BREA, Calif., American Suzuki Motor Corp. (ASMC) announced that Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies offered to match up to $15,000 in donations to the Roadracing World Action Fund. Spies’ offer led to a flurry of contributions totaling more than $17,000. Spies, the current points leader in the AMA Superbike Championship, is the first factory rider in the AMA road racing series to donate such a significant sum to the fund. “I’ve always been a big supporter of the Action Fund,” said Spies. “The racetracks in the United States are working to improve safety in a lot of different ways. But these improvements can’t happen overnight. The only safety-related change that can be made overnight is to install air fences. I think that’s really important and I want to be a part of that.” The mission of the Roadracing World Action Fund is to prevent racetrack-related injuries in road racing and dirt-track by promoting motorcycle-racing safety and education. Specifically, it advocates and promotes the use of soft barriers to prevent racetrack-related injuries, and provides education on the value of adequate pre-race practice, rider training and proper racetrack preparation. Additionally, the Roadracing World Action Fund is a tax exempt 501(3) c corporation, which makes donations tax deductible. “Ben has supported the Roadracing World Action Fund since the beginning, even before he was a factory rider,” said John Ulrich, Roadracing World editor and founder of the Action Fund. “He understands how important it is because some of his friends have benefited directly from the placement of soft barriers at racetracks. When Ben made this donation of matching funds, it got people all fired up and we raised a significant amount of money in a short period of time. Ben’s doing a great thing here because this will allow us to have more barriers out there for the benefit of more racers.” For more information on the Roadracing World Action fund, log onto www.roadracingworld.com . For more information on Spies and Yoshimura Suzuki Racing, log onto www.teamsuzuki.com .