2016 Rulebook Suggestions

[TD675]

Tony Baker sent this to me on Sept 29th. We will talk production classes as a whole to include the other suggestions.

Production needs to be reduced to two classifications:

500 Production
ANY production based single or two cylinder 4 stroke UNDER 500cc:
500
390
320
300

The 300, 320, 390 are all on par with the 500’s anyway – total HP, torque, power-to-weight, wheel & tire technology, etc… Because it’s split into 400 & 500 classes, oftentimes NEITHER class is eligible for contingency – even though they are all mixed together and battling for the overall win anyway. We used the last two years to vet out the bikes and figure out where they fit in, now it is time to adjust the class structure accordingly. We’ve had races where the 320’s won, followed by a 300, followed by a 500. Let the rider choose the bike that best suits them for the class – ALL are competitive enough to win clearly.


250 Production
ANY production based single UNDER 350cc
ANY production based twin UNDER 300cc

The Honda 300 single (in legal trim anyway) still isn’t on par with the ninja 300 twin – and so it deserves to stay in this class. The ninja 250’s are too cheap, too plentiful, to “easy to get into racing on”, and the grid is too big to simply kill it by lumping in with the others.

Will that work with the way that contingency is set up? I know Yamaha was only paying contingency for the R3 for a Production 400 race. If you forced the bike to ride in production 500, would Yamaha still pay contingency for it?

Also, it seems to me that a lot more people are getting interested in the production classes. As we move forward, there may be enough people to still allow all the classes to be eligible for contingency.

[tecknojoe]

I myself just bought a 390 for next year. There's also a new racer joining the MRA that bought a 390, and one of our other current racers just bought an R3.

That makes at the very least +3 for production 400. The class is definitely growing.

with that said, the horsepower advantage isn't massive, and the laptimes indicate fair competition.