Y2KZX12R
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posted October 16, 2003 03:36 PM
More AMA crap...
Check this out...
http://venus.13x.com/roadracingworld/scripts/contents.asp
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Y2KZX12R
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posted October 16, 2003 03:37 PM
Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
FIRST PERSON/OPINION
By John Ulrich
This is my personal opinion, as an individual.
On Monday, Roadracingworld.com posted an opinion piece by Trudy C. Ulrich, President and Publisher, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
And yeah, I'm married to her, and, yeah, she has a son, Chris, who races. I met her in a college copy-editing class, and Trudy has been involved in motorcycle road racing over the last 27 years, doing everything from driving a box van full of bikes and equipment (and toddlers) cross-country to racetracks, to scoring endurance races, to handling the books for a race team, to retrieving injured racers from hospitals. Over the years, she has heard plenty of complaints about how AMA Pro Racing does business, from racers she interacts with on a daily basis, and she is a card-carrying AMA member. Since it went into business 13 years ago, she has handled the business side of Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Last year, she handled the establishment of the Roadracing World Action Fund, Inc., a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation designed to promote the use of soft barriers at racetracks through educational programs, including demonstration deployments. During the process of getting non-profit, tax-exempt status for the Roadracing World Action Fund, she learned that a non-profit cannot transfer any of its assets to a for-profit company if doing so will give the for-profit company a competitive advantage.
She quickly formed the personal opinion that AMA non-profit had given AMA Pro Racing, its for-profit subsidiary, a competitive advantage in the race promotion and race sanctioning marketplace by transferring AMA non-profit assets to AMA Pro Racing, a company which has lost money every year during the decade it has existed, not only in the form of annual operating deficits, but also in the form of money paid to defend and ultimately settle a lawsuit related to AMA Pro Racing's business activities. One estimate of the amount of money AMA Pro Racing has cost AMA non-profit since its founding is $8 million. In theory, the way AMA Pro Racing advocates tell the tale, AMA Pro Racing was supposed to make money to support AMA non-profit's important activities, including government relations. In actual fact, the money AMA non-profit has spent shoring up AMA Pro Racing and paying for its legal miscues could have paid for a lot of government relations activities.
At any rate, since forming her opinion, Trudy has written three versions of the editorial which was finally published earlier this week. The first version was written about six months ago. The second was written about three weeks ago. And she finished the final version last week.
For months, I have been telling her that posting her editorial opinion would bring accusations that she was fronting for me, that I had written the piece and was hiding behind her byline. I have told her that because I currently hold an elected seat on the AMA non-profit Board of Directors, posting her editorial would bring criticism from AMA Pro Racing supporters on the AMA non-profit Board.
However, Roadracingworld.com frequently posts opinion pieces written by not only staff members but also readers. Ultimately, she has as much right to express her opinion on a website she owns as anybody does. And so the piece was posted.
As I predicted, the criticism has been swift in coming. Proponents of AMA Pro Racing have accused me of writing Trudy's editorial, and of hiding behind her byline. They have called her personal opinion lies, and have accused me of being a liar. They have accused me of seeking (how, I do not know) personal profit by running Trudy's editorial.
Let me point out right here that nobody who is seeking personal profit would spend the kind of time and money I havewe haveon funding the majority of the inflatable soft barriers currently in use at road races in this country.
And let me say that while I did not write Trudy's editorial, and while I do not personally agree with everything she says in that editorial, I do agree with about 90 percent of it. I think she makes very valid points, and I think that AMA Pro Racing is a freewheeling cancer that continues to eat away at AMA non-profit's money, reputation and good will. AMA Pro Racing operationsthe stuff AMA members encounter at the races and when trying to deal with headquarters staffare a disgrace. The lack of accountabilityfrom top to bottomis appalling. In its interactions with what its advocates like to call "stakeholders," AMA Pro Racing operates as a continuing, non-stop drama, with the biggest recent example involving renewal negotiations with AMA National Motocross Promoters.
And as seen again in this case, AMA Pro Racing's instant, predictable reaction to any criticism is, A. It's a lie; B. You can't believe (insert name of critic here), he's just seeking personal gain; C. It never happened; D. We didn't do it.
