New donations of $2900 each from Dunlop Tire Corporation and Max McAllister/Traxxion Dynamics boosted our Air Fence fund up to $98,925 late Wednesday afternoon. Other new contributions included $300 from James Siddall/World Sports/Corbin Grand Prix, $250 each from Scott Fisher/Fisher Technical Services, Chris Pyles & Beth Walters, and Peter Hively, and $150 from Ed and Catherine Sorbo. More $100 donations came in from Giorgio Milesi/Galfer Brakes USA, Al Lyons/CMRRA, Linda Hopkins, John Hopkins/In Memory of Jamie Bowman and Toby Jorgensen, Vicky & Michael Menard, Silvia Salenius/Ducati.net Online, HG Racing/AMA Pro Thunder and C.R. “Critter” Gittere/WERA BBS. Bob Elam kicked in $30 while Ted Angle, Susanne Hopkins and Nolan Ballew each sent $25.
Some sent notes with their contributions, including these:
Giorgio Milesi/Galfer Brakes USA: “Once again Roadracing World rescues and shows that it cares for this sport.”
Peter Hively: “Thanks, John, for taking the bull by the horns.”
Kirk Erlinger, AHRMA #257, MZ Sport Cup: “In regard to the AMA, it’s like my father used to say, ‘They’re more horses asses than horses!’ I’d like to contribute $25 to go along with the MZ Sport Cup Racers donation! Way to get this rolling and accomplished!”
Previous donor Aaron Loyd wrote: “I’ve been following the Air Fence fund-raising effort with interest. Made my donation early and noted with pride the donations coming from other members of Colorado’s MRA. I have two observations and a couple questions regarding the involvement of the major motorcycle manufacturers.
“First, keeping the barriers in Roadracing World’s control so that it could be used at both AMA and Formula USA events seems to provide the most benefit to racers. Second, I support the idea that the AMA sell or lease its racing program to FormulaUSA. Presumably, the AMA would know how to structure a lease agreement such that Formula USA could not do to the AMA what the AMA did to Roger Edmondson. A leasing agreement would allow the AMA to keep its name associated with racing and provide a steady stream of income to fund the good work the AMA does in protecting motorcyclist’s rights.
“Lastly, I’ve noted the donations from Buell, Aprilia, Ducati, Erion Racing and Suzuki. I’ve also noted the lack of donations from Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki. I wonder why the manufacturers are not more vocal about safety issues? What if Mat Mladin had hit the pace car at Daytona, or Nicky Hayden had been injured when he crashed on oil that was known to be on the track? One would think the manufacturers would care about the personal safety of their racers but at the very least would be concerned about the loss of expensive and hard-to-find racing talent. The manufacturers would stand to gain the most from making motorcycle road racing more popular and safer. I’m curious about what the manufacturers are doing to influence the AMA into running a more professional effort?”
Previous donor Scott Turner wrote: “I am one of the contributors from the Intrepid Cafe Racers. I would like to dedicate my contribution to the memory of Toby Jorgensen. I was very much looking forward to watching his road racing talent develop. His death was extremely saddening and likely preventable.
“I hope that you can find some way, with your full schedule, to extend this ‘safety crusade’ to include the AMA Pro Flat Trackers. I know they are scheduled to race on a few very marginally safe racetracks. Oval tracks present a more difficult problem of acceptable safety levels and I don’t expect the AMA to do a damn thing. Maybe you can! Thanks.”
This note came from HG Racing: “HG Racing (Richard Haas and Dale Gullicksen), a small AMA Pro Thunder team based in the SF Bay area, would like to pledge $100 to the fund. We commend your efforts in protecting our racers. It’s frightening to realize that the safety of our tracks in the U.S. is some 30 years behind the rest of the world. Europe went through safety issues like this in the 1970s, until rebels like Kenny Roberts Senior spoke out, and things began to change. I was there, and want to be part of this, too.
“I wish that Air Fence could be up for Sears – one of the most dangerous tracks on the AMA circuit today! I’m encouraging our Team Partners to participate too. Some, like Steve Brubaker of Dunlop, and Jeff Nash of AMS, have already done the right thing.”
