New donations from The Wegman Benefit Fund and WERA Motorcycle Roadracing have combined with dozens of donations from individuals to push our fund to protect racers with air-filled soft barriers to $84,695. In the meantime, both Alpina Safety Systems and Air Fence have committed to delivery in time for the AMA race at Road Atlanta May 17-20.
“I think it is great that you have undertaken this crusade and I applaud you for trying to get something done faster than bureaucracy,” wrote WERA President Evelyne Clarke with her pledge. “I spoke with (AMA Pro Racing CEO)Scott (Hollingsworth)the other day and told him to use this as a positive–hopefully he will see it as such. He told me that the AMA had this plan in the works and that they were trying to figure out ALL the logistics – I believe him – Daytona definitely made him see what a ‘bad’ weekend can be all about (even if it was riders doing dumb things and not within any official’s control). I just wish he could spend time in the trenches instead of the office and meetings trying to keep things going there and constantly putting out fires that rise from the trenches. I still have faith in him, just wish he wasn’t pulled in 50 directions at once. Anyway–WERA will put a check in today’s mail for $1450 to cover 50% of a section. This is done for all the WERA riders who go on to pursue Pro Racing careers in the AMA. Good luck with your project and please try to work toward understanding that Scott Hollingsworth is not the ‘bad guy’, he’s just the guy who got saddled with a job bigger than most people would want to undertake and that he got thrown into it feet first with not a lot of help!”
“I was out of town all last week and just got wind of the Air Fence fund,” wrote Gordon Lunde, Sr. of the Wegman Benefit Fund. “Please put us in for a $2900 donation. The check will be on the way tomorrow morning. The Wegman Fund exists to help racers after they have been injured but I think we should also help in the prevention of those injuries. I applaud the effort! Thank you, John, for always keeping the safety of the riders at heart.”
Other donations included one from Bill St. John/Project Monza for $400, and $100 donations came in from Mark Sutton, Steve Scott/LRRS #47, journalist Eric Putter, Jim Doerfler, Ira Englebardt, Joe & Nancy Fenech, Earl Hayden, AMA 250cc Grand Prix Champion Chuck Sorensen, D&D Thrush Farms and Jeff Wilson of American Suzuki. A $58 donation came in from Kelly Thornton and more $50 donations came in from Kenyon Kluge/K2 Racing, Darin Nichols/Team Unit, Richard Davis, Allen Lyon/Ducati Online, Eric H. Mathy, Steve Breckenridge and Jim Race/Speaksy Racing, while another $30 came in from George Gervasi/Projekt9 Racing.
“It makes me proud to help protect my friends while they are doing their job,” wrote Steve Breckenridge. “I have seen Grant Lopez and others hit too many unprotected, non-removable walls. I don’t want to see it anymore. I wish I could give more, but my very tight racing budget cannot support it. I hope it helps. Thank you for looking out for all of us racers.”
Other comments came from the following:
Eric Putter: “Tell John he is doing a great job.”
Ira Englebardt: “Awesome – Happy someone is taking care of it. Yeah, that’s the ticket!”
Erik H. Mathy: “First off, I have to say that your willingness to take the bull by the horns is just fantastic. AMA’s dragging their feet? Screw ’em! We’ll take care of it ourselves! Awesome, awesome, awesome!”
Kelly Thornton: “In memorial of no more stupid, crippling accidents to all riders, famous or not.”
Richard Davis: “I’m just a racing fan and occasional track-day enthusiast, but I’m sending in a check for $50 today. This is a great cause! The first AMA racing event I attended was the 2000 Laguna Seca round in which Jamie Bowman was killed after crashing into an unprotected barrier. Needless to say, this put a dark cloud over the entire weekend’s events and personally left me feeling sick to my stomach. That was almost a full year ago and the fact that no significant safety improvements have been made is just ridiculous. Exactly how many Jamie Bowman’s does AMA Racing need to see killed before they take action? Three? A dozen? Twenty? A hundred? Let’s just hope that someone over there has enough sense to accept FREE safety equipment that will save racers’ careers and lives. Great job, Roadracing World. Thank you!”
Gerret Swearingen: “I just paid $20 towards the Air Fence fund and wanted to make a comment. I think that it is ironic that those that are paid to talk ( Roadracing World employees ) are doing something about protecting our racers while those that are supposed to do something (AMA officers) are talking about protecting our racers. I applaud Roadracing World’s creation of and raising money for the Air Fence fund and urge you to continue the good work. The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.”