Officiating is inconsistent, with a few examples following: Billy Joe Bob (a made-up name representing the majority of non-factory riders in the paddock) gets fined $100 for running down pit lane at 52 mph instead of 50 mph (and never mind that the radar speed display placed at the head of pit lane to allow riders to judge their speed often does not pick up and display the speed of approaching bikes), while Miguel Duhamel gets fined nothing for throwing rocks on an active racetrack. Chuck Chounaird gets completely thrown out of an AMA National for having valves that were cleaned using Scotchbrite; factory riders get fined money and points but keep their finishing position for such offenses as illegal cylinder head machining; non-stock, low-pressure oil pumps; and being underweight. Half the 250cc Grand Prix field was sent home for not getting within 112% of pole the first time timed qualifying was used for the classnever mind that most of practice had been rained outat Fontana last year, with AMA Pro Racing taking the position that allowing riders who had not properly qualified, to race, presented a liability problem. Yet this year at Barber, riders who failed to make the cut in qualifying were allowed to race, with no explanation of what happened to that liability problem. Which way is it?
The claim that "stakeholders" will be allowed to comment on new rules is a sham; facing complaints that they recently enacted a new rule on short notice without allowing any comment, AMA Pro Racing first claimed that they didn't have to allow comment because it wasn't a rule, it was a regulation (look up those two words in a dictionary), then, facing the obvious complaint that a rule is a regulation and vice versa, claimed that they didn't have to allow comment on operational rules, only on technical rules. Which isn't what they said when they announced their new policy of allowing comment on proposed new rules.
Almost a year ago, the Board of Directors of AMA non-profit, acting as the shareholders of AMA Pro Racing, ordered AMA Pro Racing to improve operations by hiring a new operations chief by the end of the first quarter of 2003. We're now in the fourth quarter, and the same guys are making the same mess of operations.
There have been some improvements. Timing and scoring is less screwed upbecause the timing and scoring crew shows up earlier, an idea it took two years to get AMA Pro Racing to accept--and the system is usually working when official practice starts, and we just won't talk about the guys who for some reason weren't timed in qualifying sessions at a recent race.
But overall, AMA Pro Racing is far from what it should be, and it remains a drain on AMA non-profit in terms of money, prestige, reputation and staff time. It will continue to be a drain on AMA non-profit as long as it is managed the way it is managed now, and as long as its core group of entrenched bureaucrats remains in place, insulated and protected by a separate AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors that is not accountable to AMA members.
That's what I think, and I'm not hiding my opinion.
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Y2KZX12R
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posted October 16, 2003 03:38 PM
Geezzz can i post this like this or will i go to jail?
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VincentHill
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posted October 16, 2003 03:46 PM
It is better in one way, it used to take "2" people dying to get the AMA's Attention, not it only takes "1" (provided he is improtant enough) I am referring to Brainard where it did take 2 people before they changed the Pit outlet on to the front straight!
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k bryant
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posted October 16, 2003 04:29 PM
John Ulrich is a personal friend of mine. He is one of the most respected, while being brutally honest, people our industry has. What he says, or better yet, what he believes, is gospel.
He is also one of the fastest magazine guys out there, and so is his son!
When you piss John off, or sick him on someone, and he's got all the facts, man hold on to your butts! Go get-em John!
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VincentHill
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posted October 17, 2003 10:38 AM
I also know John from the Team Hammer days (Bruce Hammer who I can still see in my minds eye hanging over the guard rail at Elkhart Lake on the outside of the fast turn before the straight leading to Canada Corner. The reason I can see it so well is he was there for 2 laps!  ) and when I was racing. To me, he is a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he puts his money where his mouth is and has done some real good things for Road Racing!
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Made History @ Daytona and still one fast old man!!
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k bryant
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posted October 17, 2003 01:31 PM
Between Bruce getting hurt, and my "Racer Road" traveling partner Jon Woo getting killed at the Honda tryout @ Laguna, John Ulrich has almost single handedly force fed changes for safety sake. He created the Jon Woo Memorial Safety Project way back when to get changes made to the berm at Laguna in turn 2. Jerk or not, John has hero status with me.
Wasn't it Mark Jones & Hugh Humble @ Brainard? That was so focking stupid and so avoidable....
Last thing, racers want to race so badly most of the time, that they may complain about safety issues.... But when it comes down to racing or going home, or boycotting; they race. And unfortunetly, I admit that I was one of them who chose to race.....
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necro
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posted October 17, 2003 07:26 PM
AMA sucks.
No I don't want to elaborate. I'd have to type a lot then.
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Y2KZX12R
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posted October 18, 2003 04:51 AM
Yea, its time for a shake up in the AMA.
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