Ask the AMA About Amateur Racing

LL fast B riders hardley race local series anyways. Most of are at training facilitys. In north fl, very few A or B rider race local. But their are many fast local A and B caliber riders at many local practice days.

Need to add that In the LL 85cc up classes is the is where the riders start to seperate from the 99 percent to the 1 percent, lol.

Get rid of the thought the LL is an "amauter" national, it geared toward elite riders even at the sanbagget C class, it will all make sense.

Does your organization keep a record of the amateur races that were sanctioned by AMA? I'd like to look up the races I entered at Glen Helen (Yamaha Dealer Series; CA State Championships for instance,) and view who some of my competitors were back in the day. 

1) Why is AMA considering doing away with Supermini's in Schoolboy 1 and Womens racing? Often some of the best racing in these classes are racers on supermini's (e.g Carson Woods on that KX).  Three of the top ten Women at Mini O's last year were on supermini and it should have been 4 of the top ten.  It allows racers that are not quite strong or tall enough for the jump to full sized bikes an addtional class to race in and this intermidary bike provides a safer stepping stone than going straight to a full size bike.  It is especially important for Womens racing as many are not as tall or as strong (generically speaking) and does not require them to move to a full size bike at 12 or even 14 years old.  The weight difference alone can be 40-50 lbs which can be signifigant for a 5' 1" 100lbs female racer.

2) Why is AMA considering raising the age for Women from the current 12 y/o to 14 y/o?  Unfortunately, there are currently only two classes where females can race their gender peers and many are not confortable racing mixed classes (an entry barrier), at least initally.  By elimiating 12 and 13 year olds from Womens, it would further reduce oppurtunities and discourage many female competitors from entering (or staying) in am racing.  The gates at local races are already slim even prior to this proposed change, which only further reduces oppurtunies, not increase them for one of the fastest growing markets in two wheel motorsports.  This proposal is especially suprising given the advances made at the nationals this year in girls/womens racing and because one rarely sees confict or accidents in the Womens classes between the bike sizes.  The justification for this proposal does not make sense and is insufficient.  

Mike thank you for taking the time for this.

The last few years and prior have seen some terrible injuries such as Jerry Robin. I was always under the assumption the AMA was heavily involved in insurance for these injured riders? I guess not as it seems the injured riders have to create things like a Go Fund me. What exactly is my AMA membership I pay for every year doing for me as a racer insurance wise?

I think the AMA does a great job at the Marco level. My only thought is the tracks(as someone else mentioned). I am an experienced rider and would consider myself an advanced jumper but these tracks have gone way to supercross style. I would love the ama to get more involved for the ama events and hopefully influence the tracks back into reality. 

Please ignore the ignorant comments, you'll get some of that from the peanut gallery. Many of us appreciate the opportunity and have legitimate questions or concerns trying to move the sport forward.  

Regarding the proposals, Risk Management is not mentioned as a reasoning, however, it was assumed buy some members.  While the concept is understandable, rarely do you have incidents in Womens racing between the bike sizes.  I'm sure AMA has these statistics.  If those proposal are to become effective, is there a phase in (if so when) and are there going to be any class changes to compensate for the loss of racing oppurtunity, e.g. the re-introduction of girls jr other than promotors classes?

Also, will the same changes be made in other displacement/age classes such as JM, where you can have a 7 y/o on a 65 racing againt a 13 y/0 on an 85?

I appreciate the response, but this is what a couple other ama referees have told me. It doesn't really tell me why a pro/ expert/ A class rider can get paid but a 450B has to take a trophy. Is it an IRS thing or labor laws or state regulations? Maybe I'm just confused on why it's ok for some classes to get paid but others can't, especially if they are legal working age. Thanks this is a really good thing you are doing here by trying to weed out misinformation.

why are we banning the 150rb for women? 
My wife is shorter than 5’ tall and quite literally cannot even touch one foot on a big bike, even without the seat at all. 

Is she simply not allowed to race the women’s class because essentially and practically she’s too short? 

Since PW50 racing is hot and heavy currently. Do you plan on creating a class were the E2 (electric 50cc equivalent) can compete on a amateur national level? Or do you see it joining the PW class? I know you have separated the bigger electric bikes into their own class at a am. national level. 

