On September 3 it was announced that the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), based in Pickerington, Ohio, had re-acquired the rights to professional motorcycle road racing in America from Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG, dba AMA Pro Racing of Daytona Beach, Florida) and as the U.S. affiliate of the FIM would sanction a new professional road racing series in North America promoted and managed by a new group called MotoAmerica.

MotoAmerica, is an affiliate of the KRAVE Group, and KRAVE represents the initials of its four partners: Terry Karges, Wayne Rainey, Chuck Aksland and Richard Varner. Varner, according to information released by KRAVE, is a motorcycle manufacturer, energy sector entrepreneur, philanthropist and businessman. Karges, is a former motorsports marketing executive and team owner who spent 17 years at Roush Performance until he was named Executive Director of the Peterson Museum. Rainey is a former AMA Superbike Champion, a three-time 500cc GP World Champion, an AMA Hall of Famer and a MotoGP Legend. And Aksland is a former racer, a former Team Manager at King Kenny Roberts’ Team Roberts, a rider manager and until recently was the Vice President of Motor Sport Operations at Circuit of The Americas.

Aksland is at New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend to attend the final round of the AMA Pro Superbike Championship, and on Friday he sat down to give Roadracingworld.com an exclusive interview. The interview will be published in three installments over the next three days. The first part of the interview covers the origins of MotoAmerica.

Roadracing World: When did the KRAVE Group/MotoAmerica project start? How did it start?

KRAVE Group/MotoAmerica partner Chuck Aksland: “For me, it started with a phone call from Wayne [Rainey] probably well over a year ago. Obviously, he’s in constant contact with Carmelo [Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna] and the Dorna guys. They were talking about American riders and where is the next guy going to come from and is there anything we can put together to bring up young American riders to get to the World Championships.

“There was at that time never anything discussed on a race series-type level. There were some other ideas that we had talked about. Wayne had those conversations with Carmelo, and then he [Rainey] called me and said what do you think, can we do this and this and maybe bring these young kids up and run them in conjunction with World Championship races and get them some exposure. It was pretty far reaching thoughts and general ideas, really.

“So we went to the Laguna Seca MotoGP race [in 2013], and Wayne introduced me to Richard Varner and Terry Karges (the two other partners in the KRAVE Group) at that time. We went to put some things together for a meeting with the Dorna folks and present it to them. They were all receptive to what we had and those ideas at the time, which we still haven’t made that side of it public. But they’ve kind of been in the refrigerator, so to speak, and hopefully we can use them at some point.

“But then shortly after that we got word that there might be an opportunity to get involved or acquire the DMG [Daytona Motorsports Group] series. So we started looking at that. To make a long story short, because there were several ups and downs and turns and variations, here we are. We’ve acquired the rights to the road racing championship, and we’re rebranding it MotoAmerica.

“It’s going to be called the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship.

“I think the agreement we reached between ourselves and AMA and FIM is a pretty good deal, and obviously, Dorna’s support is very important to help us fulfill our goals. They have a lot of experience, obviously, with running world-level events and they’ve kind of opened the door for support, advice, direction.”

RW: Where is the money coming from to capitalize MotoAmerica?

Aksland: “I don’t really think it matters where the money’s coming from. I can say that we’re funded. We have a commitment, a long-term commitment within our partnership group. We have a business plan. We’re in negotiations with various partners. We think these various ideas will grow the whole sport, and just like a sponsor or a TV [partner] or a young racer or someone wanting to start a team, we think it’s a very viable investment. We believe that we can develop a series. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t believe in it. At the end of the day it does have to have some return. That’s what we work for.”

RW: What is your role in the KRAVE Group/MotoAmerica?

Aksland: “My role is more on the operations side. The initial functions really are to get a schedule nailed down and work through what our classes are going to be and rules for those classes. We’ll have a marketing team and a media branch, which some of that’s in place but it’s going to continue to develop. The actual running of the event, working with the promoters, working with the tracks will fall under my area.

Tomorrow, Part Two will cover The Schedule.