More from AMA

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Actually it is less from AMA.  

INDUSTRY - AMA Loses FIM Motocross Rep
By Henny Ray Abrams
Cutting Ties 2/20/2008  

The AMA continues to cut its ties to the FIM.

The most recent to depart is Bill Amick, who, after a 30-year career at the AMA, worked as the AMA representative to the FIM Motocross Commission. His letter of resignation follows.

Amick joins four colleagues who formerly represented the AMA to the FIM, the worldwide governing body of motorcycling. All four either quit or were forced out of the their roles with the FIM since Jan. 2007

Former AMA Superbike manager Ron Barrick, who was let go by the AMA at the end of 2006, was the AMA rep to the CCR Road Race Commission. Former outside counsel Tim Owens, who was told his services were no longer needed in early December, was the AMA's representative on the International Juridicial Panel. Sue Mason, the AMA's FIM coordinator, is no longer the vice president of the Commission for Women in Motorcycling. And Greg Harrison, the AMA senior vice president of membership and marketing who was also dismissed in early December, no longer represents the AMA as the FIM vice president of the Commission for Leisure.

That leaves only two FIM members for the world's biggest motorcycle market with 16 rounds of the Supercross World Championship, two rounds of the MotoGP World Championship, and a round of the Superbike World Championship.

The two remaining AMA representatives to the FIM are Rob Rasor; vice president of the Management Council, and Ed Moreland; FIM vice president of the committee for Mobility, Transport, Road Safety and Public Policy.

The weakening of ties to the FIM contradicts the late December decision by AMA Pro Racing to combine the AMA and FIM World Supercross Championships. "The 2008 championship, for the first time ever, will combine both the AMA sanctioned Supercross Series and the FIM sanctioned World Supercross GP programs into a single, consolidated championship and will crown one supercross champion," the AMA said in a press release announcing the coupling of the series.

That decision was met with universal derision by the American distributors of the four Japanese manufacturers, who have little or no interest in racing outside their borders.

To: Wolfgang Srb, FIM Motocross Commission

Rob Dingman, AMA CEO

Dirk de Neve, FIM Motocross Commission Secretary

From: Bill Amick, FIM Motocross Commission Member, 1986-2008

Re: FIM Motocross Commission

cc: Vito Ippolito, FIM President

Guy Maitre, FIM CEO

Giuseppe Luongo, Youthstream CEO Robert Rasor, Ranking AMA Representative to FIM Dear Friends,

It is with deep regret that I submit my resignation as the AMA's representative on the FIM Motocross Commission.

The immediate reason for my resignation is ongoing health problems that make it impossible for me to perform at the level that I expect of myself and that you deserve.

Equally important, I will be candid and acknowledge that I have become more and more disillusioned with the manner in which the AMA has been managed in recent years. Even if I was up to the work at hand, I can no longer muster enthusiasm for the task in the light of the association's misdirection by a scandal-ridden board with a track record of ruthless meddling with its human resources and for hiring incompetents.

I don't have the stomach to continue to represent an AMA which has no place for the likes of Ed Youngblood, Greg Harrison, and other quality leaders who have been fired or forced to resign so that a handful of small people can try in vain to fill a void in leadership with their inflated egos.

The AMA's influence as a key member of the international motorcycling community has trended downward since the retirement of Ed Youngblood. Three CEOs and one interim CEO later, the AMA ranks as the FIM's No. 1 inside joke rather than its most influential national federation.

It has been a privilege to serve on the FIM Motocross Commission, first under Tage Magnusson, and more recently under Wolfgang Srb, since 1986. Perhaps it is fitting that my tenure on the commission began just a year before America's first Motocross of Nations and comes to an end on the heels of the return of the Motocross of Nations to America 20 years later. I was honored to be entrusted with the promotional rights to the 2007 Motocross of Nations by Giuseppe Luongo and Youthstream, and I'm proud that awarding the event to Jonathan Beasley at Budds Creek Motocross Park resulted in such a great success for the FIM, Youthstream and American motocross.

I will be thinking of my friends and colleagues this week as you prepare for the 2008 conference meetings in Geneva, and wish you a prosperous 2008 season.

Sincerely,

Bill Amick




Ron Carbaugh

[tomale]

reminds me of a certain power company a couple of years ago that came apart at the seams due to mismanagement and unsavory leaders...
"absolute power corrupts absolutely"

Thom Green,Still crazy after all these years!
76' 250 MC5 (orginal owner)74'
250 hare scrambler (project bike)
72'sixday (project bike)