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--KPaul

And MO Says:Funny, we were just debating the state of F-Xtreme here in the USA. On the one hand, we guess it's great that there is a modified 600cc class. Trickle-down and all that. But mostly we're really annoyed: Dedicated racefans that came to know and love/hate the original Willow Springs-inpired WERA National Formula USA series mostly scoff at the new rules. How far have we fallen from the epic battles of yesteryear: If ever you saw Chuck Graves and his cantankerous steed -- a monstrous 1340cc GSX-R1100 -- dueling with King Kenny's YZR500 pilots Rich Oliver and Robby Peterson, well, it made for awesome memories of epic run-what-ya-brung battles. Heck, one crazy kid strapped a cakeload of 'Nos to his Gixxer and, in an attempt to hang with those ultra-fast competitors, chucked the gassed beast out from under Road Atlanta's bridge... and a star was born. None other than....

...SuperMoto guru and Cycle World magazine staffer Don Canet. If you've never read his original piece on that crash in Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technologies, well, it was good enough to launch his moto-journo career. And then there was this guy Brad Sawyer who wanted to make carbon/carbon pistons, and almost pulled it off. Original MOFO Brent Plummer covered this in Motorcyclist Magazine oh so many years ago... ...and fielded calls from inquiring minds at NASA's JPL.

The point? Where has the brazen soul of American Roadracing gone? Where do we let fearless privateers let their chutzpah level the playing field with factory teams?

Are all the entertaining "characters" making Crusty Demonesque videos and starring in the X-Games and Supermoto? Ah, the Baldwinish days of "Which one of you sorry sons-a-bi_tches is gonna finish second," and "which way's the first turn, and what's the lap record" seem to have vanished forever. In short, where is American racing's proverbial Soul?

It's nice that we have polite young men as corporate faces racing these days. It really is. It's good for the sport and the (hopefully increasing) TV coverage. But, for the faithfull, well, Ho-Hum...