The AMA issued a press release April l9 attempting to discredit the Roadracing World Air Fence fundraising drive, claiming the existence of a secret AMA plan to buy and deploy Air Fence.

This despite AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth telling Roadracing World’s John Ulrich (at Daytona in March) that he had been unable to convince the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors to agree to purchase new Air Fence.

“I hope you haven’t written a check I can’t cash,” said Hollingsworth, referring to a report on roadracingworld.com that the Pro Racing Board was considering buying additional Air Fence. In fact, the Board was unable to reach agreement on the purchase and had not put together the funding.

Now that Roadracing World has decided it’s time to stop talking and start taking action by launching a donation drive to purchase Air Fence, AMA Pro Racing has changed its story and claimed that purchase of the new Air Fence has been in the works since late last year.

But two days ago, a Board member complained in an e-mail to Roadracing World that he had been diligently working on a plan to purchase Air Fence for a month. One month ago was March 2001, not December 2000. Yet AMA Pro Racing now claims that the purchase has been in the works since December of last year.

The AMA release read as follows.

“AMA PRO RACING BRINGS CLARITY TO RECENT DISCUSSIONS ON AIR FENCE
PICKERINGTON, Ohio — In December 2000, the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors took action to initiate a plan for the purchase of 30 additional units of Air Fence to be used at rounds of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship.

The estimated cost to purchase, staff, transport and store the fencing exceeds $450,000 for a three-year period, not including ongoing maintenance and repair costs.

“A formal announcement of this program was planned once all details were complete. It should be noted that a four-month lead time is required for the delivery of this quantity of air fence.

“AMA Pro Racing appreciates the individuals and corporations pledging support throughout the development of this important initiative. Visit amaproracing.com for updates on this and other AMA Pro Racing news and race results. “

In response to the AMA press release, Roadracing World’s John Ulrich said, “The AMA release is the usual excuse for why something hasn’t happened. I’ve been pushing these guys to get more Air Fence since Grant Lopez, Miguel Duhamel, and Thomas Wilson slammed into bare concrete walls two or three years ago. At this time the AMA has three sections of Air Fence, one of which leaks badly. In two and a half days, I’ve raised $48,000, enough for 16 sections of Air Fence, with donations coming from individual AMA members, race teams, racing enthusiasts, and companies involved in racing, without any help whatsoever from anybody at the AMA headquarters. Talk is cheap and it’s easy for bureaucrats to make plans.

“It’s also worth noting that they didn’t say they’ve already come up with the money to enact this grand plan, they just said they’re working on it and were planning to announce the plan when they were finished, which is what they always say.

“What we’ve done is make something happen. That’s what racers do, and we’re not going to stop until we have funded 30 new sections of Air Fence. And if I have to buy a truck and transport and deploy it myself, that is what I’m going to do. How is that a bad thing?”

A spokesman for an Air Fence supplier based in Europe has told Roadracing World that Air Fence could be delivered to Road Atlanta in time for the AMA National there next month.

The Roadracing World Air Fence fundraising drive has already raised $48,208, and the list of contributors continues to grow, with new donations from racer Dean Scarpa, Anonymous, Mike Canfield/Chandelle Motorsports, Spectrum Motorsports/VJB Racing, Debbie Roy, and many other racers, team owners, teams and fans. The current donation list follows:

Erik Buell/Buell Motorcycle Company $5800
Anonymous $4725
John Ulrich/Roadracing World $2900
Aprilia USA $2900
American Suzuki Motor Corp. $2900
Ducati North America $2900
Wendell Phillips/Lockhart Phillips $2500
Dennis Smith/Sport Tire Services $1500
Marc Salvisberg/Factory Pro Tuning $1450
Bob Dragich/Roadracing World $1450
Bob Blandford/N.E. Sportbike Assn. $1100
Chuck Warren/Arclight Suzuki $1000
Jim Rashid/4&6 Cycle $1000
Scott Willock $1000
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
Edward S. Siccardi, Jr. $300
Dan Fischer/Copier1.com $300
David Finniff $300
Marietta Motorsports $300
Brendan Guy $300
Dean Scarpa $300
Anonymous $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
Chris Kelley $150
Jim Williams/13x.com $125
David Boosales/WERA BBS $125
Mike Brown $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
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 $100
Brian Stokes $100
Chris “Opie” Caylor $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
Paul Black $100
Tyson Kamp $75
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 $50
Victor Mokler $50
Steve Clark/J. Guthridge/Tight Squeeze Racing $50
Nate Olsen $50
Anthony Moey $50
Dustin Miller $50
Lindsey Leard $30
Greg Gabis $29
Ripley Howe $29
Josh Loberant $25
Charles Tomes $25
Jon DeMent $25
Timothy Wilson $25
Mark Novak $25
S.C. Pittman $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]. Readers should feel free to call their parts, tire and accessory suppliers and urge them to make a contribution to improve safety conditions for AMA racers. For that matter, contact local dealers and ask them to encourage their OEMs to contribute. For background information, see Time To Take Back The AMA post from Tuesday morning. Stay tuned for more details.