2014 AMA schedule

[Jim]

The 2014 AMA Pro Road Racing schedule is as follows:

March 13 - 15 - Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.
May 30 - June 1 - Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.
June 21 - 22 - Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.*
July 19 - 20 - Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio*
September 13 - 14 - New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, N.J.*

* = 2 day events


looks like there may be a 6th round, but that really sucks for these guys. They go from 9 rounds to 5.

[GixerJockey]

Man, that just goes to show how out of touch I am with AMA racing. I had no idea their schedule was cut so short.

[odduc]

It's a real shame that the AMA Roadracing organizers cannot get their shit together to effectively promote the sport and run the series. Not too long ago, the top riders were earning big money and getting recognized by WSBK and MotoGP.

I have a real hard time figuring out why AMA Supercross does so well but AMA Roadracing has so much trouble. One would think that they might share ideas and help each other as they all fall under the AMA umbrella.

[Paul_E_D]

On the upside, it might be cheaper to run the AMA than LRRS!

[pontifex]

And they lost the National Guard and Geico as sponsors. Jordan Motorsports pulled out as well.

[MaRce1o]

and EBR will be in WSBK

sucks there are only going to be 10-12 races this year

[tsorfas]

And they lost the National Guard and Geico as sponsors. Jordan Motorsports pulled out as well.

That blows

[scottieducati]

Is it wrong of me to sort of hope / pull for the utter demise of the "DMG/AMA" series all together? Only really for hope that some other organization that cares might start up independently... Sad for riders / racers and enthusiasts but what a lesson in how to run something into the ground.

[Paul_E_D]

DMG/AMA is officially a club race

[TTD]

I'm not sure anyone else could run it better.

Unless they can get the majority of the factories back, I don't see any major positive changes.

Going to a "National" has to be special ... it cannot feel like a big club race.

[Rada]

I'm not sure anyone else could run it better.

Unless they can get the majority of the factories back, I don't see any major positive changes.

Going to a "National" has to be special ... it cannot feel like a big club race.

Yup. There needs to be 4 or 5 of the major factories there with their big rigs and looking polished and professional.

As said elsewhere. Look at Super Cross.... Big Rigs. Big show. Big TV.

But they have a captive audience.. Easy to put 50-70K asses in seats in a stadium in a big city. Much easier to sell sponsorship to that... Sadly.

[GixerJockey]

Is it wrong of me to sort of hope / pull for the utter demise of the "DMG/AMA" series all together? Only really for hope that some other organization that cares might start up independently... Sad for riders / racers and enthusiasts but what a lesson in how to run something into the ground.

Unfortunately, the series would probably die all together if that happened. There's almost no "value" to a promoter at this point. I don't see anyone taking it over since they've already driven all the profit out of it.

[tls25rs]

Yup. There needs to be 4 or 5 of the major factories there with their big rigs and looking polished and professional.

As said elsewhere. Look at Super Cross.... Big Rigs. Big show. Big TV.

But they have a captive audience.. Easy to put 50-70K asses in seats in a stadium in a big city. Much easier to sell sponsorship to that... Sadly.

Though Supercross currently has a lot of factory support they are also finding it to be difficult times to attract the sponsorship dollars.

There really aren't many "factory" teams run by the manufacturers themselves any more. Yamaha's "factory" team is JGR with factory support. Suzuki's "factory" team is Yoshimura with factory support. I know that Honda's model is turning more and more towards private teams with factory support see the GEICO 450 effort. Not too sure if the Muscle Milk team is a true factory effort or similar to the Yamaha and Suzuki deals. It may be that Kawasaki and KTM are the remaining true "factory" teams in the 450 ranks.

Even with the factory support, big rigs etc. the series reportedly has issues getting sponsorship from outside the industry to step in and play/pay. The major sponsors that are seen are the energy drink makers which are sort of like the cigarette/alcohol companies of old where they have money to get rid of for marketing but the mainline sports don't seem to want to be tied in to them for whatever reason, so they pick the esoteric sports to throw their sponsorship dollars at. Doesn't hurt that the demographic of the energy drinks and cigarettes/alcohol companies just so happens to tie in pretty well with the Supercross crowd.

Regardless of all of this it sucks that the AMA race series is dwindling down to what amounts to a club series held around the country. Hopefully something will change in the short term to make it better for those of us that still want to watch the best on the best racing in the states.

[SVRACER01]

I have a real hard time figuring out why AMA Supercross does so well but AMA Roadracing has so much trouble. One would think that they might share ideas and help each other as they all fall under the AMA umbrella.

because DMG doesnt do the promoting or organization for AMA SX. DMG sucks...period.

[SVRACER01]

Regardless of all of this it sucks that the AMA race series is dwindling down to what amounts to a club series held around the country.

and by around the country you mean east of the mississippi since there isnt even a race in CA on the schedule
i can think of a bunch of tracks NOT being utilized that have had past AMA events:
Laguna
Infineon
Salt Lake
COTA
NOLA
road atlanta
Brainard
VIR

[butcher bergs]

I'm not sure anyone else could run it better.

Unless they can get the majority of the factories back, I don't see any major positive changes.

Going to a "National" has to be special ... it cannot feel like a big club race.

I can think of a few outfits/ entities that would do a much better job.

DMG got ahold of AMA roadracing and have made some incredibly poor/ uninformed changes to the entire organization over the last few years (pace car, rolling starts, etc), while some of the more administrative changes directly affected the factory teams and made it more expensive for both the privateer and OEM's alike.

Couple those details with failing to strike TV deals in a timely manner and the expected fallout is exactly what we are seeing...lost sponsors, lost consumer interest and increased expenses across the board.


The first year DMG was at the AMA helm, I invited a few non-motorcycle friends to watch a race...the Daytona 200. It was among the worst races I had seen and because of the poor organization of the part of DMG, this group of friends could not find a way to appreciate what those riders do and therefore did not gain any interest.

[SVRACER01]

wont be the least bit surprised to here about AMA guys poaching at WERA events to make a little dough

[butcher bergs]

There's almost no "value" to a promoter at this point. I don't see anyone taking it over since they've already driven all the profit out of it.

It will require new leadership immediately and years of rebuilding business relations/ trust.

[Jim]

i heard they lost sponsors because they weren't forcing the helmets to have the Eject system.

[mzdagrl]

Definitely sad news. I'm thinking we might try and hit up an AMA event this year, if only to say we made it to one before they went away....

[MaRce1o]

Definitely sad news. I'm thinking we might try and hit up an AMA event this year, if only to say we made it to one before they went away....

I hope not. I was going to try this year but they dont accept yellow plate noobs

[mzdagrl]

I hope not. I was going to try this year but they dont accept yellow plate noobs

I would be going to spectate. They accept those.

[odduc]

The last AMA Roadracing Event that I attended, in person, was at our home track in Loudon. I called out sick from work because, true to the usual crappy weather, the Sunday races had been rained out. So, the Superbike race was on Monday. It was the last year the big leagues came here.

I got to shake hands with some of the best riders in the world. All of the Haydens, Eric Bostrom (Ben had gone to WSBK), Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates, John Hopkins and Anthony Gobert.

It's really sad that our domestic pro series has devolved into such a shitshow because of mis-management by people who either don't know or care about the sport.

[MaRce1o]

What year was that?

[CBR929RE]

I would be going to spectate. They accept those.

that doesn't sound right. are you sure?