FIRST PERSON/OPINION By John Ulrich BS: MIC President Tim Buche during an MIC Board meeting held September 17 in Irvine, California: “MIC did this on its own. There was no input from the manufacturers. We can’t have any input from the manufacturers on this.” FACT: American Honda Vice President Ray Blank has been threatening an MIC-sanctioned alternate series for at least six years. It came up regularly during AMA Board and AMA Pro Racing Board meetings that I attended, when Blank was opposed to something being done in some form of AMA Pro Racing, often related to Clear Channel’s operation of the AMA Supercross Championship. A typical reference would come after Blank objected to Clear Channel scheduling Supercross races in Canada–without noting that said races were a byproduct of the Paradama/Jam Sports misadventure, discussed here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34316~. Blank would complain that American Honda is only authorized and budgeted to race on United States soil, that the Supercross and motocross seasons were already too long, that American Honda’s contracts with riders only cover U.S. events, and that to force American Honda riders and mechanics to race in Canada unfairly lengthened the season, soaked up time that should be used testing, increased the wear and tear on riders’ bodies and couldn’t be funded by American Honda anyway. If asked why American Honda riders had participated in Canadian rounds, Blank would say that they decided to do that on their own, which is different than American Honda sending them. When his arguments didn’t get much traction, Blank would typically say, “Well, ya know, the manufacturers could go race in another series, they don’t have to race with AMA.” Asked what series that might be, Blank would say, “It could be a series sanctioned and run by the MIC.” In August of 2008, Blank sent an e-mail to a racetrack manager suggesting that the manager contact Tim Buche of the MIC–read it here: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=33543~ On January 10, 2008, MIC President Tim Buche and MIC attorney Paul Vitrano visited AMA headquarters to complain to AMA President Rob Dingman about the pending sale of AMA Pro Racing. According to a participant in the meeting, Buche said that the motorcycle manufacturers represented by the MIC were not happy. Dingman asked Buche specifically what the manufacturers were unhappy with; Buche replied that Dingman should ask the motorcycle manufacturers directly, adding “We don’t know anything about racing, our members do.” People who don’t know anything about racing, do not decide in a vacuum to coincidentally form a for-profit subsidiary and start a racing series and thus do exactly what an executive from American Honda (the largest contributor of MIC dues) has been threatening to do for years. Whatever the true cause of MIC’s decision to venture into establishing a for-profit subsidiary in the tradition of AMA’s Paradama disaster, it wasn’t a case of the MIC Board of Directors convening, discussing and voting to do it. In fact, some members of the MIC Board of Directors did not know anything about the MIC’s new for-profit subsidiary and its proposed USSB racing series, until they read about it in this press release issued September 10th: ~https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34127~ However, in what must be just another coincidence, members of the MIC Board of Directors who represented American Honda and American Suzuki knew all about the new for-profit subsidiary and its proposed USSB racing series, well before any press releases were issued. The bottom line is, the non-profit MIC created a new for-profit subsidiary and its proposed USSB racing series because certain motorcycle manufacturers–acting together–wanted to gain leverage and get between race promoters and DMG. Any claim that the MIC came up with the idea and the plan WITHOUT coordinated manufacturer input–call it collusion–is so ridiculous it would insult the intelligence of a dead tree. To be continued…