So is there anything to be done about it? To me, the District racing is/should be the most legitimate and prestigious series in the area. Are all 3 districts just gone now? Can another promoter pick up that title? How does that work? 

Has the AMA ever considered getting more into the preservation of our sport at the local level in regard to track insurance, liability waivers?  

"There is a reason we don't let a 4'11" man ride a supermini in 250C.  It is not safe."

FYI for information and consideration, in the US a 4'11' grown man is a statistical anomoly, less than a half percent of that the adult male population would be that size and most generally dont make policy decisions on statistical anomalies.  

Conversly, greater that 14% of women in the US are 5' or under with almost half being under 5'4", certainly a relevent statistic that should be considered when deciding allowable bike sizes for that demographic.  One could legitamately argue that this policy change is Risk Seeking as opposed to Risk Adverse for this class due to these and other compelling and well documented physical size and strengh statistical differences.   

My local area tracks are really tame. I definitely agree tracks are safer than when I was a kid(same age as Matt). The tracks have a fine line between being too easy and too hard and I get that for sure. Also, maybe I’m just getting old and the jumps I use to not blink at now I do. Thanks for the reply, keep up with the good work. 

At Loretta's can you race a C class and a B/C class?

It was my understanding that if you qualified for both, you couldn't race the C class. A couple years ago, there were a few kids that qualified for both and were then removed from the roster in the C class. Am I wrong in my understanding of the rule? 

Earlier this year, when Kayden Menier (sp?) raced his first national, he mentioned in an interview that he was no longer eligible for SMX Next/Moto Combine, but if he hadn't gotten hurt, he would have still been eligible to race those same kids at Loretta's. What makes a rider ineligible for one, but not the other?

We all know a lot of tracks are closing these days due to very high insurance premiums. What is the AMA doing to mitigate and help these local track owners? It’s well publicized the AMA is helping with street bike owners, but one doesn’t seem to hear much, or very little about helping the MX and off road world. 

Mike this reply covers the age discrepancy perfectly. It does not however address the current proposal to eliminate any supermini sized bike from competing in the women’s class. Example: I have a 21 year old daughter that races a 150R, she also rides a 125SX. She is much more in control on the 150, as the 125 is just simply a heavier machine. 
I’m not an insurance underwriter, but how on earth can forcing all  women onto full size bikes be considered risk management? There is a much bigger risk in riding a bike you can’t touch the ground on, or muscle around properly, than there is in a couple inches of wheel/chassis size.

Some of our races in district 17 get 15-20 women racers, that’s outstanding, but I’m afraid when this rule takes effect it’ll cut that number down significantly. In fact my daughter has already decided she’s done after 2026, if this rule takes effect.

And the fact this passed by only 1 vote, tells me much needs to be considered before implementing it.

I cant understand how FIM countries can manage both track building/design regulations and mandatory track inspections every other year. Plus mandatory re-inspection if you rebuild track or elements on it, but US/AMA can't. There are appointed track auditors per district and track pay them directly like 300 USD for a re-inspection. Less when it's small updates.

Without that, it will be difficult or impossible to get insurance under control and also limit injuries and help tracks develop to be safer.

Not being negative, just pointing out that things probably need to go in that direction over time.

Kayden was incorrect. For proof see Enzo.

Thanks, man, I appreciate it. Completely forgot Enzo raced Pala this year.

I am betting alot of this is about the stink that is being made about the super mini's and adult women no longer being included it that class. I was very vocal at the meeting about this and well the vote fell short to stop it at this point.  THE ABSOLUTE failure of the committee to understand the impact of this new rule was amazing................til i remembered who and why.

That said.  The amateur racing now moving up to 14 NO womens class will have a 12 yr old in it once it's in place.  SO remove that little tid bit. "at the end of the day"  if nothing changes we are elimanating 50% of the womens class in AMA D17.  We have very mature women who have raced here for over 25 years all on super mini's.  why?  they are short!  small! all of the above.  We talk about being inclusive and talk about the things to make our sport 'safer".  But sometimes it's cool, and sometimes the whole process stinks.  

