While teams fielded by American Honda, Kawasaki and Ducati test today at California Motor Speedway in Fontana, California, AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth is pressing his crusade to eliminate the Thursday-before-race-weekends practice private riders and teams rely on to set up their racebikes.

Hollingsworth is making the elimination of Thursday practice part of his 2002 race negotiations with track owners nationwide; he claims his crew needs Thursday to set up Air Fence and timing and scoring systems and cannot arrive on site Wednesday for set-up work.

“They’re delivering less and charging more,” said one track owner after pointing out that the number of factory team riders in AMA Superbike is down for 2002, yet AMA has dramatically increased fees for racetracks and promoters.

Raised fees and reduced services seems to be the current motto for AMA Pro Racing. While rider license fees are now up to $300, AMA Pro Racing concern for basic rider services such as rational rider number assignments and the availability of Thursday practice are falling by the wayside.