Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Michael Hannas

AMA Pro Racing is now offering free guest passes to riders who only pre-enter selected events, instead of requiring riders to pre-enter the entire season to get the pass, which was the case in the past.

An AMA Pro Racing memo addressed to “License Applicants” dated October 15, 2002 but postmarked January 3, 2003, states “Riders who pre-enter selected events will be eligible to receive a free guest pass to those events that he/she is pre-entered for. To obtain the pass, the rider must accompany his/her guest to registration to have the pass issued.”

A call to AMA Pro Racing offices to find out what type of passes would be issued to the guest was made, with the answer being that the passes would probably be equivalent to spectator passes with paddock access, but no hot pit access. No one at the office was able to confirm this, so we called AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick to find out the scoop.

According to Barrick, the guest passes issued to riders who pre-enter selected-events-only will not grant the guest hot pit access. They will indeed be like spectator passes, meaning that a rider will still have to buy a $55 mechanic pass for the weekend (which requires an AMA membership as well, another $39) if he wants his significant other to be able to bring him his helmet on hot pit or hold his umbrella on the grid.

Barrick also noted that while the hard-card guest credential for riders who pre-enter the entire season was available in the past but the policy wasn’t made public, the guest pass for selected events is an entirely new procedure. Barrick said this type of guest pass may possibly have been available for riders many years ago, but not since he has been working for AMA Pro Racing.

While a free guest pass should be generally accepted as a good thing by the riders, it remains unclear if this option was secretly available to a select few in the past as well. One rider who wishes to remain nameless told roadracingworld.com he has been asked if he needed any free guest passes for the weekend by an AMA Pro Racing official upon arriving at the track in the recent past, even though he was post-entering for the race.