Geoff May and a factory ride

[smoke]

I have  not seen this subject on the board yet.
Why has Geoff not been given a factory ride? He's young, smart, hard working, fast as hell, and an overall well round rep for the average racer.   How do the factories give rides out? How are riders selected?

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I realize that some will totally disagree with my opinion on this, but it's a sad fact of reality. The old phrase "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know" can be a major factor. There was a discussion along these same lines a while ago and I will give the examples I gave then. Look at many of the top performers and you'll soon see the 'in' they had into racing. Off the top of my head people like Duhamel, Pridmore, the Roberts boys, and on and on all had a racing father who greatly influenced their rise to the top thru there contacts. A situation like the Hayden boys who had a motorcycle obsessive father who provided them with everything they would ever need for racing and established contacts for them is also another not so uncommon situation. Most racers don't have either of the previous examples in their favor so they would most likely need to rely on the networking aspect, or in other words get to know the right people who will either personally assist you or know the people that can. The perfect example of this is Montez and his opportunity with Michael Jordan. From what I have heard Montez is a great guy that can ride the wheels off a bike, but those characteristics alone most likely will never land you a majorly supported ride on a Pro team. The chance meeting that Montez had with Jordan created a relationship which led to an opportunity he probably would have never had otherwise.  I think it's great that Montez was presented with this opportunity and that MJ has expressed such strong enthusiasm for the sport at this time. Even at that, from what I have heard it's not MJ himself that is fronting the bill for this team, it's the people and sponsers that MJ was able to influence to support the team, which again is "Who you know" not "What you know". How many of the fast regional expert racers who race AMA Pro occasionally for the experience and chance of "getting noticed" will ever get an opportunity like this?

     Networking has got to be one of the smartest things you can do to help improve your chances of going to the top. Hard work, racing smart, and dedication are all great characteristics that will probably help to make you a fast racer. But the relationships you make with people will probably be the ultimate deciding factor in taking you to the next level. Knowing people that can help you improve your racing thru technique, set-up, encouragement, and lastly but not least important introducing you to people or getting the word out about you will prove to be invaluable. Just being the fast racer out there isn't going to be enough in the majority of cases because there are plenty of other fast racers out there as well. Many racers have worked their way up to racing AMA Pro, but most will never have a full ride, only some lesser level of support instead.

     It could be that Geoff doesn't have the needed relationships with the right people yet to propel his career further, or maybe he's not quite what sponsers are looking for as a representative of their product, who knows? :)

[fourandsix]

I have  not seen this subject on the board yet.
Why has Geoff not been given a factory ride? He's young, smart, hard working, fast as hell, and an overall well round rep for the average racer.   How do the factories give rides out? How are riders selected?

Believe it or not quite of few factory Racers started out on a factory Team by paying for their rides.

[fourandsix]

If you are to get a factory ride you also have to have some impressive results in most cases.Geoff although a good rider and finished well in Superbike standings this year did not have any really impressive races at the Pro level.

[fourandsix]

On another note , when it comes to the Jordan team although Pridmore is a capable rider I think i have a better chance of my hair growing back on my head before he wins a superbike race, that goes for any other rider they get. Just the facts of life.Montez is a great guy , no doubt about! Is MJ going to help racing grow , I doubt it. In my personal opinion it is a way for him to have some fun and enhance his celebrity status. When was the last time a sport has held it's collective breath in anticipation of MJ having a press conference and announcing anything.I applaud MJ for his efforts but also think if Motorcycle racing was such a big deal to outside companies NIKE would just write a check and do something special. Well that isn't going to happen! I think on the flipside MJ is just sucking inside the industry dollars from the riders and teams such as Geoff May and others. In the long term this will hurt the sport more than make it grow.Why doesn't a team such as Jordan give a guy like Geoff a ride?Will Team Jordan even be around after Michael gets bored?
This is just my personal opinion , it has nothing to do with race,color,creed. So before you flame me as a racist a little background. My sister in law and neice and nephew are african american all of who i Love very dearly.I have been in racing for over 20 years. I have seen the deep pocket teams that last a year or two, i have seen them suck the support away from other deserving teams so in that respect maybe it is who you know. Until evryone in this sport realizes that for it to grow we have to revamp how everything is done the geoff Mays of the world will always wondering "what If".  Jim

[r6_philly]

Believe it or not quite of few factory Racers started out on a factory Team by paying for their rides.

how much would such a ride cost, or, what woudl such a ride cost?

