2013 AMA Pro Roadracing No-Spoiler Catch-All Thread

AMA @ COTA?

Roger Lee has been tweeting that he's got a deal for '13. No particulars yet.

Dean's world posted that a top tier team dropped out. No mention of who...

Danny Eslick To Replace Ben Bostrom, To Team With Roger Hayden At Michael Jordan Motorsports In 2013

F*ck Yeah!

So. What do we have?

Yamaha: Hayes & Herrin
MJM: R. Hayden & Eslick (cool!)

EBR still has Geoff May (I think), and Cory West has been club racing the bike--maybe he gets a step up. Larry Pegram still has Larry Pegram. Did I read something about Aaron Yates doing '13 on a BMW? Does Yosh have any plans?

Still no TV deal . . .

Yates was riding the EBR bike also but didn't stay and race with CCS.

The lack of a tv package could be a killer for the series. Without one, some of the teams may opt out, as sponsorship would be even harder to come by. With SPEED going the way of ESPN, what network will step up?

Seems good racing and plenty of up-and-coming talent aren't enough to sustain a racing series here.

I heard Pegram was talking to Yamaha but won't commit unless they give him the same engine package as Hay's. His benefactor bought an 1199 then the competition package to go with it after quite a while of tweaking it is still slower than his 1198's so I think that's out and BMW USA will do nothing for him just like last year. The Paningale was a 50,00 grand experiment before his mech's worked on it.

Unless something has happened in the last couple weeks, Hayes hasn't resigned with Yamaha.

I hoping (and that's all it is -- hope) that Speed will develop the Speed2 package and make it more attractive to cable systems and use that platform for the actual Non-Nascar racing coverage.

Ah so. You are correct. I was just assuming.

Good assumpion. Greg White says that Hayes has signed with Yamaha for 2 years.

And that Taylor Knapp will join Chris Fillmore on the KTM.

The TV package will likley be on SPEED2 but I'm guessing everything is on hold until FOX finally announces what its doing with SPEED2. All through end of last season there were commercials about how we should watch for changes at SPEED2 as some kind of motorsports-centric channel. Where have we heard that before?

Hayes makes it official:

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=50453

Good for Hayes, but I'd have liked to see him go to Europe on a competitive ride. I guess he is too old to be a rookie over there; he can still thank Honda for screwing up his progression through the ranks.

It will be nice to see Eslick on a bike that is routinely competitive, I'm hoping he has a stellar year.

Bobby Fong recently signed for a new team. That guy has a lot of heart, and should be on some good machinery.

No word on Yosh? I wonder if they are in financial trouble? Having to take Chris Clark was not a good sign.

A more disturbing trend, IMO, is the young guys leaving roadracing and either going to flat track and MX, or just MX only. Ricky Parker already left and went MX for 2012, and now Myles Thornton is considering the same in 2013.

I appreciate the cross-discipline training you can get from racing different series', but not being able to road race isn't helping the next level of up-and-coming racers we need to fill seats one day.

AMA Road Race TV Update

Cardenas to Yosh?