WERA & American Motorcyclist Association Team Up as Co-Sanctioning Bodies in Road Racing for 2017

The American Motorcyclist Association out of Pickerington, OH. and WERA (Western Eastern Road Racing Association) out of Canton, GA. yesterday announced a partnership for the upcoming 2017 road racing season that will see the two long-standing sanctioning bodies teaming up to offer more possibilities for racers for the future ahead.

The two series (long before AMA/Ohio sold off Pro Racing sanctioning rights to AMA Pro/Daytona/DMG) have long seen riders and teams crossover from one series to the other, so this should see some nice dovetailing for current teams and riders for the road racing series. AMA/Ohio holds the FIM sanctions that the now reworked AMA Superbike Series operates under with the MotoAmerica racing series.

In the shot above, the late Donald Jacks on the #59 Roadracing World/Team Hammer/Valvoline Suzuki and Chris D'Aluisio on the #2 Southwest Motorsports/Dunlop/Red Line Oil Yamaha TZ250 battle during a WERA Pro Series Formula USA race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, IN. in July 1992. The former Formula USA Series saw many crossovers from both AMA and WERA competition that would pit the Formula 2 250's against the big-bore 4-strokes of the day providing fans, teams and all in attendance with a wonderfully exciting racing platform.

Check out the press release below thanks to the American Motorcyclist Association and we wish the best to AMA and Evelyne Clarke's WERA associations for the great news and great racing assuredly ahead!

American Motorcyclist Association partners with WERA Motorcycle Roadracing

PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- December 9, 2016 -- The American Motorcyclist Association and WERA Motorcycle Roadracing have partnered to advance the sport of motorcycle road racing in America. Beginning with the start of WERA's 2017 season, all WERA events will be co-sanctioned with the AMA.

"WERA has produced a long line of impressive winners, and many of them have gone on to great success in the AMA Superbike Championship and beyond," said AMA Track Racing Manager Ken Saillant. "The professionalism and fairness demonstrated by WERA's leadership has always been exceptional, and the organization is an important partner for the AMA as we work to grow both amateur and professional road racing in this country."

With this partnership, WERA has access to AMA-approved insurance, AMA ratification and recognition of results, and the opportunity to develop a clear path to professional licensing for those riders who aspire to race with MotoAmerica, the home of the AMA Superbike Championship.

"AMA and MotoAmerica have worked hard and are succeeding in bringing growth to professional motorcycle road racing in the United States," said Evelyne Clarke, WERA owner and president. "Many WERA racers have a dream to compete on a professional level, so it is important to provide them the path to accomplish this, which is one of the things this partnership will do. The many benefits of an AMA membership are valuable to all WERA racers."

Clarke, whose history with WERA dates to 1976, added that the AMA's role as the country's premier motorcycling advocate also was important to the decision to sanction with the AMA.

"The AMA has long defended our freedoms to ride and race," Clarke said. "This includes uniting AMA members to help defeat the lead law ban on youth dirt bikes as well as stopping the more recent effort by the Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the conversion of emissions-certified motorcycles into race bikes."

WERA, based in Canton, Ga., is one of the oldest and largest national sanctioning bodies conducting motorcycle races at road courses across the United States. Since 1974 WERA has enabled thousands of racers at all levels the opportunity to compete across the country. WERA offers a Rider's School with entry-level racing, pro-am racing and vintage racing for anyone with a motorcycle.

For more information on WERA, as well as the 2017 schedule of events, see www.wera.com.

About the American Motorcyclist Association

 

Founded in 1924, the AMA is a not-for-profit member-based association whose mission is to promote the motorcycle lifestyle and protect the future of motorcycling. As the world's largest motorcycling rights and event sanctioning organization, the AMA advocates for riders' interests at all levels of government and sanctions thousands of competition and recreational events every year. The AMA also provides money-saving discounts on products and services for its members. Through the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickerington, Ohio, the AMA honors the heroes and heritage of motorcycling.

 

 

For more information, visit www.americanmotorcyclist.com.

 

Not a member? Join the AMA today: www.americanmotorcyclist.com/membership/join 

Media contact: James Holter
Phone: (614) 856-1900, ext. 1280
E-mail: jholter@ama-cycle.org

Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Chuck Graves Talks to Soup

Up until the early-mid '90s, Indianapolis Raceway Park (now known as Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis) in Clermont, IN. hosted a couple of WERA rounds throughout the season.  Usually scheduled in early spring and late fall, the races forever seemed to fall on rainy, cold days that would either linger in spring or hit early fall in the central Indiana area.  It didn't matter in those days as I'd be out checking out the action, starting in the mid '70s.  Before I'd found my love and adrenaline fix in motorcycle racing (and before I had moved to Indy in '72) the AMA even visited IRP when Dick Mann, Bart Markel and Cal Rayborn, among others, were still racing in the late '60s and early '70s.

