To Daytona Motor Group,

When I first heard about DMG purchasing the AMA motorcycle racing I was interested to hear about what changes would be made.  NASCAR has become a rather popular motor racing sport in the United States and for that I commend you.  

However, the proposed changes that I have been hearing about have left me a little concerned about the future of AMA racing in the U.S.  Motorcyclists aren't the same type of people you're used to dealing with and that means the type of crowd you're trying to entice are different and as such should be treated differently.

Motorcyclists tend to be more interested in the performance of the motorcycle rather than who's riding it.  Fundamentally motorcycle racing is different and you also have other things to compete against.  NASCAR car and truck are ONLY in the U.S. when motorcycle racing is world wide.  With that in mind, alienating loyal fans is probably not to your best interest nor in the best interest of the AMA racing series.

With that in mind I wanted to point out a few thoughts that I have as well as what a few other fans have proposed to me over the past couple of weeks.  I'm hoping that once you hear these things that you'll reconsider your proposed AMA series changes.

I believe I can speak for every current motorcycle racing fan in the United States when I say that changing the focus away from 1000cc class will literally make us turn off the TV when it comes to watching AMA racing.  As you know, that will remove the support for the race teams when they will get no advertising benefit.  Not to mention your proposed changes are putting you at odds with the AMA's largest supporter, the manufacturers.  Why should they put forth the effort when there's nothing to gain?  Why should we watch when we can get what we want from FIM and MotoGP instead of a rider and sponsor driven television show?

I would agree that making AMA racing more like FIM SuperBike racing would be the way to go.  Each team using a factory bike with off the shelf parts would entice many riders to buy what wins on Sunday.  That will in turn, keep the factories involved as they have something to gain.  This works for both the 600 and the 1000cc bikes.  But if you're going to switch the formats, you might want to have your announcers stop saying "Win on Sunday sell on Monday" simply because that won't be the case anymore.

The point is, I, as well as a VERY large portion of my fellow riders are against changing the focus away from the 1000cc class and we all agree that we will go elsewhere to get our racing fix if the AMA series drops the bikes that many of us are interested in.  

Remember your racing roots that I mentioned earlier.  Win on Sunday and sell on Monday.  How often are people really buying American made cars right now just because they won a NASCAR race?  What about a truck?  If you make it about the rider rather than the machine, development will stagnate and the only sponsors you'll have will be the same kind of sponsors that you have in NASCAR that many motorcyclists could care less about.

As I said previously, I personally had high hopes for DMG purchasing AMA racing as it has been poorly run for many years.  However, the "scuttlebutt" going around right now as well as even the little things that are being seen in the current airings of racing is beginning to concern me about the future of AMA racing.  Even playing Lynyrd Skynyrd for the intro just shows how little of an understanding of the motorcycle racing community you have and that is a really large concern.

I personally do not want to take AMA racing out of my favorites with my TiVo, but I certainly will if the current trend continues.  I would agree that reducing the racing card to Xtreme and SuperSport would probably be a great thing but shifting the focus away from the 1000cc size would be bad for everyone involved.  Motorcyclists have the riders we like but we are interested in seeing how the bike performs.  Please, for the love of all that is on 2 wheels, rethink your current ideas on the future of AMA racing.  I strongly believe if continue with that plan that you WILL regret it.