Historic day at Daytona

By John Hopkins

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- In what he described as a "very historic day for the American Motorcyclist Association," AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman announced the sale of sanctioning, promotional and management rights for its AMA Po Racing properties to the Daytona Motorsport Group in a press conference at Daytona International Speedway Friday.

As outlined in a press release earlier in the day, DMG will take over responsibility for the AMA Superbike Series, AMA Motocross Series, AMA Flat Track Series, AMA Supermoto Series, AMA Hillclimb Series and ATV Pro Racing.

"When I became CEO of the AMA the core mission had become diluted," Dingman told a packed media centre at the track. "We were trying to do too many things at once. There was a complete inability to market and promote national racing series."

The DMG group includes Roger Edmondson, president of the Grand-American Road Race Series and Jim France, Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President of NASCAR. Grand-Am provides administrative and commercial support to the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series, which is organized and sanctioned by Professional Motorsports Productions of Toronto.

"This is a very special moment for all of us here at Daytona," Edmondson said. "We are honoured, and with humility accept this responsibility."

Dingman said the DMG group was selected partly for the scope of its proposal, and also for its background in motorcycle racing. He said 14 bids were received as a result of the request for proposal process that began last September.

"There was not a proposal that embraced everything that DMG did," Dingman said.

The sale of properties does not include Supercross and Arenacross, the rights to which are held by Live Nation. That agreement goes through 2019.