But nonetheless, we would be out there either competing (or in my case TRYING to compete and having a helluva lot of fun doing so) or hanging on the fence checking out the action.  In the fall event of '87 I was lucky (?) enough to scam a gig of announcing one of the WERA regional events going on at the track.  It seemed as if the regular announcer couldn't make it, so Nan Cheney (now Algie) who had worked for WERA for years (and still does) called me up to ask if I was willing to take on the task.  I had a blast, but at the end of the weekend I was so hoarse I could barely talk and all but lost my voice for the next few days after the races were over (which might not have been a bad thing for the people that know/knew me!)

By the early '90s, WERA had taken over the Formula USA Series from Willow Springs Raceway's Bill Huth, who had started the 'run what ya brung' series in California that was quite successful.  Campaigning 8-10 tracks a year, the WERA Pro Series/Formula USA Series saw a wide variety of talent and machinery compete together on what was considered an even playing field.

Yamaha two-strokes (250/500cc) campaigned by Kenny Roberts for Rich Oliver and Robbie Peterson, big YamaMonster inline four-strokes campaigned by Gold Hill Racing for the late Fritz Kling and others, and the big-over bored Suzuki menthanol-burning inline fours as campaigned by Team Hammer/Valvoline Suzuki for many a rider including Kurt Hall, Michael Martin, Donald Jacks, Wes Cooley and Chuck Graves, to name just a very few.

For what was a varied platform, seeing 2-stroke 250s against 1100cc fire breathing 4-strokes brought out the best in racing and the best in the fans attention, and the racing was some of the best I've seen in my many years being a big-time fan.

One of the very few dates I can remember that happened during good weather was when WERA scheduled the Indy Nationals round in July '92, and for a change rainy and cold was put away for hot and humid, and as always the action was hot and heavy on the track.

Two of the regulars in the series at the time, as shown above, were dicing it up in the pack as eventual double-round winner Fritz Kling stole the show on his big Gold Hill Racing YamaMonster.  Chuck Graves on the #24 Team Hammer/Valvoline Suzuki and former WERA Formula II and AMA 250cc Grand Prix Champion Chris D'Alusio on the #2 Southwest Motorsports/Red Line Oil-backed Yamaha TZ250 go at it coming out of what was turn 15 at IRP just before hitting the front drag strip at the 2.5 mile track.  Big four-stroke against 'little' two-stroke, and neither giving an edge.

Graves, who cut his teeth in racing at Willow Springs Raceway, has since gone on to head up Graves Motorsports Yamaha, which has been the Yamaha representative and lead team in AMA Pro Road Racing since the early '00s, campaigning and winning several championships with riders Aaron Gobert, Jason DiSalvo, Jamie Hacking, Eric Bostrom, Josh Herrin, Ben Bostrom and Josh Hayes, just to name a few.

Dean Adams at SuperBikePlanet.com got a chance to catch up with Graves recently and you can check out below what he's had to say about his long career in motorcycle road racing.
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Dean Adams has this interview with Chuck Graves, the owner of Graves Motorsports out of California, who is best known to current fans as the owner of the 2-Time AMA Superbike Championship-winning Monster Energy Yamaha R1 team with rider Josh Hayes. 

Graves was quite the accomplished racer himself in his day, competing in many an event at his 'home' track at Willow Springs, and constesting the WERA Pro Series/Formula USA Series in the early '90s, including the Team Hammer/Valvoline Suzuki/RoadRacing World-backed team.

Read on to see what Graves had to say with The King of Soup, Dean Adams at SuperBikePlanet.com:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2012/Mar/120327chuckgraves.htm
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AMA Road Racing: Read All About Colin Edwards' Path to Racing in this Week's Edition of Larry Lawrence's Archives in Cycle News

Southwest Motorsports Yamaha team mates Colin Edwards #45 and Chris D'Aluisio #2 come into the turn 5 area during a practice session for the AMA 250 Grand Prix Championship Series at Road America in late June 1992.  The Southwest Motorsports/Yamaha/Dunlop/Arai-sponsored and TZ250-mounted riders would battle for the 250GP final event during The Coca-Cola Super Cycle Classic at the Elkhart Lake, WI. track, but it would be D'Aluisio taking his 3rd win in a row at the track that year.

Edwards burst onto the scene in AMA Road Racing in the 250 GP class in late '91 after claiming a handful of championships and hardware in the WERA Series, and would open the '92 season with a win at Daytona and at Charlotte, which would catapult him to the '92 AMA 250 Grand Prix Championship.  Yamaha USA took note, and by the '93 season he was on the factory-supported Vance & Hines Yamaha AMA Superbike Championship team as a team mate to '89 AMA Superbike Champion, Jamie James. 

Edwards would go on to win his first AMA Superbike Championship Series race at Mid Ohio in '94, and by the '95 season was racing in the World Superbike Championship in Europe.  Ironically, Edwards would win his two World Superbike Championships after he left the Yamaha fold, while riding for the Castrol Honda WSBK team.
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Check out this great story about 2-Time World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards, that details his rise to fame from a Texas WERA racer some 20 years ago, thanks to the one and only Larry Lawrence and his 'Archives' column at Cycle News.com's Digital Edition:

http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/20111004#pg107
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