Well it's the day after one week till Christmas, or Saturday if you prefer. It's cold, rainy and terrible weather for a motorcycle rider. I quickly looked through the TV program and found no racing, no college games, no NFL games and whereas I don't get HD channels, I am out of luck. The news on the puter did nothing but darken my day more. Kawasaki released today the news that they were suspending all roadracing programs. Lets see if I got this straight, no Team Green, No Red Riders, the Blue Riders are in-house with Graves, Buell went belly up, and the only real team left is Yoshimura and their main man retired and went back to Aussi-land.

DMG or AMA Pro Racing (that's a hyperbole) announced purse payouts for 2010 and that won't be luring anyone to their ranks soon. I submit for your inspection.

AMERICAN SUPERBIKE
The rules for American SuperBike have had minimal change from 2009. On most event weekends, American SuperBike will have a fifty (50) mile race on Saturday and a second fifty (50) mile race on Sunday. A 2010 SuperBike License and a 2010 AMA Pro Membership is required for participation in this class. The riders earning the three (3) highest point totals on an event weekend will be paid podium bonuses as follows: 1st - $3,500.00, 2nd - $2,000.00, and 3rd - $1,000.00. Competition numbers will be assigned to licensed entrants for registered machines, as in 2009.


DAYTONA SPORTBIKE
The rules for Daytona SportBike have had minimal change from 2009. On most event weekends, Daytona SportBike will have a fifty (50) mile race on Saturday and a second fifty (50) mile race on Sunday. Riders with either a 2010 National Pro Expert License or a 2010 SuperBike License, and a 2010 AMA Pro Membership are eligible for participation in this class. The riders earning the twenty (20) highest point totals on an event weekend will be paid purse awards as follows: 1st - $5,000.00, 2nd - $3,000.00, 3rd - $2,000.00, 4th through 10th - $1,500.00 each, and 11th through 20th - $1,000.00 each. Competition numbers will be assigned to licensed entrants for registered machines, as in 2009.

SUPERSPORT
The 2010 SuperSport equipment rules are very similar to those in place for 2009; however a careful reading of the 2010 rulebook is important to avoid confusion or inadvertent violations. On most event weekends, SuperSport will have a thirty-five (35) mile race on Saturday and a second thirty-five (35) mile race on Sunday. Each SuperSport race will contain two categories of riders competing on the same track at the same time, the Top Guns and the Young Guns. The equipment rules for the two categories differ only in the required use of eligible equipment by the Young Guns riders. Riders in both categories must have a 2010 AMA Pro membership. The riders earning the ten (10) highest overall point totals on an event weekend will be paid purse awards as follows: 1st - $1,500.00, 2nd - $1,000.00, 3rd through 10th - $500.00 each.

That was copied directly from AMA Pro Racing PDF file on their website. To boil it down to it's simplist terms, you can make more money racing in the SportBike class than in the SuperBike class. The noise you just heard was the ah-ha lamp lighting. Why would anyone want to race SuperBike? A guy once asked if I knew how to make a million dollars racing? Start with two million. That was thirty years ago and adjusted for inflation today you would need five million to make a million.

So for the sake of useless tasks, if you won every SuperBike race next year, based on the current schedule a rider could earn $35,000 I'm not sure, but I don't think that will quite cover the cost of going racing. If you race the SportBike class and won every race a rider could take home $50,000. That should cover the costs, if you are a privateer and you and your buddy drive to every race in a van pulling a trailer, stay at Motel 8, eats snacks and drive thru food, don't waste your tires and the engine goes the entire season without breaking or refreshing. Oh! and by the way do not crash. Not only does crashing suck, but it affects cash flow, both in and out.

Lets boil it down a little more: Bike at cost $10,000, Bodywork 2 sets unpainted $2000, Rear shock $1500, Cartridge set front forks $2500, Spare wheels 1 front and 1 rear $1000, Braided lines $200, Stands $275, Tire warmers 2 sets $1500, Rearsets $500, Engine work (no special parts just Supersport spec stuff) $3000, Tires 2 sets $800, Spools and sliders (trinket stuff) $300, and this doesn't include all the other stuff needed to follow the circuit. If you want to be competitive today a rider will need two bikes and then everything doubles. The grand total, not including oil, gas, and all those other little things adds up to, drumroll please....$23,575 and you haven't won a single race yet. Let's see you win $35,000 minus initial outlay $23,575 give you $11,425 to buy vehicle gas, motel rooms, food, extra chain and sprockets, OH! crap I forgot entry fees, $2500 for fees and your partner has to get in so there's another $1000. Now you have $7925. Remember now we only have one bike, so if you want to have a spare bike at $23,575 you are now in the hole, after winning all the races, -$15,650. Where do I sign up? There is still a flaw in my plan, tires for each race are going to run $400 a set and as a guess I would expect a privateer to use at least four sets weekend at $1600 times ten race weekends added to our deficit comes to $31,650.

In 1991, we raced the AMA 600 Supersport series and it cost me $38,000 for the entire year. We didn't race any West coast races that year, staying to the East coast only. Nineteen years later I doubt that you could follow our schedule and not spend that amount twice over. Is professional racing dead in America? I'm not ready to pronounce it dead, but it has had a serious heart attack and rehab needs to be finished before anything good happens.

Where will racers go? I would expect most to go back to their roots, club racing. WERA and CCS still have good programs and there are other local programs that are seemingly enduring. I just received a letter from CCS announcing the reduction in purse payouts, but at least the entry fees are not going up. Based upon rider turnout at the ROC (Race of Champions) it would indicate that the economy has heavily impacted our sport as well.