How to save the AMA...

Alice's Restaurant in Northern California is still like that. People in SoCal are just more flighty.

-jim

 

Yeah, we have beaches, and bikinis and sun tan oil and stuff

 

And it did in the eighties too. I lived there before finding the North.

-jim

 

Well, I hope you and your Prius and your scooter are enjoying the North

 

Subaru and snow tires. :P

-jim

 

Ill testify to that fact. Out of 14 students this weekend only 2 were racers.
When other students were asked about racing... they weren't really interested.

 

And when you asked "why not?", they said?

-jim

 

When I told them my age and how many much younger were running... there was a certain interest expressed. There was some concern about skill level, bike prep, and all the standard concerns of making the transition. Im talking interest in participation versus spectating.
Definitely the "core disposible income" set needed to keep the sport around.
They all knew of Rossi and Edwards. One had been to Edwards Boot camp twice. Most are registered trackday customers.

 

Oh fine here's .02 worth.

Rider's union, nothing crazy, but some sort of organized input.

Make the circuit an actual circuit that flows in geographical order, offer container transport (like pods) and deck them out with team and sponsor graphics. Store them at local shops and event locations.

Pyrotechnics at the start/finish line like supercross. Show the top ten cross it.

Buy one get one free ads on Subway cups, just like supercross.

Free grandstand entry at Daytona, (they own the track), infield and paddock costs money. Advertise this throughout bike week and you can recruit and hook your disposable income having riding public at the beginning of each season. Let any team running a main utilize the empty boxes and suites to woo potential corporate sponsors.

If only 6 rounds make most of them double headers.

Pay for your multiple jumbotrons with ads between events. (It's how public transit has TV's)

All races shown on weekend TV. CBS time slots have been excellent.

Pair up with Baltimore (or some other cash strapped jurisdiction) for a street legal road race worth double points.

Kids under 12 free at every round.

Get the helicopter and get the onboard, or a cheaper option, if it isn't a live broadcast put the footage together afterwards. (Gopro is a sponsor)

Stop limiting the team's ability to use and promote with that same footage or AMAPro logos, it's counterproductive and like shooting themselves in the foot.

MANUFACTUER TITLE

Stop attempting to poach sponsors (and ideas) from teams and showing favoritism when dealing with conflicts involving cross marketing.

Stop treating the your own Pro Motorcycle Road Racing series and other series (WERA) as direct compitition with your cashcow that is CRASHCAR.

Saturday night concert series, there are plenty of hurting D level county fair playing bands available.

Let local club racers and stunt guys have a serious section coned off for supermoto, mini moto, and stunt'n during downtime. (Air tight insurance waiver, sue free zone)

Hire me, like a day laborer I'm cheap and have experiance.



If DMG doesn't get it together, there is always that "detriment to the name" clause in the AMA sales contract.

 

I agree. The same problem facing road racing have already happened to general aviation, fewer people taking flying lessons compared to the 70's and 80's.

 

My opinion is what do you want? A good pipeline to the world stage? Or side show to make money? I don't think you can have both.. Like what happened in Phillip Island or not... People we're talking about it.

I think the biggest gap between average to the best in any sport is motorcycle racing. Most don't understand the talent it takes to ride a motorcycle at the limit and beyond.

I think the biggest issue is little Johnny has to be this tall to ride this ride and wear a neck brace and a full face helmet to ride a go-cart that goes 15mph. It's much safer to plant him in front of the TV and put a PS3 remote in his hand. When I was in Italy you could get on a 125cc go cart for 20 Lira do 20 laps, stop when you wanted and drink free beer all day. The drunk teenagers were unbeatable.

 

when motorcycle racing didn't require you to be ghey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzTaNDGZPHg

 

Lol

 

+1 I've worked with a bunch of people and a small % are racers. The people that want to race will. You can't talk them into it. But when a racer comes along it makes all the work worth it

 

Note Wes of the Super Team talk about that purse, so big folks would cross the pond to run.

We could just go run on the beach again...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YgWCevurRyc&desktop_uri=/watch?v=YgWCevurRyc

 

Like Mat M. just said...Fuc---- Pu----

What a bunch a phags today. Let the series die.

 

-jim

 

Before they even think about TV or sponsors or fans, they should worry about the quality of the product. Create a competitive racing series that the economy can support, with a unified rule structure that allows the maximum number of racers across the country to compete in it.

 

I don't think this is true. My kid's been roadracing at "big tracks" since he was 10, with oversight provided by the club or org at the time. A lot of other kids I know have been doing the same thing, and we really haven't run across many real obstacles as long as we could satisfy the diligence of whoever was running the event in question. A bigger concern could definitely be the level of commitment and attention required, as opposed to loading up the 4-wheeler and messing around in the woods for the afternoon. There are lots of opportunities out there for kids to roadrace motorcycles in America, and every club we've been in contact with has a mechanism in place to allow it.

 

Dave K for Pres!

Cameron Gray told me that they might be back for the 2015 season. If there's a season.

My 2¢? Have a unified series promoter to promote every, single, fricking event. Make it an event worth attending. M1 did a fantastic job with their Big Kahuna events; apply the Big Mac principle and make every single event the same with not only great racing, but Jumbotrons so people can actually watch it, a great vendor concourse, evening entertainment, etc. It's worked well enough for supercross...