DC is full of sh*t..No love for that guy and organization..sorry.

[motoman356]

you know i kinda stumbled onto a bit of useless facts this weekend after hangtown. In a part of the program they list all the names and numbers for every registered pro. in this years program there is two pages of pros. only 2. in 2003 there were upwards of ten pages with many numbers taken up. if this isnt an obvious major sign in the rising cost of this sport idk know what is

[miedosoracing]

you know i kinda stumbled onto a bit of useless facts this weekend after hangtown. In a part of the program they list all the names and numbers for every registered pro. in this years program there is two pages of pros. only 2. in 2003 there were upwards of ten pages with many numbers taken up. if this isnt an obvious major sign in the rising cost of this sport idk know what is

I'll say I don't agree with that necessarily, that may be only part of it.   I feel a change coming, like NASCAR.  Think about this.  What other sport can a guy come off the street and say I have my pro license, I want to play/race with the big boys? Dallas Cowboys?  Baseball?  Golf?  None.  You have to be part of a team, or something of that nature.  Luoungo has already done this, and others will follow.  What good does it do for big sponsor teams, who pay big bucks, to have their rider sit out, because some John Doe comes out and qualifies and the team rider didn't?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I agree with the direction of everything. I'm just saying, I see it coming.

[Huffieva]

you know i kinda stumbled onto a bit of useless facts this weekend after hangtown. In a part of the program they list all the names and numbers for every registered pro. in this years program there is two pages of pros. only 2. in 2003 there were upwards of ten pages with many numbers taken up. if this isnt an obvious major sign in the rising cost of this sport idk know what is

I'll say I don't agree with that necessarily, that may be only part of it.   I feel a change coming, like NASCAR.  Think about this.  What other sport can a guy come off the street and say I have my pro license, I want to play/race with the big boys? Dallas Cowboys?  Baseball?  Golf?  None.  You have to be part of a team, or something of that nature.  Luoungo has already done this, and others will follow.  What good does it do for big sponsor teams, who pay big bucks, to have their rider sit out, because some John Doe comes out and qualifies and the team rider didn't?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I agree with the direction of everything. I'm just saying, I see it coming.

One leads to another, NASCAR is a good example, when they were actually "stock cars" it was actually affordable, it really began to evolve in the mid 80's and by the early 90's it was for all intensive purposes a "closed sport"... But the big difference between NASCAR and motocross is that for example the "Cup" cars are the top of a very tall stack of classses that stem from an affordable grass roots network of tracks and classes that feed the sport with pros. Motocross on the other hand is more of a "you do it or you don't sport" meaning that there isn't a huge difference between  the pro classes and the grass roots racers (i.e. a KX250 is a KX250) unlike Nascar where the only thing Chevy about Dale Earnhardt's car is the headlight and taillight decals... In between the weekend warrior and "Cup" cars, there are street stocks, late models, sprints, ARCA, Indy, Sportsman, SCCA and the list goes on... In between the KX85 and the pro class is the 125... opps scratch that they don't make them anymore... The four strokes have hurt the sport, so as the economy and the AMA itself. I love motocross and all other forms of motorcycle racing, but lets be realists its not Nascar (don't get me wrong I pretty much gave up on nascar when they quit using "cars"), and if they try to mirror Nascar they will eventually run  motocross out of existence. To save it theres no question as to what to do, either make the classes fair, or have  a separate 2 stroke class, I don't care either way, but if they don't fix it soon, My son will be racing AHRMA on vintage bikes rather than AMA on current models

[KTMguy]

you know i kinda stumbled onto a bit of useless facts this weekend after hangtown. In a part of the program they list all the names and numbers for every registered pro. in this years program there is two pages of pros. only 2. in 2003 there were upwards of ten pages with many numbers taken up. if this isnt an obvious major sign in the rising cost of this sport idk know what is

I think that you're on to something. And I agree, the price of building a national caliber 250/450f is keeping the other 8 pages of riders out.

[bearorso]

you know i kinda stumbled onto a bit of useless facts this weekend after hangtown. In a part of the program they list all the names and numbers for every registered pro. in this years program there is two pages of pros. only 2. in 2003 there were upwards of ten pages with many numbers taken up. if this isnt an obvious major sign in the rising cost of this sport idk know what is

I'll say I don't agree with that necessarily, that may be only part of it.   I feel a change coming, like NASCAR.  Think about this.  What other sport can a guy come off the street and say I have my pro license, I want to play/race with the big boys? Dallas Cowboys?  Baseball?  Golf?  None.  You have to be part of a team, or something of that nature.  Luoungo has already done this, and others will follow.  What good does it do for big sponsor teams, who pay big bucks, to have their rider sit out, because some John Doe comes out and qualifies and the team rider didn't?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I agree with the direction of everything. I'm just saying, I see it coming.

