Late last week NASCAR announced it is acquiring the Grand-Am sports car racing series. This matters to professional motorcycle racing because Grand-Am is the racing series owned by Roger Edmondson and Jim France, the President and Chairman respectively of Daytona Motorsports Group which now owns AMA Pro Racing. Last night Dave Despain had Edmondson on [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Industry'
Roger Edmondson responds to road racing disaster
September 8th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Racing
Ducati changes ownership
August 10th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry
Back in February I did a little profile on Ducati based on an article in Cycle News. You may recall that Harley-Davidson made a run at buying Ducati late last year, but the move was quashed by the investment group Investindustrial, which owned a significant, but not controlling, portion of Ducati stock. H-D has since [...]
Tags: Ducati
Smart money says AMA Pro Racing will get it right
July 27th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Politics of Riding, Racing
The entire professional road racing community has been up in arms since DMG (now officially AMA Pro Racing) began making their presence felt. The complaints have been long, loud, and many. A person less magnanimous than me might even call it incessant whining. But I won’t do that. I understand what all the furor is [...]
Tags: AMAProRacing·future
Mike Kidd chosen to lead AMA Pro Flat Track
July 27th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Politics of Riding, Racing
AMA Pro Racing (the new AMA Pro Racing) announced Thursday that long-time, old school flat track racer, former AMA Grand National Champion, race promoter, Motorcycle Hall of Fame member, and Texan Mike Kidd has been chosen to head the redevelopment of the national flat track program. This is good news. Kidd has been around the [...]
Davey Coombs wants to make outdoor MX cool again
July 17th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Profiles in Riding, Racing
I just read the interview with Davey Coombs in the new Cycle News — Issue #29, July 23, 2008 — talking about MXSports and the future of the outdoor series: We want to make motocross as cool, as competitive, as entertaining, and as safe as possible. Live TV, improved facilities, adding new venues, listening to [...]
Tags: AMAProRacing·DaveyCoombs·motocross
Long live the two-stroke Part Deaux: FUD in the marketplace
July 12th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Politics of Riding, Technology, Two-Stroke
Editor’s note: You may want to read Long live the two-stroke: Part 1 and FIM to put 2-strokes on even footing in 2010 for more background. Recently a vintage racing/CZ friend posted the following query here: Hey Terry, Correct me if I’m wrong because I’m not totally sure, but hasn’t Calif banned 2 stroke sales [...]
Davey Coombs takes on the future of outdoor MX
July 11th, 2008 · No Comments · Events, Industry, Racing
RacerX Illustrated founder, 2nd-generation motocross promoter, track owner, prolific media entrepreneur, and all-round good guy Davey Coombs just announced in Racerhead #28 that he is stepping down from the day-to-day operations of his RacerX empire to focus on the future of outdoor MX and the pro motocross Nationals. In less than a year we’ve gone [...]
HD to acquire MV Agusta
July 11th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry
Back in early June I posted this note on the talks between H-D and MV Agusta. According to this AMA press release the two groups have signed a definitive agreement worth approximately $109 million US. The agreement gives H-D 100% of MV Agusta. This is not Harley’s first foray into Italian motorcycles. Most of us [...]
Tags: HarleyDavidson·MVAgusta
FIM to put two-strokes on even footing in 2010
July 10th, 2008 · 7 Comments · Industry, Racing, Technology, Two-Stroke
According to this Dec 21, 2007 press release (pdf) from the Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme, the Permanent Bureau has decreed the following: 2) Motocross Classes: as of 2010, single cylinder engines will be used in MX1 and MX2 and multicylinder in MX3, whether 2 or 4-stroke (open concept). The cubic capacity will be 250cc in [...]
AMA approves sale to Daytona Motorsports Group
July 10th, 2008 · No Comments · Industry, Politics of Riding, Racing
Here’s the press release from the AMA regarding final approval of the Pro Racing/DMG deal. I’m sure the road race community is up in arms over this, and I feel for them. The changes underway there have created a lot of friction with the riders, factories, and race track owners. There’s a lot of bluster [...]
Tags: AMA·AMAProRacing·DMG