BOTH my Daughter in Laws ride super minis, Kawasaki 112's.  WHy ?  5-3 and 5-2 and pretty much beginners or for sure new to the sport, how many friends of theirs race? a ton.  But since they are 23, and 26 years old, if this stands they can't race moto period.  We would never throw a young man under the bus like that, we bend over backwards to make damn sure there are stepping stones for those riders to advance and move through the process as it should be by the way.

  But women?  really in 2025 we are going this direction? ALL this talk about safety and oh my what could happen.

We know what will happen 50% of the women will simply stop racing OR WORSE jump on a 250F they can't control and really get hurt we all have seen them.  Women's class is special and they don't hang around some times as long as the guys, they have families, and there isn't a real pro career type program that many can get too, so they race locally, with their children, and basically are the reason there are so many girls racing is because mom did too.  

So in typical fashion with the 5,000 classes we have already we need to make a 85cc-150cc class for women, So instead of 12 riders on the line we will have 4 big bike and 8 small bike and what will happen you guessed it they will be staggered start and ran together.................. Now this rule came directly from the boys that start naming the fast girl names, and quite frankly I have never see anyone that was named, but listened to how bad of a problem it is.......................... Majority of the racing isn't done at those races AND they can have supplemental rules for this, but the idea to take ALL local racing which to my knowledge has very little issues with this and be dictated to stop, is really a hard pill to swallow.

By the way for many who won't know we do a bunch of racing events all ama, I am on this committee, and been on it i guess a long time, we at most all our events we run 11 sx races and womens' class runs by it's self, and practices by it's self.  Been doing that for 33 years.  why?  because of the inconsistancy of the class and the women watch out for each other.  

Want to make this sport safer.

Lets NEVER speak the words in the same sentence  450.............C class. ever. they did away with 500's now we have fire breathing 450's if you are in C then experience is an issue, stay on a smaller bike.

Lets get our equipment (water trucks, tractors, gators, etc) behind the fence and away from the race track. Personally have hit stuff like that and well it was ugly.

Lets get some guidelines on procedures and process's that help tracks be aware of the items above. We are so worried about litigation and it's a real issue, but lets get back to some of the things that used to work well.  ALL this online crap never replaces a 2 hour meeting with an individual who can in person answer questions that the tracks and clubs would have.  Did it for years no longer. 

While there was talk in this post about national C class stuff, why?  C class is basically a beginner type class which has been decimated by the 

continued laying back for the big prize in august.  Elimate C class national championships, let riders aspire to go to B.  And in that class no "perks" let all the perks and such be in A where it belongs. Why would this never work.  Simple entries and fees is why. But earning or making it even more of a challenge would sure help the advancement process. Just doesn't feather the nest well enough so that won't happen.

i could type this kind of thing for a very long read.  Wouldn't have seen this post, but a friend of mine txt it to me, and yes his daughters BOTH were on Super mini's and the one has a family doesn't ride but the other, well she is pretty upset, she had tried riding a big bike and her stature is not a good fit and got painfull..

That ONLY thing that I had a hand in on this rule was to push it back to 2027, otherwise in a few months many females around here would be sitting out our winter series.

PS.  We were one of the first around here to offer "advanced" and Intermeadiate class for women, which run together but only because there isn't a second class.  Works fine and has increased our numbers in that class.

ps2.  If you seen any of this it was my 26 year old daughter in law who is pretty riled about this.  (451 Photography) as i know many are who have yelled at me lol 

Ok so the photos did load.  cool.  Top photo is our winter time "girls night out" where it's a saturday night and the only riders allowed that night are women/girls etc.  We take pride in promoting all ability women riders.  The lower photo is moto @ the park a weekend race which many of the women in the top photo come out to race.  Note the size of the machines on the line.  

GW AMA District 17 Moto/Sx director and AMA Moto Commissioner, Off road and Sporting committees.

I don’t think this has been asked yet but if it has, please ignore. 

Going off the viral story of Eddy’s kid caught cheating and how Loretta’s is a once a year event, do you think just a DQ is a sufficient penalty? Since it only happens once a year, I feel like at minimum a one event ban seems necessary. The cheaters don’t need to be shunned from eternity but considering how expensive it is to attend LLL, maybe just a DQ isn’t a harsh enough penalty. I would love to see some justice beyond a DQ for someone who is caught belligerently cheating.