Here's the solution :

DON'T LET THAT PRICK LLUONGO GET CONTROL OF AMA RACING!

I'm sure I've read it's his ambition to limit starting lines to 20 riders in the GPs. Make sure that this sort of crap does not happen, by speaking out and doing whatever you can to stop Lluongo and other of the sports controllers from bringing more bad rules to our sport (as I'm sure Miedo already does).

When I posted the link up on KTMtalk of DCs interview, I wrote my opinion on how I saw his comments re the 2t. These were that I really felt he was having a sarcastic go at the OEMs for blocking the equivalency rules. I also wrote that I feel he and MXSports / Racer Promotions are between a rock and a hard place, trying to progress MX, whilst keeping the wolves at bay - those Wolves being DMG - the Real owners of US MX, and Lluongo / Youthstream who would love to get control of the US Nationals. Does anyone recall interviews with DMGs Edmondson (sp? thankfully he seems to be gone for the time being) when he talked about moving outdoor MX into Nascar Super Speedways? And I would assume some of you would be aware of how DMG have royally stuffed up US Road Racing? This has made Honda, and the other OEMs very reactionary, and I can see why DC and co would be very much wary of pissing them off by trying to do the right thing and force through equivalency at the moment.  And believe me when I say that I am ROYALLY pissed of with the continued 4t capacity advantage. At least he was able to get through the rule in GNCC that enables equivalency in the XC2 class - a start for Pro level rules , at least. So I see DC /MX Sports / Racer Promotions as a hell of a lot lesser of multiple evils, as much as I dislike some of their decisions / directions.

Whilst I don't agree with everything that DC and co. do, I think they do have a love for the sport, despite it undoubtedly being a earner for them. DMG and/ or Lluongo / Youthstream as I see it are just into it for the money/ business only. I don't give a damn about how pretty the pits look at the GPs, but I do care about athletes not getting prize money,being charged a fortune for the privilege of racing GPs, the limiting of opportunity for riders to get into the GPs and the bastardization of the sport by certain individuals / companies.

[6IX]

Does anyone know if Sleeter had some problems? Injuries?

Nope, just didnt quite make it.  Looked like a tough track for a 2-stroke anyway.

It was such a blast riding the 2-stroke yesterday and I was a little upset that I didn't qualify seeing I know I had a little more in me. I rode a little tight but the cool thing is everyone commented on how fast my bike looked. Well everyone it was a bone stock motor and it rips! I put some suspension and an FMF fatty pipe on it and took it the races. After the weekend I really want to push to the AMA and MX sports that we need to let the 2-stroke in the lites class. Privateer riders would be competitve with power on a small budget. I rode Searles race bike last week back to back with my 250 2-stroke and the 250f is still easier to go fast so let a privateer race the 250 2-stroke in the lites class atleast he will have a fighting chance to get a good start

[opfermanmotors]

I know his problem, he wasn't on a MAICO.

[JohnN]

I know his problem, he wasn't on a MAICO.

 

[GlennC]

No disrespect to Sleeter, He is a hell of a lot faster than me, But don't blame the two stroke for him not making the main. He has missed a few on the 450 as well.

[JohnN]

I just read that Sleeter was on a STOCK KTM 250! While the KTM's have more power stock than any other bike out there, when you are racing at this level you need to have a bike with more power.

This is the main reason that building a bike for the Nationals takes some time. It's not just bolt on a few goodies and go. There is modifying and testing, then modifying and testing, then modifying and testing..

So even if his bike has 50 horsepower, the "factory" machines are putting out close to 60 horsepower, that is too big a difference to overcome... stock 250 two-stroke versus 450F four-stroke is much closer..

[Suzuki TS250/185]

Hello John and Everyone,

Want to know something INTERESTING???

Once again no disrespect to Mike Sleeter, but ever since they went to press with the whole "Factory for a day" thing and all that, I smelled a RAT in the soup... It didn't seem logical to me that a company would choose this method to showcase the merits of several of their bikes side by side. Don't get me wrong, it could only bolster the 450SXF's credability if the privateer they chose went out there and got ANY sort of results at all..., BUT I was also thinking to myself that it would discredit the 250SX 2t quite a bit to hype this thing the way they did, and give the public the impression that a fast guy from KTM was going out there on the 2 stroke, and then have him pull a "Charlie brown kicks the football" moment and not even qualify, or perhaps run dismally in the main on TV.  