The list of contributions now reads:
Erik Buell/Buell Motorcycle Company $5800
Trent Thompson/Paramount Racing $5000
Anonymous $4725
Dynojet Research $3200
Steve Brubaker/Race Tire Service $3000
John Ulrich/Roadracing World $2900
Aprilia USA $2900
American Suzuki Motor Corp. $2900
Ducati North America $2900
Jonathan Glaefke $2900
Susie and Bruce Meyers/BCM Racing Ducati $2900
Wegman Benefit Fund/Gordon Lunde Sr. $2900
Performance Machine $2900
Dunlop $2900
Max McAllister/Traxxion Dynamics $2900
Wendell Phillips/Lockhart Phillips $2500
Advanced Motor Sports/In Memory of Dirk Piz $2000
L.A. Bikers/labiker.org $1810
Dennis Smith/Sport Tire Services $1500
Marc Salvisberg/Factory Pro Tuning $1450
Bob Dragich/Roadracing World $1450
Fred Renz/Yoyodyne $1450
WERA Motorcycle Roadracing $1450
Bob Blandford/N.E. Sportbike Assn. $1100
Chuck Warren/Arclight Suzuki $1000
Jim Rashid/4&6 Cycle $1000
Scott Willock $1000
Don Emde/In Memory of Cal Rayborn $1000
Jason Pridmore’s Star Motorcycle School $1000
Mark E. Dobeck/Techlusion Performance Group $1000
G.M.D. Computrack Network $1000
California Superbike School $1000
Tachyon Racing/Tachyon Sports Injury Research Foundation $1000
Intrepid Café Racers $775
Yoshimura Racing $750
Team Daemon Racing $600
Don Lemelin/Scuderia West $500
Kevin Erion/Erion Racing $500
Pinky’s Pizza of Walnut Creek $500
Doug Gonda $500
Jerry Wood/Penguin School $500
Mike Canfield/Chandelle Motorsports $500
Jim Davis/J6 Racing/In Memory of Dirk Piz $500
Brooks Gremmels/Shogun Motorsports $500
Jim Di Salvo/Alien Racing $500
Dale Kieffer/Racers Edge Performance $500
The Plummer Menapace Group $500
Bill St. John/Project Monza $400
Edward S. Siccardi, Jr. $300
Dan Fischer/Copier1.com $300
David Finniff $300
Marietta Motorsports $300
Brendan Guy $300
Dean Scarpa $300
Anonymous $300
Kurtis Roberts $300
James Siddall/World Sports/Corbin Grand Prix $300
Scott Fisher/Fisher Technical Services $250
Chris Pyles & Beth Walters $250
Peter Hively $250
Brian Mitchell $250
Al Ludington $250
Tim Simpson $250
Spectrum Motorsports/VJB Racing $250
David Roy, Ducati N. America $250
Debbie Roy/Frenotec $250
Joshua Hayes $250
Gina Nadeau $250
Papa Thiam/WERA BBS $200
Bill Capshaw/ICE Motorsports $200
Scott Decker $200
Terry Embury $200
Jim “Dutch” MacKenzie/WERA BBS $200
Scott Jenkins/Desmoto-sport $200
Cliff Nobles $200
Aaron Yates $200
MZ Scorpion Cup Racers $175
Chris Kelley/California Cycleworks $150
Robb Mc Elroy $150
Tim Chin/Team Bandit $150
Ed & Catherine Sorbo $150
Jim Williams/13x.com $125
David Boosales/WERA BBS $125
Mike Brown/Team 222 $125
Pat Stricker $100
Gary Rand $100
Michael Roberson/WERA BBS $100
Sean Jordan/WERA BBS $100
Army of Darkness $100
Stuart Gregg $100
Pinky’s Pizza/Lippman Racing $100
Bob Szoke $100
TyrSox $100
Ron West/Omzig Productions $100
Joe Facer $100
Preston Rash $100
Geoff Maloney/GP Tech $100
Melissa Berkoff/Neighbor Of The Beast $100
Caesar Gonzales/WERA BBS $100
Dorina Groves $100
Dorina Groves $100/In Memory of Jamie Bowman $100
Philip Rusin/RC51.net $100
Allen “Spence” Spencer $100
Matt Wadsworth $100
Dean N. De St. Croix $100
Tony Tugwell/TZ250.com $100
Bart Fuqua/Team LGC $100
Brian Stokes/Marietta Motorsports $100
Chris “Opie” Caylor/Marietta Motorsports $100
David McElvain/NEDoD $100
Ned “Peanut” Brown/NESBA/TPM $100
Vance Hacecky $100
Patrick Mee $100
