Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

As Roadracingworld.com reported October 28, a BMW Boxer Cup race will replace Buell-sponsored Pro Thunder at Daytona next year. The Boxer Cup will run on Sunday, March 9 just prior to the start of the Daytona 200.

This development seems to contradict a June 27 press release from AMA Pro Racing announcing the transfer of Pro Thunder from AMA to WERA in 2003, which quoted Scott Hollingsworth, CEO of AMA Pro Racing, as saying, “The changes are designed to improve race operations and provide more track time to riders, but also allow greater emphasis on the premier racing championships of AMA Superbike and AMA Supersport. Fewer classes will allow us to do things that will benefit race operations, riders, fans and promoters. To take AMA professional road racing to a higher level, we have to do fewer things and do them better.”

We called Erik Buell, President and Chief Technical Officer of Buell American Motorcycles at his office in East Troy, Wisconsin, Thursday, October 31, to get his reaction, and here is what he said:

“I saw that stuff on the Roadracing World web page and was just stunned about what the AMA’s doing at Daytona.

“I spent such a long time talking to the AMA and Merrill Vanderslice (AMA Pro Racing Director of Competition) and Scott Hollingsworth (AMA Pro Racing CEO), and they made it clear to me that they had made a decision that they said was for the good of the racers, that we were going to simplify racing, eliminate classes and they had a real focus on making things right for the riders, etc.

“I said we were very sad because we felt Pro Thunder was an exciting class, and I explained to them that we were preparing to make stuff available to dealers for the upcoming year. . . because there were a few dealers that were running stuff. We were trying to work to figure out a way to make kit stuff available for people so more dealers would get involved. We talked to a lot of dealers, and they were interested in AMA racing. A lot of Harley dealers have a love of the classic AMA, which unfortunately is not the same.

“But they (AMA Pro Racing) said, ‘No, no, no. Can’t do this.’ So I said, ‘I don’t want to fight city hall, and I don’t want to piss off the AMA. I wish we could do this. It sure seems like a great place; it’s the only place where you have multiple brands running. We’ve had wins by Triumphs, Ducatis, Bimotas. There were Moto Guzzis in the race, BMWs in the race, Laverdas, Ducatis, Triumphs; and the Japanese, Suzukis, Hondas; and of course Buells. So you know, it was a pretty cool class since everything else is (makes sound of inline four-cylinder engine) 600, 750 multis. Especially the 750 Supersport.’

“They (AMA Pro Racing) talked to me, and they said, ‘The 750 Supersport class, we don’t like it because it’s all dominated by Suzukis’ and ‘Boy, if we could eliminate it we would. We want things to change. That’s why we’re going to let 600s in and your bike in and Pro Thunder bikes in.’ I told them, ‘We won’t be able to run in that class. It’s a different level from where we are.’ But that’s what they told us, ‘lean it down’ and ‘we’re very much against this one brand thing.’

“I just was stunned. They lied to me. There’s no doubt.

“They didn’t call me up and say, ‘We’d like to put on a special event at Daytona.’ After Buell has funded Pro Thunder for the last three years. Progressive Insurance funded it for the first two years. It’s a five-year-old series. We funded it for the last three years with no pressure on them as to what the rules would be or any damn thing else. They wrote the rules. We said, ‘Holy shit, 748! You’re going to let pure racing (Ducati) 748s in? That’s going to be tough on everybody.’ They went, ‘Well, that’s the way it’s going to be.’

“We went, ‘Okay, we think this series is really cool.’ I like the mixture. I like seeing Guzzis (and) BMWs on the track racing with one another. I go back to the old Superbike days where there were many different brands and anything could win. I thought that was pretty cool. And here they went and did this.

“Just to go back, it goes back to 883 racing. When Pro Thunder first started five years ago, they called up Harley and talked to us and said, ‘We’re going to close down Harley-Davidson 883 class racing because there’s no place in AMA, this is a professional series.’ This is their quote, ‘This is a professional series and there’s no place for a one-brand-only event, because we’re not here to promote brands. We’re here to promote competition between brands.’

“So that’s what happened to that class, and, as you know, we participated right away starting after that.

“We had also talked to them about our Lightning series at that time because part of the discussion was, they said, ‘Well, the 883s are too slow.’ And we said, ‘We’re going to start this Lightning class racing,’ which we started the next year with (NASB/CCS). They said, ‘No, no, no. We don’t want any one-brand stuff. Nothing to do with that.’

“And you know what’s sad about this? This isn’t the AMA, the actual AMA. This is not the American Motorcyclist Association. This is this bizarre Pro Racing, Paradama bunch of lunatics. And I’ve been sitting here and watching all the rules changes they’re making. They’re more and more bizarre as the weeks roll by.

“The American Motorcyclist Association is supposed to be about motorcyclists, which is why I bought into multi-brand racing. It’s not some kind of a dog-and-pony show. It’s supposed to be for riders, dealers and manufacturers – all of them. A nice mix of America, but mostly about the riders.

“The guys that built Pro Thunder bikes over the years. . . so all of these guys are screwed out of rides on this. Oh, so pontification about making things better for the riders and eliminating classes, and then you see something like this! I mean, they’ve screwed everybody involved in this: The dealers, all the manufacturers, Ducati, ourselves, Triumph, Suzuki, who has helped out people with SV650s and stuff. We all rolled over for those jerks. I am mad!

“And I have tried to be tolerant of the AMA. I’ve supported them in every way I can. Again, funding this program, not arguing about what the rules were going to be, talking about this thing and just saying, ‘Hey, I love racing. This isn’t about Buells winning. Let’s put on this event. This is cool.’

