AMA Superbikes: Just Eight Rounds!
Cycle News Staff | July 19, 2011
Just two rounds and three races remain in the AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Championship as efforts to find an 11th-hour replacement for the cancelled Virginia International Raceway have failed.AMA Pro Racing announced this evening that the championship will now consist of eight rounds (calling the series a nine-round series isn’t accurate as only the Vance & Hines XR1200 class will compete at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in August) and will culminate with the originally scheduled doubleheader at the New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 2-4. AMA Pro Racing has also scheduled its season-ending banquet in Atlantic City after the final race at NJMP. The announcement ends speculation that the New Jersey round could potentially be a tripleheader.With just this weekend’s round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the doubleheader at NJMP remaining, Blake Young leads the AMA Superbike Championship by 11 points, 290-279, over defending Superbike Champion Josh Hayes.
“We recognize that the 2011 season calendar is not ideal,” said AMA Pro COO and Managing Member David Atlas in a press release, “but I assure our paddock and fans that a great deal of hard work went into trying to create a schedule that was. We’ll finish the season strong – delivering more of the exciting, head-to-head racing AMA Pro is known for at each of our three remaining rounds – then look to 2012 and an exciting, comprehensive calendar of race events.”AMA Pro Racing has also announced a plan to minimize the revised schedule’s effect on divisional East and West Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport competition by implementing the following changes: Championship points will not be awarded for West Division qualifying at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend, as was previously announced; in East Division racing at New Jersey Motorsports Park, points will be awarded both for race results and for qualifying. These modifications will give West and East Division contenders nine points-earning opportunities each, keeping the field level for those seeking overall championship honors, according to AMA Pro Racing.The last time the AMA Superbike Series featured just eight races was in 1990.The Superbike Championship isn’t the only one that will be affected. RMR Geico’s Danny Eslick currently leads Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin by 15 points, 214-199, in the Daytona SportBike Series.
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