BROOKLYN, NY, JAN 23 – The price cap that AMA Pro Road Racing put on Daytona SportBike electronics elicited a combination of strong emotions and yawns from the AMA paddock. The strong emotions came from those who felt the cap was too high, as well as artificial—it’s easy to get around—while the yawns from those who were resigned to the realization that in the end, nothing had changed.
In a competition bulletin released on Friday, January 20, AMA Pro Road Racing notified racers that a price cap of $7500 for “any and all electronics that did not come on the homologated machine” would be mandated for 2012. Racers are required to declare these items to AMA Pro on an “Electronic Component Declaration/Cost Document” seven days prior to an event.
Yamaha riders looking for a premium electronics package head to Graves Motorsports. There they can buy the Magneti Marelli ECU with a Graves spec engine map, cable and sub-harness, upgradeable for data logging and traction control for $3200. Add a $1600 Marelli dash and $2000 for a data harness and there’s still some left over beneath the $7500 price cap. Want traction control? That’s $595…still under the cap.
" So if the point of the new rule was to bring down the overall cost of racing Daytona SportBike, it fails.
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What’s interesting about the cost of the ECU is that it appears that Graves Motorsports loses money on it. The Magneti Marelli SRT, the heart of the system, costs around $4300. Since Graves Motorsports is selling it for $3200, with a spec engine map, communication cable and sub harness, it means they’re willing to at least cut into their own profit margin, if not outright lose money. And it also means that, absent the fact that it’s on the approved equipment list, you’d have to be a fool to buy it from anyone other than Graves Motorsports. If the company is indeed losing money on the deal, it is recouping it in other ways; Graves Motorsports builds the base maps that work with the control Sunoco race fuel and, of course, a Graves Motorsports exhaust.
None of this is meant to be an indictment of Yamaha or Graves Motorsports. They don’t set the rules, despite some seeing it that way—they’re just playing by the rules. They’re not the only ones selling electronics, though they are the most expensive vendor in Daytona SportBike. Once AMA Pro Road Racing sets the price cap, Graves Motorsports and every other vendor, like Yoshimura R&D and Pectel, has to decide how to make the most of it.
What isn’t taken into account is the complexity of the systems. The top teams have dedicated data technicians; the smaller teams don’t have much of a chance of getting the most out of the software. As one technician put it, “What are you going to do with it? You need somebody who knows what the hell they’re doing to get anywhere with it.”
Lest you think expensive electronics is the path to nirvana though, consider this; in the three-year history of the Daytona SportBike class, Yamaha never won the title. Buell won in 2009 and Suzuki in 2010 and 2011.
Another little-known aspect: anyone running 2011-spec equipment can continue to run it (as long as it meets the price cap), which means that nothing is going to change, and not just for Yamaha teams. Many of the top Suzuki teams run the EM Pro system, which Yoshimura R&D is currently selling for $1685—minus the technician to fully exploit the software’s potential.
So if the point of the new rule was to bring down the overall cost of racing Daytona SportBike, it fails. The other argument would be for parity, but by ignoring the complexity of the systems and manpower required, that promise also seems empty. The easiest way to ensure parity would be to keep the costs minimal by only allowing piggyback systems that plug into the stock electronics system. Anything outside a range of a few thousand dollars opens up a can of worms, first in policing and, as previously mentioned, in finding qualified personnel to operate it.
DSB electronics is one thing. The bigger fight is the one currently being waged over Superbike electronics. With an end of January deadline looming, AMA Pro Road Racing is likely to impose a cap of $15,000, which would still be far less than what teams are now spending, and down from an early ceiling of $20,000. The range of Magneti Marelli ECUs goes from the $4300 SRT to the top of the line Marvel 4 ECU, which costs over $13,000. That’s just for the hardware. What of the software? AMA Pro Road Racing cannot control the Magneti Marelli software and without the software the motorcycle won’t run. Magneti Marelli isn’t selling directly to the consumer and can’t give access to any team’s proprietary information. That can only be done by the team itself.
The British Superbike championship is going to a very affordable spec ECU for 2012. The MoTec ECU and dash can be bought from series organizers for about $5450 and leased for a year about $3100, half of which is returned at the end of the season. The fee doesn’t include lambda modules, ignition amplifiers, and GPS units, which are available via MoTec dealers. A one-time fee of about $1000 covers a service contract for the year.
If the Brits can do it, could the AMA? Not easily. BSB officials began the process in 2010 when they mandated the control ECU for the lower-spec EVO series, essentially Superstock machines. After two years of running on the EVO bikes, and with extensive testing prior to putting it on the track, the spec ECU was ready for Superbikes.
A more critical distinction is the makeup of the championship. The BSB championship has contracts with the teams, which means they know who’s going to show up every weekend. Introducing a spec ECU in AMA Pro Road Racing wouldn’t work because of the regional entries. Would an AFM regular enter the Infineon Raceway AMA race if he knew he had to buy a spec ECU and spend the weekend trying to figure out how it worked? Not likely.
The more important question is how this will affect the racing. The simple answer is that, in DSB this season, it won’t. The teams with the most money and resources are going to continue to dominate, the smaller teams will play catch up. Would it be any different if the electronics price cap was $5000 or less? We may never know.