AMA

Daytona International Speedway and Daytona Beach, Florida have been at the epicenter of motorsports for 50 years but the 2008 acquisition, realignment and relocation of AMA Pro Racing by the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) now has major-league motorcycle racing in the spotlight year-round at “The World Center of Racing.”

The 2009 AMA Pro Racing season marks the first full year of ownership and operation of North America’s premier motorcycle racing sanctioning body by DMG, which itself is owned and operated by some of the same people that have been behind the successful stock car and sports car racing entities that also call Daytona home.

In fact, while the ownership entity is new, the lead principals of DMG are among the most prominent leaders in professional motorsports.  This includes Jim France, the Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President of NASCAR and an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and Roger Edmondson who is beginning his second stint at the helm of AMA Pro Road Racing.

“Our goal is to guide the sport into the mainstream of American culture and showcase the extraordinary abilities of the competitors and their teams,” said Edmondson, who also founded motorcycle racing’s successful CCS (Championship Cup Series) and was hand-picked by France to launch the successful Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series a decade ago.

The AMA Pro Racing properties and assets were purchased from the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) that continues to operate as the nation’s largest and leading motorcycle advocacy and government-relations organization, based in Pickerington, Ohio.

“We are honored to be working with the Daytona Motorsports Group,” said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman.  “This group of individuals has supported the AMA and motorcycle racing for decades.  There isn’t a better-resourced or more qualified entity in which to entrust the future of AMA Pro Racing.”

Late in 2008, AMA Pro Racing was relocated from Pickerington to an office nearby the same complex that is home to Daytona International Speedway and the headquarters of both NASCAR and Grand-Am Road Racing.  Daytona is the perfect location to launch the next chapter in the illustrious racing history of AMA Pro, which ran its first full season of competition in 1925.  A little over a decade later the first Daytona 200 was run on the sand and just off the surf at Daytona Beach and AMA Pro and Daytona have been solidly linked in motorcycle racing history and success ever since.

Now firmly anchored in Daytona, AMA Pro’s new ownership and an initial group of 15 managers and staff began last year the task of ushering in the next era of major motorcycle racing in North America.  The DMG moniker is no longer used and the organization is known simply as the familiar AMA Pro Racing.

At the focal point of the Daytona headquarters is AMA Pro Road Racing which is the foundation of the organization’s short-term and future growth.  The AMA Pro Road Racing lineup includes AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike, AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL, AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei and AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT.

American Superbike continues a motorcycle racing legacy that began in 1976.  Daytona SportBike is AMA Pro’s showcase for fast-handling 600cc machines going head-to-head with big-bore bikes such as Buells, Aprilias and Ducatis.  Daytona SportBike is also the featured class in America’s premier motorcycle road race, the Daytona 200 by Honda, and the advent of the new division will allow the legendary race to return to the full 3.55-mile Daytona long-course in 2009 for the first time in several years. 

Even better, Daytona SportBikes will be the first premier category to race under the lights at Daytona when the first night running of the Daytona 200 in the history of the prestigious race is run Friday, March 6.  It will mark the first time in North American motorcycle road racing history that a major event will be run entirely at night.   

The revamped AMA Pro SuperSport class features 600cc motorcycles with minimal modifications.  The main feature of this class is that it is now AMA Pro’s showcase for emerging talent, and riders can’t be older than 21 years old.

The fourth division in the AMA Pro Road Racing lineup is the AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT class that features team racing with multiple riders sharing a single motorcycle.  SunTrust Moto-GT is also home to AMA Pro’s longest race, the 8 Hours At Daytona, which will be run for the fourth time this October.

The diversity of the four AMA Pro Road Racing classes is deliberate, but Edmondson and his team hope each division produces the same results: unprecedentedly close racing and thrilling competition.

“There should be racing where every team legitimately has the opportunity to win,” Edmondson said.  “That almost always produces great racing and that is what we have in store at AMA Pro Racing now and in the future.”