A note from the Dept. of Cut-and-Paste Press Releases

Uh, you guys... I think it's great that the season will end with a multi-race western swing, and a Pomona finale. But average speeds on the Pomona half-mile are about 60 miles an hour. If anyone's going to hit 130 on those short straights, you'd better double up the Airfence.

And while you're editing that press release, can you maybe come up with a better adverb, to describe racing action, than 'ground pumping'? I mean, seriously. What are they doing out there? Fracking Pomona to extract natural gas?

Look, no one has to crank up the hyperbole machine to convince me that Grand National flat tracking is the most exciting motorcycle sport. It is, with due respect to those XR1200 road racers, the only motorcycle sport that has a hope in hell of tapping the huge majority of Americans for whom 'motorcycle' = V-Twin. It's got more American heritage, a cadre of young riders who embody McQueen-esque cool far more than road racers; the winner's rarely decided by more than a couple of bike lengths, and nowadays it's less and less a foregone conclusion what marque he'll be riding, or even that it will be a he. (Nichole Cheza's time will come!)

With all that's going for it, the question is, why is flat track such a sketchy proposition? If this press release is any evidence, part of the problem's the way the sport's marketed.