AMA or Non-Sanctioned?

BriarcliffMx

BriarcliffMx

PR Founding Father
If most of you are keeping up, then you by now that BC will be running one race in 2012, and it will be the biggest race in Ohio in 2012. Now my question to you is should it be be AMA sanctioned, or just run it non-sanctioned?

I believe the AMA sanction does add validity, but I dont know if that matters with people anymore. Just looking for everyones thoughts?

And for the lurkers, you can email me at josborn@briarcliffmx.com .
 
Non-sanctioned please. I don't race any other AMA races and I can't see buying a membership for one race. I think your turnout may be larger if it is not santioned.
 
freeh said:
Non-sanctioned please. I don't race any other AMA races and I can't see buying a membership for one race. I think your turnout may be larger if it is not santioned.
Click to expand...

AMA = Fees for you to have the race, fees for riders to race your race, you may have to end up carrying the AMA event insurance instead of yours or both, D-12 is gone so I would guess many riders in what was that district don't have the cards anymore. Those are the downsides that I can think of.
 
Very exciting! Anyone racing Southern Ohio (D-11) would already have an AMA card. The only sanction left in northern Ohio is CRA. Do you need an AMA card to race CRA?
 
Non-sanctioned. What does making it ama add other than the rules? I think the turnout would be good with getting ex-racers now pro practicers to go. Seems thats the crowd at Bc.
 
Well, not sure exactly, but what I can say is I would love to see a Loretta Lynn area qualifier on your track. Not sure you want that, could handle that, or AMA would grant it, but it is a great thought. If you were thinking of ever doing this, maybe going the AMA route would be a stepping stone. Otherwise, I would probably go non-santioned as if I understand it correctly, AMA has certain requirements...i.e. certain level of insurance and they get a portion of your proceeds.

This video sums up a perfect track. Sharc, Pit and I having a blast on our 125's! Either way, I can't wait!

http://vimeo.com/16806825
 
Its a tough question really. i See pros and cons to both. Everyone already stated the obvious pros to non sanctioned.

However I also look at it like this. I know anyone who hasnt' heard of the cliff must be crazy..but lets face it, theres probably a hand full of riders throughout Ohio and surrounding states that haven't heard of briarcliff. Should I happen to stumble across some advertisment for a track in indiana or something that I have never heard of, labeled "indiana state championship" non sanctioned... I might question the validitiy of it a little bit. However if I knew it was an AMA sanctioned event, I would have a little more faith in it.

THat brings up the question though if, being that its an ohio state championship, do we care if you draw attention from people from other areas? Heck maybe nobody would even show up from another state as it was.

I know that the pa state championships bring in people from a lot of different places it seems like and is (or was.. nto sure how it has been recently) a pretty popular series. Obviously as a promoter you want a full gate on every class if you can..

I don't think there is a right answer. You may get more people to show if it is an AMA event because it just is more "official" sounding... but then you will loose a crowd that doesnt want to get an AMA card. If its non sanctioned, you may lose some that have no interest in becoming an "unofficial"? state champion.

Either way I'm sure it will be sweet, and I saw the other post that next year you may do a north/south qualifier. If you did that, I think you could kind of do like PONCA does. For the north, work with a couple CRA tracks and find 1 or 2 as the "qualifier" and do the same for the south. THen hold your event non sanctioned..

Another option would be AMA with non AMA support class for guys that want to juts show up and have fun?

im done rambling, too many pain meds. im loopy
 
I don't know all of the background info on what having an AMA sanctioned race would give to you other than allow you to be covered under their racing insurance for the event. From my understanding, that insurance is very expensive per event vs other available insurance for promoters to use and is assigned for only that date. If a promoter must cancel an event due to weather and reschedule, they still have to pay the AMA fee for the cancelled date and pay another fee to get a new date to run the rescheduled race.... from what I've heard.

Add to the fact that there are a ton of "cheap" motocrossers out there that will refuse to pay $39.00 for a 1 year membership to the AMA to race only this race. They will not show up just to save the $39 and that will take away from some of your participants.

For the first go round of your new event..... I would most likely use your own insurance and run it as a non sanctioned event in order to get as many participants as possible and avoid the problem of people having to purchase a membership that many of them will never use otherwise (nevermind that it's good support of the people that fight to keep our riding areas open anyway).
 
After reading about what the AMA has been doing with our dues lately, I vote non.

But then again, unless there is a side by side class, I can't race it anyway, so once again my opinion = dog doodoo
 
Become your own sanctioning body! Kinda like Goat Breker did when he took over Paris raceway in the late 80's. He called it GFI.
 
For those not in the know, we have already had AMA sanctioned races at the Cliff in both 2007 and 2008. We held two district races in 2008. So we do have experience with the AMA. Robin the insurance per event was roughly $1000in 2008, and to insure a practice the day before was $400. So it was expensive. However, it is not true that you had to pay in the event of a cancellation. They gave you 24 hours to call in a cancellation and transfer the coverage to another date. At least that is the way it was. Now if this has changed, given the amount of rainouts we have now, this is a no brainer. If the cancellation policy is as you have described, we with not consider AMA as an option.

Zman - AMA doesnt have allot to do with LL. Tim Cotter at Mx Sports is the man to contact to throw your hat in the ring for a qualifier, or so I have heard. Not really interested in that right now.

Perhaps its not about winning "state championships", but maybe its about winning the only race at BC? Maybe the state championship is implied, because you won the biggest race of the year (in Ohio), at the toughest track, with the best competition. Maybe we just call it the BC Moto-Wars. I'd rather be a Moto-Warrior and race for glory anyway, than some silly title like 250B Ohio State Champion.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
For those not in the know, we have already had AMA sanctioned races at the Cliff in both 2007 and 2008. We held two district races in 2008. So we do have experience with the AMA. Robin the insurance per event was roughly $1000in 2008, and to insure a practice the day before was $400. So it was expensive. However, it is not true that you had to pay in the event of a cancellation. They gave you 24 hours to call in a cancellation and transfer the coverage to another date. At least that is the way it was. Now if this has changed, given the amount of rainouts we have now, this is a no brainer. If the cancellation policy is as you have described, we with not consider AMA as an option.

Zman - AMA doesnt have allot to do with LL. Tim Cotter at Mx Sports is the man to contact to throw your hat in the ring for a qualifier, or so I have heard. Not really interested in that right now.

Perhaps its not about winning "state championships", but maybe its about winning the only race at BC? Maybe the state championship is implied, because you won the biggest race of the year (in Ohio), at the toughest track, with the best competition. Maybe we just call it the BC Moto-Wars. I'd rather be a Moto-Warrior and race for glory anyway, than some silly title like 250B Ohio State Champion.
Click to expand...

I know Daniel Boone Had outlaw races and held a qualifier in the same year. I went to that one.
 
The things I listed are what I have heard through the grapevine and not intended to be factual information in any way. I have overheard many things over the years and I'm just happy to have places to ride and race when I choose to do those things. And while I believe the AMA has let motocross racing slip away from where it should have been headed, they are one of the organizations that does fight for our rights to ride motorcycles every day, and that I'm am appreciative of.

I would do some fact checking with the AMA if I were thinking about running a race with them to see the real info in person.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top