AMA Sports Vice President Douglas Neubauer chastised AMA racers during a riders’ meeting held Friday afternoon, telling the assembled group, which included dozens of spectators, that they inhibited track improvements at Mid-Ohio by speaking out about the track’s condition in the media. “That made it worse,” Neubauer told the group, after AMA Pro Racing Road Race Series Manager Ron Barrick made his usual riders’ meeting remarks. “We had to really beg them to get that (excessively-high curbs) changed.” “Yeah, like we’re getting in the way, huh? That was the most insane thing ever,” said Ben Bostrom, who confronted Neubauer immediately after the meeting. Neubauer, who does not normally attend AMA Superbike series events, asked Bostrom who he was. “It really upset everyone, which is sad. I think everyone knows we would rather work together as a group. Everyone knows that, but you don’t want to hear that sh-t up there, when they don’t even ride the bikes.” “His comments about Mid-Ohio saying they only changed the track because AMA stepped in and the riders made it worse, I disagree 100%,” said Chris Ulrich, who voiced his disagreement during the meeting and was rebuffed by Neubauer. “I sat and looked Dennis Rhee (Mid-Ohio General Manager) in the eye, and he told me they were going to fix (the curbs), flat out. This guy (Neubauer) is calling me a liar, telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about. An AMA official calls me a liar, that’s unacceptable, too. I pay my (AMA membership) dues every year for a service, and I don’t get that service and they call me a liar — that pisses me off. “(His message) wasn’t delivered in the correct manner. He kind of came out with a cocky attitude that said, ‘We’re going to do it this way, and this is the way we’re going to do it, flat-out. Sorry, guys, you screwed stuff up for us.’ That’s just not the way to deliver it.” “(Neubauer) was a little offline,” said Eric Bostrom, “because we’ve put some work into this, put some hours in and the riders are definitely responsible for a lot of changes, changes at Barber, Fontana, Infineon and now Elkhart. The riders are directly responsible for those improvements and no one but the riders.” “They (Mid-Ohio) did the changes because we asked them to,” Neubauer told Roadracingworld.com in an interview immediately after the riders’ meeting. “They did it because we wanted them to do it, not because of all of the voices and opinions and all that stuff. They took what we had collected and what we had decided off of the racer feedback and the team owner feedback what we decided was the right thing to do. That’s when they said, ‘OK, if you’ve got all their opinions together and you think this is the right thing to do, then OK, because you’ve said it, we’ll get it done. But we’ve heard so many different opinions, we don’t know what to do. Tell us.’ “There was a multitude of people calling the racetrack, making different opinions and none of them were the same. Some people were saying the curbs were a problem. Some people said the curbs weren’t a problem at all. They had multiple, different things that they were saying. That’s what made it worse. What’s right and what’s wrong? They were getting multiple signs and multiple ways to fix it.” Asked what rider said they liked the approximately 12-inch-high curbs initially installed around the repaved Mid-Ohio circuit, Neubauer said, “I cannot give you a name nor am I going to give you one specific name, to call out one specific rider. There were four riders who talked to the racetrack and said they didn’t see an issue with the curbs.” When it was brought to his attention that his tone and manner were abrupt, as if he was almost chastising the riders in a somewhat public forum, Neubauer said, “I wasn’t intending on chastising anyone, not riders, not teams, not factories, not anyone. I was trying to tell them what the correct avenue (for feedback) was, and rather than make things complicated, let’s make things smoother get it on the fast track. My whole point is this, the new avenue, this is where we need to go. Let’s make it one road, one lane and move forward. That’s the biggest thing we want to do is make things better. We definitely want to make things better. We wouldn’t be making all of these changes if we didn’t.” Neubauer prefaced his comments at the meeting by saying AMA Pro Racing management, Mid-Ohio management and five factory race team managers had a meeting early Friday morning to tour the track and let Mid-Ohio personnel points out all the changes that were made. According to one of the team managers, who asked to remain anonymous, AMA Pro Racing asked the teams to keep their riders from speaking out negatively about racetracks because it could hurt events and ultimately the sport.