Bill Capshaw/ICE Motorsports: “Thanks for taking the initiative on the Air Fence issue. We race for fun, and the guys that ride for me are my friends. We ride to the track together, and we all want to go home together at the end of the race weekend. There has not been much that an individual can do to improve the safety of racing, so I think this is a great idea. If we weren’t in the middle of the road racing season, the check would be bigger. But this is what I can do for now. We appreciate the opportunity that AMA racing gives to us–I can’t think of any other national racing series in any form of motorsports wher small teams and individuals without major sponsors can go out and race with the very best. We were on top of the world last season when Shane Clarke piloted our GSXR to the Top Privateer position in the Mid-Ohio Superbike race. Thanks for coordinating this effort so that even the smaller teams can give the AMA some idea of how important the racers are to us.”
The list of contributors now reads:
Erik Buell/Buell Motorcycle Company $5800
Trent Thompson/Paramount Racing $5000
Anonymous $4725
Dynojet Research $3200
Steve Brubaker/Race Tire Service $3000
John Ulrich/Roadracing World $2900
Aprilia USA $2900
American Suzuki Motor Corp. $2900
Ducati North America $2900
Jonathan Glaefke $2900
Susie and Bruce Meyers/BCM Racing Ducati $2900
Wegman Benefit Fund/Gordon Lunde Sr. $2900
Wendell Phillips/Lockhart Phillips $2500
Advanced Motor Sports/In Memory of Dirk Piz $2000
L.A. Bikers/labiker.org $1810
Dennis Smith/Sport Tire Services $1500
Marc Salvisberg/Factory Pro Tuning $1450
Bob Dragich/Roadracing World $1450
Fred Renz/Yoyodyne $1450
WERA $1450
Bob Blandford/N.E. Sportbike Assn. $1100
Chuck Warren/Arclight Suzuki $1000
Jim Rashid/4&6 Cycle $1000
Scott Willock $1000
Don Emde/In Memory of Cal Rayborn $1000
Jason Pridmore’s Star Motorcycle School $1000
Mark E. Dobeck/Techlusion Performance Group $1000
G.M.D. Computrack Network $1000
Intrepid Café Racers $775
Yoshimura Racing $750
Team Daemon Racing $600
Don Lemelin/Scuderia West $500
Kevin Erion/Erion Racing $500
Pinky’s Pizza of Walnut Creek $500
Doug Gonda $500
Jerry Wood/Penguin School $500
Mike Canfield/Chandelle Motorsports $500
Jim Davis/J6 Racing/In Memory of Dirk Piz $500
Brooks Gremmels/Shogun Motorsports $500
Jim Di Salvo/Alien Racing $500
Dale Kieffer/Racers Edge Performance $500
Bill St. John/Project Monza $400
Edward S. Siccardi, Jr. $300
Dan Fischer/Copier1.com $300
David Finniff $300
Marietta Motorsports $300
Brendan Guy $300
Dean Scarpa $300
Anonymous $300
Kurtis Roberts $300
Brian Mitchell $250
Al Ludington $250
Tim Simpson $250
Spectrum Motorsports/VJB Racing $250
David Roy, Ducati N. America $250
Debbie Roy/Frenotec $250
Papa Thiam/WERA BBS $200
Bill Capshaw/ICE Motorsports $200
Scott Decker $200
Terry Embury $200
Jim “Dutch” MacKenzie/WERA BBS $200
Scott Jenkins $200
Cliff Nobles $200
Aaron Yates $200
MZ Scorpion Cup Racers $175
Chris Kelley/California Cycleworks $150
Robb Mc Elroy $150
Tim Chin/Team Bandit $150
Jim Williams/13x.com $125
David Boosales/WERA BBS $125
Mike Brown/Team 222 $125
Pat Stricker $100
Gary Rand $100
Michael Roberson/WERA BBS $100
Sean Jordan/WERA BBS $100
Army of Darkness $100
Stuart Gregg $100
Pinky’s Pizza/Lippman Racing $100
Bob Szoke $100
TyrSox $100
Ron West/Omzig Productions $100
Joe Facer $100