Dave and Jason Parker $100
Paul Kingsburgh/RC45.net $100
Lucky Deleoni $100
Tom Drumm $100
David Brown $100
Steve Moonitz $100
Jake Swan $100
Chris Story $100
Chris Eklund $100
Randy Ball/WERA BBS $100
Mark Hellvig $100
Gary Schilling/On Time Racing/WERA BBS $100
Steve Sumner $100
Laura Granato $100
Norm Viano/Lawdog Sports Mgmt $100
Kevin Jordan/Jordan Motorsports $100
Val Gregory/In Memory of Dirk Piz $100
Dave Gess $100
Rob Berlind $100
Paul Black $100
Steve Hewitt $100
Mike Ciccotto $100
Tripp Nobles $100
Scott Rehl $100
Steve & Lorraine Aledort $100
Jeff Rozycki/29dreams.com Racing $100
Chris Ulrich/In Memory of Russ Paulk And Toby Jorgensen $100
Giorgio Milesi/Galfer Brakes USA $100
Al Lyons/CMRRA $100
Linda Hopkins $100
John Hopkins/In Memory of Jamie Bowman and Toby Jorgensen $100
Vicky&Michael Menard $100
Silvia Salenius/Ducati.net Online $100
HG Racing/AMA Pro Thunder $100
Red Fox Racing $100
Greg Ruffin $100
John Donald/PTC Racing $100
Larry Pegram $100
Pamela Skaff/WERA BBS $100
J.D. Hord/Meccanica Corse Racing $100
Mark Sutton $100
Steve Scott/LRRS#47 $100
Eric Putter $100
Jim Doerfler $100
Ira Englebardt $100
Joe & Nancy Fenech $100
Earl Hayden $100
Chuck Sorensen $100
D&D Thrush Farms $100
Jeff Wilson/American Suzuki $100
Adam Vella/Webcrush Racing $100
Chuck Gault/Motobama $100
Gary Longren $100
Stephan Hottenrott $100
C.R. “Critter” Gittere/WERA BBS
Tyson Kamp $75
Max Buxton/NEDoD $50
Nelo Hakola $50
Tyler Sandell $ 50
David J. Kopfinger $ 50
Aaron Loyd $50
Martin Voelker $50
Steve Hopkins $50
Louis DeBlois $50
Leigh Taunton/EMGO $50
Randy Sinisi $50
Danny Hull $50
Team Skidmark Racing $50
Ryan Meskimen/WERA BBS $50
Erik Astrup $50
Paul Zavada $50
James Greeson/WERA BBS $50
Victor Mokler $50
Steve Clark/J. Guthridge/Tight Squeeze Racing $50
Nate Olsen $50
Anthony Moey $50
Dustin Miller $50
Jim Frost/NEDoD $50
Steve Martinez $50
Jason Temme/Serpent Racing $50
Mike Hodgson/WERA BBS $50
Chris Borre/Motorcycleroadracer.com $50
Richard Barker/AIM/In Memory of Dirk Piz $50
Mike Reish/Reish Dot Net $50
Kenyon Kluge/K2 Racing $50
Darin Nichols/Team Unit $50
Richard Davis $50
Allen Lyon/Ducati Online $50
Eric H. Mathy $50
Steve Breckenridge $50
Jim Race/Speaksy Racing $50
Don Moody $35
Lindsey Leard $30
Dave Deggendorf /WERA BBS $30
Steve Sturm/Squidvision Racing $30
George Gervasi/Projekt9 Racing $30
Bob Elam $30
Greg Gabis $29
Ripley Howe $29
Mark Hatten/Meccanica Corse Racing $29
Ted Angle $25
Susanne Hopkins $25
Nolan Ballew $25
Josh Loberant $25
Charles Tomes $25
Jon DeMent $25
Timothy Wilson $25
Mark Novak $25
Rene Ferron $25
Sean Patrick Brisini $25
Richard Korol $25
Eric and Christine Loranger $25
Dee Moses $25
Kyle Kirschenmann/Bayou Riders of Louisiana $25
S.C. Pittman $20
Jamieson D. Yonker $20
Garret Swearingen $20
To pledge a contribution, call Roadracing World at (800) 464-8336 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, when operators will be standing by. Credit cards accepted. Pledges can also be made by e-mailing [email protected]. Make checks payable to Roadracing World. For background information, see Time To Take Back The AMA post from Tuesday morning. Stay tuned for more details, as we work toward our goal, $87,000 for 30 beautiful sections of Air Module, plus money for deployment expenses and for shipping, tax and import duties.