I sometimes suspect that when he’s feeling down or beleaguered, AMA President Rob Dingman fires someone to cheer himself up. If true, considering what a tough time he’s had as president, it would explain why he’s fired so many people over the past seven years. Also if true, it might help soften the blow of having to admit that the very centerpiece of his “New Vision for the AMA*,” the transfer of the AMA Superbike series to the Daytona Motorsports Group in 2008, was a big mistake. At least he had the consolation of getting to fire DMG.
The news was announced earlier today that the new series, called MotoAmerica, will be managed next year by a group led by former World Champion Wayne Rainey, among others (read the AMA news release here), and sanctioned by the AMA. Basically, DMG drove the AMA Superbike series into the ground over the past six years and then walked away from the barely breathing corpse. Inexplicably, DMG gets to retain control of AMA flat track, motocross and hill climb professional racing.
Actually, it’s probably not inexplicable at all. Rob Dingman handpicked the NASCAR guys to run AMA Superbike and he is not a man who easily admits mistakes. Left alone, he probably would not have ousted DMG despite the glaring evidence of DMG’s failures: a once-thriving series that has dwindled to just six rounds, with weaker fields of teams, high-profile defections such as the Buell and Michael Jordan teams, dwindling fan attendance at the track, no television coverage whatsoever and fewer and fewer sponsors willing to pay to plaster their logos on racebikes rolling around in front of empty seats.
No, this change finally happened because of the nudge from outside forces. Anyone with influence in U.S. roadracing was unhappy with the state of affairs, the FIM didn’t like the idea of such a weak series in the world’s largest economic market, and Dorna, rights holder to MotoGP, would like to see a healthy feeder system producing at least a few American stars for the world championship series, especially with two rounds in the United States each year in Austin, Texas, and Indianapolis. Lots of people with clout were fed up with DMG’s incompetence and lack of motivation to do anything about it.
That also explains why the other disciplines remain with DMG. There are no similar powerful forces there clamoring for a change. Flat track and hillclimb have no powerful constituencies, and management of the motocross series was outsourced by DMG to people who know how to run the series.
The important thing is that we now have motorcycle guys, not stock car guys, running the top U.S. roadracing series — and what once was, and should be, the strongest national superbike series in the world. Rainey, former Team Roberts manager Chuck Aksland, Terry Karges and Richard Varner, the four principals in the KRAVE Group, won’t look at Superbike racing as an afterthought to worry about only when there isn’t more important NASCAR business to attend to.
The KRAVE Group has a difficult task, to build something from the rubble that is AMA Superbike today, but they can’t possibly do worse than DMG has done for the past six years.
* — I would link to the original New Vision for the AMA document, but it appears all traces of it have been removed from the AMA website. I guess it doesn’t look as good in the rear-view mirror.
What a total freakin disaster this series is. I hope Rainey can turn it around if it’s not too far gone.