Will AMA roadracing survive?

As a longtime fan of AMA roadracing and all forms of motorcycle racing it's ashame to see the potential demise of this series. While it hasn't passed away yet it's getting there. Part of the fault can be placed on the world economy but a good part of the blame should be placed on DMG and it's poor choices. Such as chasing out manufacturers and associated sponsors and creating rules fit for club racing instead of a prominent national series. I'm happy that we still have World Superbike/Supersport and the precession series of Motogp that we can still watch.  

It's unfortunate that the DMG thought they could change the motorcycle roadracing landscape in one fell swoop. They completely underestimated the resolve (and intelligence) of the American race fans, how crucial factory support was to the series, and the resolve of the manufacturers. And now they're basically trying to kill off the superbike class with unbelievably poor purse money compared to the Daytona Sportbike class. Despite the exploits of Ben Spies, American roadracing now has zero credibility with MotoGP and WSBK.  

Follow the money.  Race track owners don't want to see their existing tracks rendered irrelevant.  Old school car tracks and modern bikes are mismatched.  Most of the legendary tracks were built when bikes made less than 100hp and a top speed of 135 was phenomenal.  What are they gonna do?  Move grandstands?  Tear down miles of wall and catch fence?  Buy the street outside the fence?  Nope.  

Answer - buy the AMA, cheap.

What do they have to lose? Just what they paid and it's future capitalized value.  They'll massage it into whatever shape they please.  Motorcycle racing is important to them but it is just a percentage of their business.  

Basically DMF ..er I mean DMG, has finished what the AMA started.
The Roger & Colin show did in a year what the AMA slowly did over the past ten.
Bike racing nets less money for DMG than popcorn sales at one NASCAR event so why should they care?
Having people in charge of a sport that do not love and understand the sport will lead to the inevitable.
Why would you put Roger who has a known hatred for the AMA in charge? It's payback time and he has collected in full.Also, there is nothing worse than having an arrogant clerk of the course or whatever Colin is at the track. We have gone back to hassles and issues not seen since before the days of Roberts - yes I am that friggin old!
When I raced in the UK back in the 80's Daytona was like the Indianapolis for cars. Everyone in Europe wanted to ride there - now it's a joke.
For the past few years we have been lucky enough to have two of the hardest riders in the world go at it every weekend and what do the organizers do? Cry about Suzuki winning all the time. Did they cry about Honda winning 10 years in a row in the Grand Prix? The best team/bike with a great rider will always dominate.The Yosh boys worked hard to get what they got.
The National series has produced some great world champions but with the machinery that they now have to ride Spies could be the last.
DMG has turned the series into a glorified club race but without the club racing scenes passion. It's a sad shame.
Hopefully the Japanese will start their own series as this is still a very big market for them.
Putting Neil Hodgson in charge would be a good move too. He is well respected and knows how proper racing is conducted.  

Actually, the DMG only have majority ownership in racetracks that are superspeedways with a road course built inside (Fontana is the only one on the AMA schedule beside Daytona). All of the other road courses have no real stake in the DMG or vice versa. However, Edmondson felt that the "tail was wagging the dog" with regards to safety issues between riders and racetracks, so he decided to make the decision himself and coerce the riders to ride so that the DMG could collect its sanctioning fee. He knows that racers are a notoriously fractious bunch, so there would always be some who would race for the money no matter how dangerous it was.

The majority of the riders weren't looking for absolute 100% safety and reducing every possible risk; they were willing to work with the racetracks regarding implementation of safety improvements (Infineon/Sears Point is a good example). The problems between riders and tracks really occurred when some racetrack owners who could care less about motorcycles other than the fact that those particular tracks make more money from motorcycle events than any automobile racing event began making changes without consultation from the right people (i.e., asking the AMA instead of the riders, resulting in snafus like the ridiculous turn two chicane at Road Atlanta, or the repaving at Mid-Ohio). The AMA (and now the DMG) continued to race at places that were clearly outmoded or had major safety issues (Daytona, Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio) because they wanted to collect the big sanctioning fee.

True, modern superbikes were quickly outgrowing the majority of American tracks. But there are plenty of ways to slow them down instead of just trying to kill off the class like the DMG is doing.  

Dominator:

Why would you put Roger who has a known hatred for the AMA in charge? It's payback time and he has collected in full.

