AMA Pro Road Racing Sets Test Dates for New Orleans and Return to Homestead-Miami Speedway for 2012 Season

Ben Bostrom on the #11 Zero Gravity/Dunlop/AGV/Kerker-sponsored Honda CBR600F3 is shown during a practice session of the AMA Pro Road Racing 600 Supersport Series at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in July '97.  The Honda Super Cycle Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire event saw BBoz back on the Zero Gravity Honda team for the second year in the 600 class, and doing double duty in the AMA Superbike Championship Series on the team's RC45. 

Bostrom would go on to become the '98 AMA Superbike Champion after moving up to the American Honda factory team for the '98 season as a team mate to Miguel Duhamel, and he would win the '08 AMA Supersport Championship and the '09 Daytona 200 while riding for the Graves Yamaha team.


Bostrom will be back with the Michael Jordan Motorsports team for the 2012 season in his second season riding for the team, and will be aboard the Jordan Brand's iconic #23 machine in the AMA Superbike Championship.  As best as I can recall, the elder of the Boz Bros will be the only rider racing in the AMA Pro Road Racing Series that raced on the Homestead-Miami course when the series last visited the speedway in south Florida during the '96 season.  AMA Pro Road Racing has set their tests dates for the upcoming 2012 return to Homestead and the newly-added and brand new facility in New Orleans, LA. 

You can read the full press release below.
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AMA Pro Racing Announces Dates for Official AMA Pro Road Racing Tests at Homestead-Miami Speedway and NOLA Motorsports Park

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 24, 2012) - AMA Pro Racing officials announced today the dates for the official AMA Pro Road Racing tests at Homestead-Miami Speedway and NOLA Motorsports Park. In advance of the Big Kahuna Miami (September 21 - 23, 2012), the Series' first return to Homestead Fla.'s Homestead-Miami Speedway since 1996, AMA Pro Road Racing riders will get a chance to shake down their machines on March 20 and 21, 2012.

Avondale, La.'s NOLA Motorsports Park is America's newest racetrack, and before heading there for the Big Kahuna New Orleans (October 5 - 7, 2012) AMA Pro Road Racing will get the chance to put down some of the first rubber on the road course at the official series test, scheduled for June 26 and 27, 2012.

The two-day tests will include track time from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a 60-minute lunch break, media availability and will be staffed by AMA Pro Racing competition and timing & scoring personnel. In an effort to keep travel and transportation expenses to a minimum, each test has been scheduled for the Tuesday and Wednesday following an AMA Pro Road Racing event in the same region.

The test at Homestead-Miami Speedway will take place just after the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, which will be held on March 15 - 17, 2012 as part of the historic Daytona 200 Week. Testing at NOLA Motorsports Park is scheduled following the June 22 - 24, 2012 event at Barber Motorsports Park, which is located roughly 400 miles away in Birmingham, Ala. Additional details about the NOLA Motorsports Park test will be released via competition bulletins in the coming months.

In order to participate in either test, riders must have a valid 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing competition license and be pre-entered in the 2012 race event scheduled at the respective track. Entry forms and competition bulletins detailing each test will be available in the competition section of AMA Pro Racing's website.

Tickets for the Big Kahuna Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the Big Kahuna New Orleans at NOLA Motorsports Park can be purchased at http://www.m1powersports.com/.

AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com. For additional information contact:   AMA Pro Racing Communications, (386) 492-1014, communications@amaproracing.com

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Yamaha To Re-Structure It's AMA Road Racing Program With Graves Motorsports for 2010...

This probably comes as old news to most of you reading this since this actually hit

the wires on Tuesday October 27th, but Team Yamaha will be officially 'outsourcing'

all of their racing efforts in the U.S. for the 2010 season to Graves Motorsports.

With Graves having a major hand in getting Yamaha back into the Superbike class again in

the '09 season after a several year layoff, it's not like the 'handing over of the reins'

to Chuck and his company is going to be a stretch. More than anything, it sets a precedent

as to what and who we may or may not see 'officially' or 'directly' in the AMA Road Racing series

in the way of direct or even indirect factory involvement for next season. And though this may

come as a direct result of the state of the global economy, if you follow the series any at all you

can't not think what part of this was change was due to the handling of the series by the

AMA/DMG folks. And me being the conspiracy theorist-type, well, I see major rumblings

happening in the sport as a result of the strife and almost endless problems that seem to

occur in '09 as a result of their lack of what many deem to be 'proper oversight' in going

about running a professional motorcycle racing series. But that's just me, you'll have to form

your own opinion as to what kind of mess they created since taking over the helm of the

largest and most high-profile road racing series on this continent and doing what many feel is

just shy of driving it into a brick wall....

While you are pondering that thought, and since that is another story altogether, we will focus on

the quality machinery and utmost in quality riders that Chuck Graves and Yamaha have put

together over the last few years and what kind of record they have attained in doing so. And we

can take a look at a couple of those fine pieces of equipment that they have put on the track in

the process.

To those of you familiar with the AMA scene, the #155 bikes above are probably very familiar

as they are a couple of the most recent versions of the steeds as produced by Graves for none

other then Mr. Ben Bostrom, '98 AMA Superbike Champion, '08 AMA SuperSport Champion,

and among other things the winner of the '09 edition of the Daytona 200. Having been around

the bike scene since all but dropping out of the womb, B-Boz has raced just about every form

of motorcycles--and in some case bicycles--for quite some time now. After coming into the

Superbike series back in '97 with the Zero Gravity Honda team on the fire-breathing Honda

RC-45's, he joined the official Honda Racing U.S. team in '98, and promptly won the title.

Vance and Hines signed him for the '99 season, and he wore the #1 plate that year while

teamed with Anthony 'The Go Show' Gobert. Moving on to the World Superbike scene for a

few years, we were lucky enough that Ben came back to the states to run in the AMA series again for Team Ducati and then again, Team Honda, up through and including the '06 season.

Then Ben went to work for Chuck Graves in '07 running the Yamaha R1 in the AMA Super Stock

series, and going on to a 2nd overall finish that year in the championship.

But for Ben, 2008 was the turning point where things all came together, and as he put it once,

he started having fun again. And fun he did have, winning a boatload of races while running in

the AMA Super Sport class based on the 'old' 600cc platform, and winning the title in the

process.

The machinery shown above is a small look at the bikes that Ben ran in the '07 and '08

seasons. The shots of the bikes in the garage were taken at Mid Ohio during the '07 round,

and are of the Yamaha R1 Super Stock bike, while the on-track shots of Ben leading #36

Martin Cardenas and #4 Josh Hayes at Mid Ohio in '08 while romping to the win that day,

and of course the championship later in the year. And the shot of the #1 bike is the bike

he won the '08 AMA Super Sport Championship with. Or at least a good version of it as on

display at the Indy round of the MotoGP race back in August. It was one of many great

bikes they had on display that w/e.

I have to take the time to thank the following people for giving us the links below of the official

news about Yamaha turning things over to Mr. Graves and Co. for 2010.....and maybe beyond...

http://www.roadracingworld.com/, http://www.superbikeplanet.com/ and of course, http://www.speedtv.com/. Thanks to all you great folks for the hard work and efforts you put in to help us all keep up with the goings on around the mad world of motorcycle road racing. We couldn't make it with out you!

Thanks for coming by and taking the time to check things out here! And I hope you can come back again now, ya hear?!

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38556

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Oct/091027m.htm

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-graves-takes-over-yamaha-effort/