Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

While I admit that I have little direct knowledge of what is happening within AMA Pro Racing regarding operations, communications, etc., I do watch your site and have noted some of the organizational issues you have reported.

I have run many different racing organizations, events, etc., over the past 30 years (admittedly mostly for cars) and have seen many of these issues in one form or another. In almost all cases the problems proved not to be the individual people involved, their committment to the sport and their jobs, or the effort they put in. In almost all cases the problems came down to too few qualified people trying to do too much with too little.

This is especially true where budgets are tight.

Perhaps the problem at AMA Pro Racing is not the people who are there but the people who are not.

Just a comment but based on my own observations at the few AMA events I have been to where I have noted that, in my opinion, the number of people supporting Ron Barrick seems woefully small…certainly way less than for the equivalent level car race event.

I hope that your and your readers comments are not seen, by those who do their jobs to the best of their ability, to be aimed at them. Rather I hope that these comments will be seen by the senior management of AMA Pro Racing as a call to increase their support and committment to their event management team who should be given the resources, additional staff and support necessary to enable them to deliver the level of service that AMA’s riders and teams deserve.

The riders, teams and fans deserve the best event management that they can get, and Ron and his team deserve the AMA’s backing to help them provide it.

Alan Wilson
Castle Rock, Colorado



Editorial Note: As seen in the minutes of meetings of the AMA Board of Directors going back more than 12 months, the AMA Board has directed AMA Pro Racing on multiple occasions to take immediate steps to improve road racing operations, communications and safety.

In one specific case, in November 2002 the AMA Board directed AMA Pro Racing to hire a senior operations manager by the end of the first quarter of 2003. But while AMA Pro Racing’s front office staff has grown dramatically recently, there has not been similar growth on the operations side, and a senior operations manager was not hired by the Board-imposed deadline.

AMA Pro Racing operations–including ongoing problems with road racing timing & scoring, officiating, communications and safety–and the underlying operating agreement between the AMA and its Pro Racing subsidiary, have been a hot topic at every AMA Board meeting since May 2002.

In an effort to address these ongoing issues, last year the AMA Board appointed AMA President Rob Rasor to the AMA Pro Racing Board and gave him broad authority over AMA Pro Racing administration. At the most recent AMA Board meeting, held last week, AMA South-Central Director (and former AMA Pro Thunder Champion) Jeff Nash was also appointed to the AMA Pro Racing Board, in another effort to speed up AMA Pro Racing compliance with AMA Board directives.