I took a road trip last weekend, starting at 4:15 a.m. Saturday in Lake Elsinore and finishing 1280 miles later at 11:45 p.m. Sunday, after stops at Infineon Raceway on Saturday and Reno Fernley Raceway on Sunday. There were meetings at Infineon in the middle of an IRL/Grand-Am car race weekend, and a USGPRU race to watch at Reno Fernley. I was interested in seeing the USGPRU Moriwaki MD250H race–and meeting with Midori Moriwaki and a couple of Moriwaki engineers–at the rustic Nevada track that bills itself as a Field Of Dreams and couldn’t be any bumpier if somebody laid pavement over a freshly plowed field! It was interesting to contrast the pit scene at the two tracks, one stuffed full of 18-wheelers hauling expensive IRL open-wheelers and enclosed Daytona Prototype race cars, the other a typical club-race mix of vans and pickups and trailers. The haulers at Infineon looked like the semi-trucks seen at any AMA Superbike National, only there were more of them. Half the paddock at Reno Fernley was filled with SuperMoto racers competing on one section of the road course, while USGPRU and Zoom Zoom classes ran on another section of the road course. What I saw at Reno Fernley were two terrific MD250H races, backed by a strong contingency program posted by American Honda. Young gun Kris Turner was disappointed to finish fifth on the Roadracingworld.com MD250H in the first race, but still earned $1100! Before the second race, Midori Moriwaki herself taped up Turner’s tweaked left foot, injured in a crash at Barber Motorsports Park two weeks earlier. He promptly went out in the second race and finished a fighting third, earning another $1500. His haul for the weekend was $2600; he practiced on used tires and started Sunday with a single new set of Dunlops, which cost $248 installed. His other expenses were a $150 entry fee and $30 worth of pump gas. (Turner and his bike hitched a ride to the race with the racing Gerloff family, including 13-year-old Garrett Gerloff running in the USGPRU Moriwaki class and 11-year-old Grayson Gerloff, who races in WERA 125cc Grand Prix races.) Young Ryan Matter did better than Turner on the day, winning the first race and finishing second in the second race, earning $3700. Jake Lewis earned $3500, finishing third in the first race (with oil on his bike’s rear tire!) and winning the second. Contrast those numbers with the money AMA Pro Jeff Wood made during a Superbike National weekend at VIR a week earlier. Riding his own Yamaha YZF-R6, Wood finished seventh in the AMA Formula Xtreme race and 10th in the AMA Supersport race. For his trouble, Wood earned $2250 in contingency money and another $1150 in purse money, for a grand total of $3400. So Wood’s haul in two AMA professional races at VIR beat teenager Kris Turner’s earnings in the USGPRU club race at Reno, but lagged behind what kids Ryan Matter and Jake Lewis made at Reno. Complicating Wood’s situation is the fact that he had significantly higher at-track expenses at VIR, including paying for 14 sets of Dunlop tires at $400 a set, for a total of $5600 (he told me he actually used 20 sets worth $8400, but he has a partial sponsorship from Dunlop). He also spent $1000 on box van fuel, burned $700 worth of “rocket fuel” race gas, spent $175 on Thursday practice and $375 on entry fees. Expenses related to his crew included $900 paid to his mechanics, $140 on mechanic credentials, $251 on a rental car, $60 on gas for the rental car/pit bikes/generators, $490 on airfare and $80 on food. Wood avoided hotel expenses by camping at the track, but allocated half the projected cost of repairing a damaged engine ($600) to his VIR weekend. Wood’s expenses related to the AMA Pro race at VIR totaled $10,466. Deducting the money he made, Wood lost $7066 during his foray into the AMA professional racing status quo at VIR. Fortunately for Wood, he had netted $7549 (after expenses) at a combined ASRA and CCS race at Barber Motorsports Park the weekend before. His expenses included paying for seven sets of Dunlop tires at $400 a set, for a total of $2800. He also spent $1250 on box van fuel, burned $600 worth of “rocket fuel” race gas, spent nothing on practice and $735 on entry fees. Expenses related to his crew included $900 paid to his mechanics, nothing on mechanic credentials (because Wood is a member of the ASRA Team Owner Program), $192 on a rental car, $50 on gas for the rental car/pit bikes/generators, $874 on airfare and $120 on food. Wood spent $280 on hotel expenses, and allocated half the projected cost of repairing a damaged engine ($600) to his Barber weekend. Wood won 10 ASRA and CCS races at Barber, earning $14,500 in contingency money and another $1500 in purse money, for a grand total of $16,000. Wood’s expenses related to the ASRA race weekend totaled $8451. Deducting the money he spent, Wood made that previously mentioned $7549 during his weekend with ASRA and CCS at Barber. Driving home from Reno on Highway 395, I had a lot of time to think about the status of AMA Pro Racing and the complaints that DMG’s plans will reduce “professional racing” in this country to mere “club racing.” Using Wood’s experience at the AMA National at VIR as an example of “professional racing” and his experience during the ASRA and CCS weekend at Barber as an example of “club racing” does not reflect favorably on AMA professional racing as we know it today. When a good rider like Jeff Wood has to go make $7549 at a “club race” one weekend so he can lose about the same amount by running in an AMA National the next weekend, that’s not really professional racing. When a good rider running his own program leaves an AMA National with two top-10 finishes, earns $3400 and still loses $7066, that’s not really professional racing. Not when a couple of 13-year-olds earn more money racing Moriwaki MD250H Hondas on a bumpy track in the Nevada desert during a weekend with USGPRU.