Not to defend his actions, but Edmondson doesn't gain anything except negative publicity by killing off AMA roadracing as a matter of revenge for the AMA's past transgressions against him. He stood to gain much, much more (as in $$, which is surely what matters to him most) if he made the series successful; obviously, that's not what happened.  

Much respect to you Kento, you've been there/done that.
All over the world the bikes out grow the tracks ( planes outgrow airfields,former championship golf courses are rendered too short by power etc etc). How many premier events are held at Cadwell Park, Montjuic Park, Spa, Brooklands etc etc. The USA tracks are no different.
You build new tracks or modify the existing ones - some because of land constraints you just can't change so the big bikes will not be able to safely race there.
We've got Miller and Barber and Indy that are brand new, move the events there.
Daytona was never really safe, kinda like the IOM, it's time to move on just like Brooklands. There is so much easily buildable land in Florida they could build a first rate facility near Daytona and save the banking for cars or smaller bikes.
Roger and Colin have been around bikes before, their actions over the last two years have set back US Racing by 30 years. They are too smart for this to have been a miscalculation/underestimation.There is something going on that we don't know about yet.  

I don't think there's any hidden conspiracy (other than attempting to get rid of the 1000cc superbike class) with Roger and Colin. Edmondson's ego (thinking he could swiftly change the motorcycle roadracing landscape with a wave of his hand) is at the root of much of the demise we've seen the past year. I know there are some advisors who have been giving him bad advice as well, and it's basically worked itself into a perfect storm with the near collapse of the economy. The decisions or ideas on his end have been poorly thought out (if they've been given much thought at all, other than how much money they can get out of it) and knee-jerk at best.  

Kento and others make good points on this subject. As a motorcycling fan I want to see the best bikes out there racing and for most that's superbikes. The sportbike market in the US is made up mainly of 600's and 1000's with a smaller amount of 750's dominated by Suzuki as the only manufacturer (that I'm aware of) still making and selling them. That being the case then it makes sense that's what consumers want to see racing. You can make an argument about GP bikes but that's another story. Edmondson and his minions obviously don't get this. Forcing race fans to switch their interest of the premier class from Superbike to hopped up supersport machines is just wrong. Forcing factories out and their support is wrong. They've underestimated the fan base and the fans are reacting by not attending races and losing interest. Unfortunately the dedicated racers are losing out by not having a quality national series that can help them move to better levels as they improve.  

I think that DMG's attemp to NASCAR-ize motorcyce racing would be more successful if they realized that we motorcycle fans are a bit more of a marketing challenge than they are used to.
ie. I like things that turn right and left, I can chew gum while I walk, ect...  

LOL...

Marketing really isn't the problem. In order to NASCAR-ize, the ruling organization needs to have the flexibility to modify rules whenever/however they want. This supposedly keeps one person from continually winning and "making the racing boring" (nevermind the fact that one driver has won the NASCAR title four years in a row).

The motorcycle manufacturers and their product are too embedded in roadracing to simply kick them out and try to start over with a clean sheet. And the DMG/AMA's penchant for catering to Buell and the smaller manufacturers with "special rules" ignores the fact that racing has guided the development of those products. With the organization losing all credibility with constant flip-flopping on various rules, how can the manufacturers build motorcycles to race if they don't know whether the rules might change tomorrow?  

That's why I'm hoping that the factories will start their own series.
I don't see any reason to be loyal to the existing series anymore.
Here's to American Superbike - brought to you by Sport Rider.  

Would be nice to see an new American Superbike series but can't see the factories sponsoring such a series with the current economy and significantly reduced bike sales.  

Hey there MotoMark1.  I sadly agree with you comments.  I hope you had the chance to read my post "AMA weekend at Daytona (disappointing)".  If not, please take a look and I would love to hear your response.  I posted back about 2 weeks ago.  Cheers.  

It is a sad state of affairs. The thing that gets me the most is how do we now get U.S. racers into motogp or even WSBK for that matter? Is Spies the last of them?
Seems like there is not much of a chance of developing talent here anymore. Making it to GP is going to be almost impossible and forget getting something decent in WSBK. The only way into world superbike now is to fail for a couple of seasons in Motogp. We have who? Roger Lee wobbling around on an " Otis the town drunk" prepared Kawasaki. The future is not looking bright for young Hayden or any other former AMA big boys.