them,” Rainey continues. “We’re trying hard to offer our fans a full slate of things to do over the course of the weekend at our events so it’s not just about the racing, though that will always be our primary concern. We also think our events are perfect for groups of motorcyclists to ride to together… like a destination for group rides. The fans are also going to have their favorite riders or brands that they root for, and what we’re trying to do is create the rules in such a way that other manufacturers can participate and help us all grow the sport.” Running a motorcycle racing series isn’t
all about TV coverage and doing inter- views, though. Rainey has to pay attention to what’s going on with the other major series and the changes the sport’s governing body, Fédération Internationale de Motocy- clisme (FIM), institutes from year to year. A big change sanctioned by FIM for World Superbike for the 2017 season involves the gridding procedure for Race 2 - the top nine riders from Race 1 will grid in reverse order for Race 2; so the rider who wins the first race will start the second race from the third row. MotoAmerica decided to wait a season before implementing this change, preferring to see how it shakes out in WSBK before bringing it to their series. When it comes to other rules, Rainey
says, “We are going on year three and the rules we’ve done for year three were sup- posed to happen in year four. We didn’t want to push too much too soon, but the reality is that we are a year ahead of where we were supposed to be as far as the rules package goes. The TV package helped drive that. We’ve lined ourselves up with what the World Championship is doing – not because that’s how the FIM was doing it, but because the bikes these guys are riding now are so good now that for us to be judged against the World Championships we needed motorcycles on the same level as theirs so the judging would be fair. The teams and the riders that we have are very close. We also thought to get the other man- ufacturers in our series we need to have our rules close to World Superbike and thus take away the excuses some of the manufac- turers had not to race in MotoAmerica.” On the manufacturer front, it’s not hard
to see that BMW Motorrad does not have a big presence in MotoAmerica. There are only two riders racing BMWs, Jeremy Cook (#81) and Steve Rapp (#15). Rainey says, “We’d love to have BMW have a bigger pres- ence in our paddock. When they have raced, they have done so successfully. We’d like to think that the more BMWs that are in our series, the more exposure that would
give them and the more motorcycles they could sell in this country. They build a bike that slots right into our Superbike class and with some factory involvement they could be a serious player for years to come. BMW has one of the most sophisticated sport- bikes on the market, so there’s not many changes you’d have to make to one to be at the front of the Superbike pack. This could be a class-winning bike with the right rider and an experienced team to help. This is a tailor-made series for BMW—not for them to just be on the podium, but for them to win races.” Rainey’s enthusiasm for racing and his
excitement about MotoAmerica is infec- tious; during a casual introduction at the beIN booth at the AIMExpo in October, 2016, it was all he could talk about for the better part of a half an hour. His eyes light up when he talks about his series, and his pleasure at the growing success of a series he and his partners have worked hard to build is apparent. MotoAmerica will race in Texas, Geor-
gia, Virginia, Wisconsin, Utah, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Alabama in 2017. Racing takes place on Saturday and Sunday and more information is available on their website,
motoamerica.com.
www.mortonsbmw.com
www.mortonsbmw.com
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