We heard fair amount of hype about Factory For A Day "ONE LUCKY PRIVATEER IS GOING TO GET TO RACE HANGTOWN ON MIKE SLEETER'S FACTORY KTM450SXF... BECAUSE MIKE HAS CHOSEN TO RIDE A 250SX TWO STROKE AT HANGTOWN!..." What they aren't telling you is that Mike Sleeter HAS NEVER ONCE QUALIFIED IN THE MOTOCROSS CLASS...

http://www.amadirectlink.com/amrace/proracing/index.asp

I checked all the AMA Motocross Results Archives going back to Hangtown 07 which is the first national where he did timed qualifying for the Motocross Class. So far, and I have been looking, I haven't been able to find an archive of the results for the 2009 year. I'm still trying though!

His results, while riding a KTM450SXF, were:

Hangtown 2007 - 42nd Place Qualifier KTM450SX  
Washougal 2007 - 36th Place Qualifier KTM450SX
Thunder Valley 2007 - 49nth Place Qualifier KTM450SX
Glen Helen 2007 - 37th Place Qualifier KTM450SX

Thunder Valley 2008 - 48th Place Qualifier KTM450SX
Washougal 2008 - 42nd Place Qualifier KTM450SX

Public Relations is a complex game, with lots of ways to work the angles. I think KTM got exactly what they wanted out of this years Hangtown national. The black helicopters outside tell me that perhaps they got what they planned to get... Their new 350 4T came out shining brighter than Mike Alessi's "Jersey Shore" podium talk. One lucky unknown guy got his golden ticket to the chocolate factory onboard the 450 4T. And, a guy who had never, or almost never, qualified in the Motocross class went out there and did it like he always does, and "Took the fall" perfectly.

I'm about to head out to Pennsylvania for a Memorial day weekend of riding, and I should be loading up right now. But I wanted to write this out and post it immediately when I saw how Sleeter's bad results had dissapointed 2 stroke fans. I saw that a few people were scratching their heads while perhaps looking for their answers in the wrong places.

Don't blame the 2 stroke is right! Sleet actually improved on some of his past results and 46th wasn't far off his average. And, he's older now!

KTM is a brilliant marketing machine. They know where it pays to dump a lot of money into promotion... Mike Alessi costs more money than Snooki! They know how to generate positive press. "Unknown guy is FACTORY FOR A DAY!... Makes the main on borrowed 450SX-F!" And, they also know how to use marketing sleight of hand.

If you're like most people, you probably got the impression that Mike Sleeter had a "Factory" KTM 4 stroke that he was vacating for this 1 round so that he could ride the 2 stroke, and having a "Factory" bike, with your number on it, to lend out to one lucky privateer makes it appear that you are a factory guy, granted maybe a less well known factory guy. And being a "Factory" guy who doesn't qualify for the main leaves people with the impression that something had to be wrong, either with the rider, or the bike... Unless those people know that the guy in question hasn't qualified no matter what bike he was on, and of course that fact wasn't in any of the "Factory for a day!" fluff and hype.

It's not that KTM is working to kill their 2 strokes, they make great bikes everyone knows this and states it over and over. But I do believe they're smart enough to know that their 2 stroke lines will sell no matter what press they get. 2 Strokes are selling based on their merits these days. They have begun to regain popularity IN SPITE of more than a decade of steep bias in the rules, and the media. For a long time, the industry tried to stack the deck with mountains of pro 4 stroke hype, and an almost complete media exclusion of the 2 stroke. Now with the backlash to that approach starting to take root, and people like Brian Shuckhart (He qualifies, that's for sure!), John Nicolas, Mike Leavitt, Sedric Soubreyas, John Dowd (MB250 win at 338!), James Stewart (When he's riding, not talking), and Jake Weimer actually doing things that reflect positively on the 2 stroke, it appears that the "Mums the word when it comes to the 2 strokes" approach isn't working as well as it once did. I thought pretty soon some people in the industry would probably start to take a more active approach to downplaying the 2 stroke.

I think that's exactly what KTM did by publicizing Mike Sleeter's hangtown trial on the 250SX. What else could your intentions be when you put a guy who hasn't ever qualified out there on the 2 stroke and give this attempt more press than all of his other national rounds combined have gotten him?....

It smells fishy...    

[SwapperMX]

Hey Miedoso

Your mate TFS was pictured at Glen Helen. It mentioned on Vital MX that it was good to see him out of retirement and at the races. It looked like he was out there taking photos of the GP. They also mentioned that they didnt get a chance to speak to him.