AMA - An Uncertain Future

Big changes have been occurring recently within the American Motorcyclist Association. New president and CEO Rob Dingman has been conducting a housecleaning of sorts, unceremoniously booting several long-entrenched employees out the door and restructuring some of the departments in an organization that many feel has long lost touch with the enthusiasts it is supposed to represent. But the biggest move under Dingman's tenure will surely have unintentional yet serious repercussions throughout the motorcycle-racing world.

In one of motorcycle weekly tabloid Cycle News' editorial columns Dingman let it be known that the AMA would be "getting out of the racing promotion business" (an interesting description, seeing that its past promotional efforts were laughable at best) by divesting itself of its former Pro Racing branch that handled all racing activities. Although never publicized by Dingman or the AMA, it soon became common knowledge that the organization was going to sell off the various racing disciplines to whichever person or group (and price) it deemed appropriate.

Unfortunately AMA Pro Racing's roadracing division has already been in a constant state of flux, with numerous people leaving and various controversies continuing to dog the organization year after year. The lack of transparency and communication by Pro Racing has always been a sore point with competitors, and although some aspects of these complaints have improved incrementally, those gains were dealt a major blow by the injuries to AMA Pro Racing roadracing manager Morgan Broadhead that left him unable to continue his duties for the foreseeable future. With the entire AMA Superbike Championship now up for sale, many of those competitors-specifically the powers that be-are very concerned about what the future might hold for professional roadracing in the USA.

Those powers that be are the major motorcycle manufacturers. Whether you like it or not, without them there would be no show, because they provide the vast majority of financial backing for practically all the teams that compete (both factory and satellite squads), and they pay the salaries of all the star riders. The significant involvement of the manufacturers' American subsidiaries in U.S. motorcycle racing is unique among national series worldwide, but it is also one of the main reasons the AMA Superbike Championship has become the preeminent national roadracing series in the world. The tremendous financial investment of American honda, Kawasaki Motor Corp. USA, American Suzuki Motor Corp. and Yamaha Motor Corp. USA in AMA Superbike racing is why you see riders like Spies, Mladin, hodgson, Duhamel, hacking, the haydens and the Bostroms et al. And it's also the reason they're astride the latest, trickest factory machinery.

The OEMs' concern stems from the fact that they were not consulted or given any information on the pending sale. Their alarm is based upon the predictable assumption that the sale of the AMA Superbike series also includes the rulebook, meaning that the buyer would be free to change the rules to however it sees fit. The odds are that this is sure to happen, because the buyer will want to get the maximum number of spectators to attend each event, meaning a tailoring of the rules to homogenize the machinery in order to theoretically foster closer racing. That prospect obviously doesn't sit well with the OEMs because they already have so much invested in the sport, and a significant change in the rules will require even more financial involvement from them-money they really don't have, especially considering the current state of the national economy.

A controversy along these lines has already erupted in supercross racing. With the merging of the FIM and AMA Supercross championships, the AMA and Live Nation (the promotional organization that owns the rights to the AMA Supercross series) stated their intention to include "several overseas rounds" in the championship calendar for 2009. Nearly all the teams in the AMA Supercross series have some sort of financial or material support from the OEMs' American subsidiaries, and the star riders' salaries are paid from their budgets, but that support was obviously intended for promoting products on American soil. The OEMs had already stated this policy on overseas racing in the past, and most are miffed that no one contacted them about this. Although Live Nation has since said it is willing to provide logistical funding to get the teams overseas, there still are significant hurdles to overcome, and the OEMs haven't jumped on board by any means yet.

The OEMs are concerned enough about the future of U.S. racing that they are considering all their options. These could even include starting their own series if the new owners of the AMA series and the OEMs can't see eye to eye. While visions of the CART/IRL auto racing debacle might be an overreaction at this point, there's no doubt that big changes are in store no matter who ends up with the AMA Superbike championship series. And the cloud of uncertainty that's hanging overhead at the moment is still looking pretty dark.