“And you know again, we were trying to fund more dealers to get in. Because one of the things the (AMA) guys in there would say is, ‘There’s not enough entries in the class. We’d like to see more entries.’ I’m like, ‘You know, we’re working on that.’

“Again this is not against the AMA or the Board of Directors of the AMA and those people. They aren’t doing this, but they need to grab a hold of this thing and just shake its brains out because this is going to humiliate the AMA once again and screw up their image. I just hope the AMA main board can do something about this because this is wrong. I am really wound up. I am furious with dishonesty. When I played this straight and treated these people as honorable and taken them at their word and stood up for them against people who were saying, ‘You know, these guys are jerks.’ ‘No, no, no, trust me. They’re trying to do what’s right.’

“They approached us (to sponsor the Pro Thunder class in 2000). They called us up and said, ‘We’re going to cancel Pro Thunder for next year because there’s no sponsorship.’ And this, typical AMA, was like probably a December time frame. We’re like, ‘Holy shit! We know a bunch of people who are going to go racing – Tilleys and stuff. What about this?’ ‘Well, there’s no money. We can’t run the class.’

“So I went back to Harley, and went back to our budget people and went, ‘What the hell are we going to do? Can we help these guys out?’ And the answer was, ‘Well, yeah. What the hell? We’ll get our name talked about at the races. It’s pretty expensive, but hell, we all like racing. It probably isn’t going to pay for itself, and it doesn’t make sense.’ I mean, that’s the kind of area where we can get guys like Willie G. (Davidson) and people going, ‘Yeah, Buell should be doing that. We should be doing that. We can’t let racing die. This is grassroots racing. This is good racing. This isn’t works Superbike stuff. This is good stuff.’

“The sad part of this is this is not the AMA. This is AMA Pro Racing, which is a different group, and they are out of control. I know you’re going to write this stuff up and maybe this is going to kill my future ever of dealing with AMA, but they know they lied to me. So they can deal with that. The deal is they’re never going to speak to me or anything, but that’s okay with me because I’m not sure I ever want to speak to them again, the people who did this. Screw it. If the AMA doesn’t do something about this, and this is not about this one event. This is about the lying. And you keep hearing all these people saying, ‘Goddamn it! They told me something else and then this happens!’ Well, I know it now. I’ve experienced it first-hand.

“I’m very sad about it. I know there were a lot of people in Pro Thunder, there was a lot of camaraderie in there. I slapped (Jeff) Nash and those guys on the shoulders. We would’ve liked to have won it, but we put our best effort. I think we won more individual races than any other brand; we never won the Championship. We finished second four times. But it’s been fun, you know what I mean. There wasn’t a lot of BS going on in that class. It was a good class. We were happy supporting it even though we weren’t winning it. We’re not in racing to win or dominate. We’re in there to compete and have fun.

“If you don’t have the events and you don’t have stuff going on; you don’t have people out there. That’s a shame. And what I’m seeing – the AMA dismantling the 250 class, pushing 600s over into the 750 class where there are going to be works riders, fully-supported, whose entire livelihood is racing in the 750 class now. They’re going to eliminate the 250s, they’ve eliminated Pro Thunder classes, everything is based around factory four-cylinder racing with a few loopholes for some of the twin pure Superbikes. I don’t believe that’s right for the AMA. The AMA is an American Motorcyclist Association, and they’ve always been involved in grassroots and bringing up people. The 883 class generated Eric Bostrom, Ben Bostrom, Tripp (Nobles), Shawn (Higbee) and Mike Hale.

“The AMA will really hate me for this, you know, but the AMA road racing was completely screwed a couple of years ago. It was hardly even happening, then there was a certain guy whose name I probably shouldn’t. . . you probably know who I’m talking about (Roger Edmondson). . .who came on board and made some cool changes and brought in grassroots racing and did CCS and started the 600 class and all that stuff which all of a sudden brought stuff back to life. And they’re busy, madly busily dismantling this. (pause) I’m sorry.

“What I believe is the AMA doesn’t know what’s going on there just like I didn’t. You know what I mean? Just a lot of talk and a lot of salesmanship going on out of AMA Pro Racing. And until you’ve experienced the reality of what they do, you can get sucked in by it.

“John’s (Ulrich, AMA Southwest Region Director) been in there at the AMA main board and so has Jeff Nash (AMA South Central Region Director) bringing the reality perspective of the riders – the motorcyclists in American Motorcyclist Association – bringing their perspective into the AMA, and I think maybe there is going to be a wake-up call. I sure hope so because this is a tragedy to see this happening to road racing.

“Last year, we paid as much to sponsor a five-race series as we did the 10-race series before. And we went, ‘Okay.’ Then they throw it away and the entry fees and the people that are coming to the events! They can sit there and say, ‘Aw, nobody gives a damn about Pro Thunder, nobody gives a damn about 250, and nobody…’ Bullshit!

“It will reduce the number of people coming (to AMA events), and the event’s going to cost just as much to put on, just as much to rent the track, just as much to bring the staff there. They’re killing their current revenues, and they’re killing their future by closing it out, closing out people who are…dealers who want to be involved and amateur racers who want to be involved.

“If you’re a Ducati dealer, a Moto Guzzi dealer or a Laverda dealer or a Suzuki dealer who can’t field a factory-level Superbike effort but wants to run a SV650, where the hell do you go? ‘Oh, go somewhere else.’ Hey, wait a minute, isn’t the AMA supposed to be the main organization? What do you mean go somewhere else? You know, I mean again talking from a business perspective, is that what you want? Turn away everybody to WERA? I don’t get it.”