERA National Challenge Series events in 2001. Three rounds of the Pro Thunder Series were dropped from the AMA Pro Series to accomodate double-header Superbike races, at Road Atlanta, Road America and Mid-Ohio. Those events will be replaced with Pro Thunder rounds at WERA National Challenge Series races at Portland July 1, Summit Point August 5 and Road Atlanta October 28. A fourth round of the AMA Buell Pro Thunder Series may also be moved to a WERA race. The normal Pro Thunder purse will be paid at the rounds run in conjunction with the WERA races. The move is the first result of a new AMA and WERA cooperative affiliation. If it is successful, entire AMA Series could be moved to WERA events. Observers say it may be noteworthy that WERA has limited its Formula Two class at National Challenge Series events to 250cc Grand Prix machines starting in 2001, possibly setting the stage for the entire AMA 250cc Grand Prix Series to be run in conjunction with the WERA National Challenge Series some time in the future.

Five AMA teams have signed up at $8000 each to test at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California January 22-25, with another three teams considering joining the tests. The confirmed teams include Yoshimura Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, American Honda and Graves Yamaha. Possible additional teams include Harley-Davidson, Erion Honda and Bruce Transportation. No Ducati teams are scheduled to participate in the tests, which have been planned across a four-day period to work around the foggy and wet weather typical of the Monterey area at this time of year.

Noted Japanese tuner Mamoru Moriwaki plans to build a four-stroke racebike to compete in the Grand Prix World Championship in 2002. Moriwaki, who made his name building innovative complete chassis powered by both Superbike and 500cc GP engines starting in the late 1970s, has not decided which brand of engine to use in his racebike, according to his daughter, Midori, who handles export markets and manages the race team for Moriwaki Engineering. Moriwaki Engineering’s primary business is manufacturing aftermarket exhaust systems and camshafts. Mamoru Moriwaki’s son, Shogo, raced a Honda RS125 last year and will compete in the 600cc Superstock class of the All Japan Championship series on a Honda CBR600F4. Moriwaki was a key figure in the development of 500cc World Champion Wayne Gardner’s early career, which saw Gardner racing Moriwaki Kawasaki Superbikes in Europe and in Japan.

Attack Performance Racing owner Richard Stanboli says an AMA ruling on what constitutes a legal Formula Xtreme bike is vague and confusing, and allows the type of subjective enforcement that is typical of AMA Pro Racing. A new rule for 2001 requires that at least 50 percent of the frame of an eligible machine be used, but the rule doesn’t define how “50 percent” is measured. “I asked for clarification on the new rule,” Stanboli told Roadracing World. “Is that volume, mass, weight, length, surface area? They didn’t really clarify it as much as I would’ve liked.” Instead, Stanboli said, AMA officials told him that the Yamaha YZF-R1/R7 hybrid he built for the 2000 season and is now trying to sell would be legal even though Stanboli admits that it has nowhere near 50 percent of the original YZF-R1 frame by any possible definition. According to Stanboli, the AMA men said that they just needed to see 50 percent of the original frame to determine that it is from the original, eligible motorcycle. “This class was designed to be an unlimited class with unlimited modifications,” said Stanboli. “It’s based around the fact that you could run a big engine in a small chassis like the old 7/11 Suzukis. We went after that class with the same intention. Now they’ve muddied up the water even more. “Now that all of the major motorcycle manufacturers have 1000-based motorcycles that are competitive, the AMA can go one of two ways. They can say screw it and say that they all have to be 1000-spec motorcycles and have Superbike-type frame rules that say that you can add bracing but can’t remove. Or they can say, I don’t care if you build a prototype chassis as long as the engine comes out of a bike that is a legitimate streetbike. But they just said that they need to see 50 percent, which makes it real subjective. Either the rules are made to give those guys a lot of discretion, or they didn’t think it through.”

AMA Pro Racing officials have a history of making rule changes without timely notification of racers prior to the rule change taking effect, either without considering–or simply ignoring–the impact on all competitors, an AMA racer has charged. In an e-mail sent to AMA Pro Racing National Tech Manager Rob King and copied to Roadracing World, racer Dr. Michael Dube, MD, wrote “I raced several rounds of Pro Thunder in its inaugural season in 1998, on a 750cc Honda Hawk, and was looking to step up to a more competitive bike for 1999. I began work on an 850cc SuperHawk project just before the rule change to allow Ducati 748s was announced. I complained to you at the time that it would result in 748s dominating the class, and suggested several things, including limiting them to 750cc. Unfortunately, my 850cc SuperHawk proved uncompetitive in PT in 1999. Again at the end of the 1999 season, I made some suggestions regarding displacement (limiting the 748s or increasing the limits on non-desmo Twins). “When it became apparent that these suggestions were not going to be taken, I made the jump to an 800cc Ducati for 2000. I had more success, with my personal season highlight a fifth place at Willow Springs. Just before Willow, I had a second 800cc motor built, as a spare and looking forward to Daytona. “I think you can imagine my disappointment upon hearing the recent announcement that desmo Twins would be limited to 750cc for 2001. This will not, as you suggest, reduce costs. It will cost no less to take a stock 748 and build a full race motor under the new rules than it would to build an 800; in fact it might very well cost more as racers attempt to match the output of an 800cc motor. It will also be very costly for me (and others) to downsize an 800. I estimate at least $4000 per motor to downsize my two fresh, Daytona-ready 800s. “As soon as the 2001 schedule was announced this past fall, I began arranging my work, vacation and on-call schedule to accommodate racing at five rounds: Daytona, Road Atlanta, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Virginia. I sat down to complete my Daytona entry and noted that there were now no PT rounds scheduled at three of those five events. “It is neither feasible nor rational for me to invest the money required to downsize these 800cc motors to participate in just two AMA rounds in 2001. All of my racebike investments towards the end of 2000 were geared towards continuing (with) the same equipment in 2001. It does not appear possible for me to compete in the AMA again in 2001 under the current rules and schedule, which was to be my final year of racing at the National level at age 42. “To say I am angry is an understatement. If there is any chance that you will consider rational arguments as to why these changes should be reversed, I will be happy to share them with you,” concluded Dube. But while the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors recently reversed a ban on quick-lifts during Superbike races on the grounds that teams had already prepared such equipment for the 2001 season prior to learning of the rule change, insiders say there is little chance that the displacement change in Pro Thunder will be reversed to accommodate racers such as Dube–simply because he is not affiliated with a factory Superbike team. And despite several Pro Racing Directors saying they are considering a new rule-making system requiring advance notice and an opportunity for affected riders and teams to comment prior to a rule taking effect, insiders say that AMA Pro Racing staffers strongly object to allowing riders to comment in advance and claim that all the required input can be had from the Road Racing Advisory Board. Critics point out that the Road Racing Advisory Board is hand-picked by AMA Pro racing staffers and is non-representative of the paddock at large, with several groups of what AMA Pro Racing likes to call “stakeholders” being ignored in favor of members affiliated with factory Superbike teams.