On Friday, June 17 AMA Pro Racing Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner David Atlas announced during the rider’s meeting at Barber Motorsports Park that he was working toward organizing a 2011 AMA Pro Road Racing season finale event October 28-30 at Auto Club Speedway, in Fontana, California. Over the last two days, Roadracingworld.com polled the Team Owners, Team Managers and Crew Chiefs of some of the top AMA Pro teams in the paddock, asking “Are you in favor of the proposed season finale on Halloween weekend at Auto Club Speedway or are you opposed to it?” The answers we received indicated a majority of those asked are against the proposed plan, especially its timing eight weeks after the current season finale on September 2-4, Labor Day weekend, at New Jersey Motorsports Park. “Personally, I don’t agree with the additional round,” said Peter Doyle, Team Manager for Rockstar Makita Suzuki. “I think it’s too late. I don’t think the venue’s right. I feel two months between New Jersey and that proposed event is way too much. I’m thinking more across the board, as well, I don’t see any reason why people from the East Coast who aren’t solid series supporters would go to New Jersey and then come all the way out to California to do one season finale. I don’t believe it’s suitable for anybody. I can’t work out what would be the benefit apart from some locals in California. “Also, it’s never been a great facility for an event, and he [Atlas] wants something pretty special. And I also think now it’s almost too close”¦when we went into the series we were under the impression it was over at New Jersey or possibly a couple of weeks later. That was just the impression, the perception that we were under that it would be over in September, if is a pretty normal thing for a U.S. series. I’m sure there will be other teams and companies and riders and mechanics and stuff there will be borderline contractual issues and stuff at the end of October. “There’s a number of issues. I think if there was something two or three weeks after New Jersey, keep some momentum going, that might work. I think it might be a pretty disappointing event if the Championships start getting tied up in New Jersey. So I just think it might be too much too late or too little too late, which ever way you want to look at it.” “I wish they wouldn’t,” said Vesrah Suzuki Team Owner Mark Junge. “Money. At the beginning of the season even if they put a maybe, possibly a 10th round we have X amount of money to go racing. It’s going to cost us another $10,000-$15,000.” “That’s just a long delay to me,” said Michael Jordan Motorsports Team Manager Pete Mauhar. “We started the season planning on there being 10 rounds. So there should be budget for it, but that late in the season you’re starting to worry about next season. The tire test, if they do one again, is late-November/early-December. So the end of October is pretty late and pretty long after the last race, eight weeks. I can hear the riders already saying, ‘I haven’t been on a bike in eight weeks. We should probably go test in between there.’ And that hurts the budget.” “I’m not for it at all, and for two reasons,” said Team M4 Suzuki Crew Chief Keith Perry. “For one, Fontana is probably one of the worst tracks we’ve ever gone to as far as an actual racetrack goes. I understand its geographical spot is something to be desired, but the racetrack is not one of anybody’s favorites that I know of. And the timing of the year, I mean, that’s how many weeks after the New Jersey race? Eight full weeks from your next-to-last race to your last race. That’s really, really bad. Let’s just end it at New Jersey and be done with it. We’re gonna have 10 rounds with the one at Indianapolis anyway. I just don’t see anything great coming out of being at Fontana on Halloween. My personal opinion is I don’t like it.” “The only thing I like about the whole deal is the track,” said Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Team Owner/Rider Larry Pegram. “Other than that I’m not for it. I think it’s too far after New Jersey, and for me I live in Ohio, so I would just love to drive to California for one race in October. “My opinion is I hope we don’t have it. I would love for them to do something big. I think that’s a great idea, but it’s one of those deals where we look at it and say, ‘This is the economy right now, and I don’t think it’s [the proposed season finale] good for the health of the paddock. I think it’s good for the health of the series if they can get it sponsored, but the health of the paddock needs to be thought about to. That’s a long haul for some of the teams for one race weekend. I think for me and some of the East Coast teams we’re fine with a nine-round series and come back next year even stronger.” “The finale for the season would have a lot of good things about it, and the people have pointed out a lot of things that might not be good about it,” said Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Team Manager Tom Halverson. “David [Atlas], like at the rider’s meeting, said he would make it something more than our typical event. At least for me I’m not really sure what those things are, but it could be a really good thing. But at this point I don’t have enough information to make a good decision one way or the other on if I think it’s a good or bad idea.” Asked about the proposed date of the event, Halverson said, “That’s definitely one of the big problems, for sure. If you’re not in the hunt in the series for one of the top spots it would be tough to spend that kind of money to make the effort to go out there and do that. Maybe David’s thinking of that. Maybe he’s got something to help those guys. That could be a factor.” “If we’re going to go race almost in November that needs to be looked at,” said Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki Team Owner Richard Stanboli. “It needs to be sooner than that because guys are looking at other contracts for next year. So that hangs teams up and riders from pursuing other avenues and causes them to fall behind the eight-ball. Sure, teams like Yamaha have been pretty steady with their riders. They’re ready. They’re ready to go on to the next year. Teams like us that are looking for sponsors and things like that, it could actually hurt us. “But you could take it and spin it in a positive way and possibly use it to bring in some new sponsors. We’ll see how it goes. But it’s just another race. I could be upset about it, or I could not be upset about it. “I think for [a team located in the Eastern U.S.] it would be f””ked up. If they set up budget or contracts for [the schedule] we had. Budget-wise, since we’re kind of winging it anyway, it doesn’t really matter for us. ‘Oh, it’s some more tires and some more diesel fuel.’ But teams who have 15 guys on their staff and doing all that kind of work it would cost a lot of money.” “Absolutely for it,” said Barry Gilsenan, Team Owner of Celtic Racing/Fast by Ferracci Ducati. “We signed up for 10 races, and we expect to get them. I was actually disappointed to hear [the special XR1200 races at] Indianapolis being called a 10th race. I think 80% of the paddock don’t participate in that, so to call it a 10th event is not right. Sponsors, things like that, at the beginning of the year we told them it was a 10-race series. That’s what they expect. So I would be very, very disappointed if we didn’t have a 10th race. Asked about the proposed date of the event and if that poses any problems for him, Gilsenan said, “I hadn’t even thought of that. Yes, but my main concern is that there will be a 10th race and I will be very, very disappointed if not.” “I would love for that to happen,” said Evan Steel, Crew Chief of Iron Horse BMW/ESP. “Fontana is close, and we like going there. I know teams on the East Coast probably don’t [like going there]. We could use as many rounds as possible. I would be happy to go. I’d rather race more rounds than less rounds. We started the year off shitty, so we need more races.”