[r6_philly]

On another note , when it comes to the Jordan team although Pridmore is a capable rider I think i have a better chance of my hair growing back on my head before he wins a superbike race, that goes for any other rider they get. Just the facts of life.Montez is a great guy , no doubt about! Is MJ going to help racing grow , I doubt it. In my personal opinion it is a way for him to have some fun and enhance his celebrity status. When was the last time a sport has held it's collective breath in anticipation of MJ having a press conference and announcing anything.I applaud MJ for his efforts but also think if Motorcycle racing was such a big deal to outside companies NIKE would just write a check and do something special. Well that isn't going to happen! I think on the flipside MJ is just sucking inside the industry dollars from the riders and teams such as Geoff May and others. In the long term this will hurt the sport more than make it grow.Why doesn't a team such as Jordan give a guy like Geoff a ride?Will Team Jordan even be around after Michael gets bored?
This is just my personal opinion , it has nothing to do with race,color,creed. So before you flame me as a racist a little background. My sister in law and neice and nephew are african american all of who i Love very dearly.I have been in racing for over 20 years. I have seen the deep pocket teams that last a year or two, i have seen them suck the support away from other deserving teams so in that respect maybe it is who you know. Until evryone in this sport realizes that for it to grow we have to revamp how everything is done the geoff Mays of the world will always wondering "what If".  Jim

nice perspective. The only way this is going to last is if the corporate backer of Jordan's team determines in their marketing studies that this is actually doing anything.  If the demongraphic of AMA racing audience changes because of Jordan's more "serious" involvement, then we have something. Otherwise yes, it would just be MJ's hobby for the time being and when he gets bored, or decided to move on to something else, this will go away.

It is like MJ's new hobby. If MJ really wants to help the sport like he gave an opportunity to tez, Geoff May and many other young racer should get some support from the team.

If I had the same financial backing I would provide a program for many privateers so they can have mroe support.

MJ wants to win by hiring Pridmore because he wants to win, its cool and fun. It isn't going to help the sport any unless the sport catches on with his outside the sport fans. That remains to be seen.

[fourandsix]

how much would such a ride cost, or, what woudl such a ride cost?

There have been rides in the range from $50,000 to over $100,000

[cornercamping]

There have been rides in the range from $50,000 to over $100,000

So, if I pay that much I can ride with a Factory AMA team  ???

Doesn't it cost just as much if your a privateer going to every round on your own with no support  ???

Sorry, I'm ignorant on the matter.

Wonder how much MotoGP would cost to run a full season  ???

[fourandsix]

Could you ride , NO. It's just not paying the money it is having some upside such as actually being able to go fast. To do that you would actually have to be a racer with some potential!

[cornercamping]

Makes sense.  Ya know, I was talking to some people, and you'd be surprised how much money they spend to do things such as this.  Believe it or not, I know some people that would actually pay that amount just to race, good or not.   Some people just have too much money.  I once met a guy that was some executive at Verizon.  He got divorced, and spent all this money on a plane and personal instruction so he could learn to sky dive.  He actually went and bought his own plane and pilot.  Nevermind he never did it before.  It's kinda like the guy that buys a $4000.00 set of golf clubs to play golf once.  Seen those type too.  I couldn't imagine what the grid would look like if all it took was some money and no talent  :o

[fourandsix]

Exactly!