Preston Rash $100
Geoff Maloney/GP Tech $100
Melissa Berkoff/Neighbor Of The Beast $100
Caesar Gonzales/WERA BBS $100
Dorina Groves $100
Dorina Groves $100/In Memory of Jamie Bowman $100
Philip Rusin/RC51.net $100
Allen “Spence” Spencer $100
Matt Wadsworth $100
Dean N. De St. Croix $100
Tony Tugwell/TZ250.com $100
Bart Fuqua/Team LGC $100
Brian Stokes/Marietta Motorsports $100
Chris “Opie” Caylor/Marietta Motorsports $100
David McElvain/NEDoD $100
Ned “Peanut” Brown/NESBA/TPM $100
Vance Hacecky $100
Patrick Mee $100
Dave and Jason Parker $100
Paul Kingsburgh/RC45.net $100
Lucky Deleoni $100
Tom Drumm $100
David Brown $100
Steve Moonitz $100
Jake Swan $100
Chris Story $100
Chris Eklund $100
Randy Ball/WERA BBS $100
Mark Hellvig $100
Gary Schilling/On Time Racing $100
Steve Sumner $100
Laura Granato $100
Norm Viano/Lawdog Sports Mgmt $100
Kevin Jordan/Jordan Motorsports $100
Val Gregory/In Memory of Dirk Piz $100
Dave Gess $100
Rob Berlind $100
Paul Black $100
Steve Hewitt $100
Mike Ciccotto $100
Tripp Nobles $100
Scott Rehl $100
Steve & Lorraine Aledort $100
Jeff Rozycki/29dreams.com Racing $100
Chris Ulrich/In Memory of Russ Paulk And Toby Jorgensen $100
Red Fox Racing $100
Greg Ruffin $100
John Donald/PTC Racing $100
Larry Pegram $100
Pamela Skaff/WERA BBS $100
J.D. Hord/Meccanica Corse Racing $100
Mark Sutton $100
Steve Scott/LRRS#47 $100
Eric Putter $100
Jim Doerfler $100
Ira Englebardt $100
Joe & Nancy Fenech $100
Earl Hayden $100
Chuck Sorensen $100
D&D Thrush Farms $100
Jeff Wilson/American Suzuki $100
Tyson Kamp $75
Max Buxton/NEDoD $50
Nelo Hakola $50
Tyler Sandell $ 50
David J. Kopfinger $ 50
Aaron Loyd $50
Martin Voelker $50
Steve Hopkins $50
Louis DeBlois $50
Leigh Taunton/EMGO $50
Randy Sinisi $50
Danny Hull $50
Team Skidmark Racing $50
Ryan Meskimen/WERA BBS $50
Erik Astrup $50
Paul Zavada $50
James Greeson/WERA BBS $50
Victor Mokler $50
Steve Clark/J. Guthridge/Tight Squeeze Racing $50
Nate Olsen $50
Anthony Moey $50
Dustin Miller $50
Jim Frost/NEDoD $50
Steve Martinez $50
Jason Temme/Serpent Racing $50
Mike Hodgson/WERA BBS $50
Chris Borre/Motorcycleroadracer.com $50
Richard Barker/AIM/In Memory of Dirk Piz $50
Mike Reish/Reish Dot Net $50
Kenyon Kluge/K2 Racing $50
Darin Nichols/Team Unit $50
Richard Davis $50
Allen Lyon/Ducati Online $50
Eric H. Mathy $50
Steve Breckenridge $50
Jim Race/Speaksy Racing $50
Don Moody $35
Lindsey Leard $30
Dave Deggendorf /WERA BBS $30
Steve Sturm/Squidvision Racing $30
George Gervasi/Projekt9 Racing $30
Greg Gabis $29
Ripley Howe $29
Mark Hatten/Meccanica Corse Racing $29
Josh Loberant $25
Charles Tomes $25
Jon DeMent $25
Timothy Wilson $25
Mark Novak $25
Rene Ferron $25
Sean Patrick Brisini $25
Richard Korol $25
Eric and Christine Loranger $25
Dee Moses $25
S.C. Pittman $20
Jamieson D. Yonker $20
Garret Swearingen $20
To pledge a contribution, call Roadracing World at (800) 464-8336 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, when operators will be standing by. Credit cards accepted. Pledges can also be made by e-mailing [email protected]. Make checks payable to Roadracing World. For background information, see Time To Take Back The AMA post from Tuesday morning. Stay tuned for more details, as we work toward our goal, $87,000 for 30 beautiful sections of Air Module, plus money for deployment expenses and for shipping, tax and import duties.