AMA Sells Commercial Rights To Most Of Its Racing Properties To Daytona Motorsports Group
Mar 07, 2008
Copyright 2008, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
From a press release issued by AMA:
AMA selects Daytona Motorsports Group to manage professional racing series
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.--The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) announced today that the Association has entered into an agreement in principle to sell the sanctioning, promotional and management rights for its AMA Pro Racing properties to the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG), based in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Led by Roger Edmondson, the founder of the CCS motorcycle racing series and currently the President of the Grand American Road Race Series LLC, and Jim France, Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President of NASCAR, DMG will assume responsibility for the AMA Superbike Series, the AMA Motocross Series, the AMA Flat Track Series, the AMA Supermoto Series, the AMA Hillclimb Series and ATV Pro Racing. The agreement in principle does not include the AMA Supercross and AMA Arenacross Series, the rights to which are held by Live Nation. Daytona Motorsports Group will license the use of the AMA name and trademarks to promote their motorcycle racing activities.
"For as long as I can remember, the AMA name has been synonymous with professional motorcycle racing in America," said France. Added Edmondson, "Our goal is to guide the sport into the mainstream of American culture and showcase the extraordinary abilities of the competitors and their teams."
"We are honored to be working with the Daytona Motorsports Group," said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman. "This group of individuals has supported the AMA and motorcycle racing for decades. There isn't a better-resourced or more qualified entity in which to entrust the future of AMA Pro Racing."
The agreement between the AMA and DMG came as a result of an RFP (request for proposal) process undertaken by the AMA in September, 2007 to seek promotional partners for its professional racing series. The AMA will continue sanctioning amateur motorcycle racing and club activities.
"Today is a great day for professional motorcycle racing and for the AMA," Dingman said. "By placing AMA Pro Racing in the hands of people with a proven record of excellence in motor sports organization and promotion in a fashion similar to our successful partnership with Live Nation, the AMA will be able to focus its resources on its core mission to be a member advocacy organization."
The American Motorcyclist Association: rights. riding. racing.
Founded in 1924, the AMA is a non-profit organization with 290,000 members. The Association's purpose is to protect and promote the interests of motorcyclists, while serving the needs of its members. For more information, visit the AMA website at www.AMADirectlink.com.
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Published by Cyril Huze March 6th, 2008 in Editorial. 
Another financially motivated decision in a fast changing market. Mid-USA Motorcycle Parts has been sold to John Stdko and a consortium of St Louis-based businessmen. The company was owned and operated by Sandi Morrison, whose family started the company, and whose husband Les Morrison died of a long-term illness eighteen months ago. The new owner is a former long-time senior buyer at rival Midwest Motorcycle Supply. Johnny Stdko left Midwest a year ago and has since been operating his own custom motorcycle business.
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Scooter rider catches Hit and Run Suspect: Retiree wouldn't let suspect escape
Elmer Morra used to race motorcycles at more than 100 mph on the sands of Daytona Beach, so going 80 mph down U.S. 17 in pursuit of a hit-and-run suspect was no big deal.
But Morra, who helped police identify and arrest a suspect in a fatal accident Monday at Sunnybreeze Harbor in DeSoto County, doesn't feel he did anything special.
"Don't give me any of that heroes BS," Morra said. "I just did what any of my buddies would have done."
The Florida Highway Patrol arrested Durward Greenwood Monday afternoon and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury or death. He is accused of hitting an EZ-Go golf cart driven by 77-year-old retiree Gerald Webb, throwing the former chiropractor into the freshly paved intersection of Liverpool Boulevard and Welcome Avenue. Police were able to track down the 82-year-old Greenwood, who lives in Punta Gorda, after Morra chased him all the way from the Fort Ogden community at speeds that reached 80 mph or more.
For Morra, the drama began when he came upon the accident scene on his way to visit some buddies in the Sunnybreeze community.
He saw a handful of people gathered by the side of Liverpool Boulevard near a crew that was paving a piece of the intersection. He slowed his Yamaha Majesty 400 CC scooter to 10 mph and was passing a car parked in the middle of the road, anxious to see what was going on.
"I noticed the right front of the car was smashed up, and then I saw this guy lying on the edge of the road. About that time a guy walks right past me and gets into the car and takes off," Morra said.
"I had my helmet on and couldn't hear well, but the people were throwing up their hands and this guy was beating it back down the road. I did a U-turn and went after him."
Morra said he stayed well behind Greenwood's Chrysler despite high speeds as the two headed toward Punta Gorda on the four-lane U.S. 17.
"He stopped at a red light at Winn-Dixie and I pulled up next to a pickup truck and had them roll down their window. I told them I was after a hit-and-run driver and they should call 911.
"After we pulled out from the red light, he (Greenwood) doubled back through a gas station. I think he suspected I was following him. He turned onto Airport Road and went through the (East Elementary) school zone at 50 mph, even with the yellow lights flashing.
"He tried to pass another car, but the road was too windy. He turned right at the stop sign and went across U.S. 41 and out to the Riviera Oyster Bar parking lot before he turned around and went down Tahiti Court -- a dead-end street. That's when I stopped because I knew he couldn't go anywhere without me seeing him.
"I saw a guy by his house and asked for a cell phone and called 911. About 15 minutes later the police got there and they went down the street and I guess they found him."
Morra, a retiree from Pittsburgh, said what he did was pure instinct.
"Anybody I know would have done the same thing," he said.
Not many, however, would have had the high-speed experience that Morra has.
A Korean War veteran, Morra raced BSA and Harley-Davidson motorcycles all across the eastern U.S. before and after his days overseas.
"I won enough to pay my bills," he said. "I raced in 200-mile races at Daytona before they built the big speedway. We used to race down an old asphalt road, turn into the sand and race back on the beach. It was compacted pretty hard back then, and the only real problem was the turn."
He said he wasn't sure what's the highest speed he's ever reached. "But I did 130 or 135 a few times."
That racing experience paid off Monday -- but don't refer to him as a hero.
"I don't want to hear none of that. The guys in Iraq who are getting shot at are heroes. Not me."
By JOHN HACKWORTH
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