Q: Roger, do you know at this point, do you plan on having Superbike remain the premier class, or do we know that?

EDMONDSON: Superbike will remain the premier class in AMA racing.

Q: What are the chances of that being the Daytona 200 again?

EDMONDSON: That is our intention. As soon as possible, and that means probably next March, because we can’t do it tomorrow (laughter).

DINGMAN: I thought you said we could do it tomorrow, Roger.

EDMONDSON: You know I lie a lot (laughter).

Q: What about venues, Roger? The places that you have contracts with, you have to honor. Do you have other venues in mind that you’re planning on taking the series?

EDMONDSON: No, I have no plans to change venues at all. Quite clearly, our making a deal with the AMA does not absolve the AMA of keeping its contractual commitments. We have to remember that the party that is always overlooked, it seems, is the promoter. And that’s the individual that takes the financial risk in this. We don’t go in and rent racetracks and hold a race as a member activity. We’re paid to come in and put on a program or a show, just like a rock band’s paid. So it’s essential that we keep in mind the needs of the promoter who, as I think, is probably vilified unfairly in many, many cases. We all think of the promoter as the guy with the big hat and the car with the horns on the hood and all the big, loud, blustery stuff. But that’s not the promoter group that I know, and I think that we should be pleased with the promoters we have around the country. I know there’s been a lot of improvements made in the racetracks. And this is all done with private money. We don’t have the luxury of government subsidies like they do in other countries.

And so, the AMA Safety Committee and the AMA management since I left, and the promoters, who are a very enlightening group, have worked together, I believe, to try to improve this thing, and it would be absolutely dead wrong for us to abandon them. That doesn’t mean we won’t add to the schedule. But I had a conversation with one of the most respected people in the industry this morning, and pointed out that every time we introduce a new race, it puts a real financial burden on our entire economy, and I used Grand Am as an example. We have about 50 teams on a typical weekend in a Grand Am race. And it costs about $100,000 per team. From the little guy to the big guy, budgets average out about $100,000 a race. Well, if you take 50 times 100, you’ve got a $5 million hit. Now, I don’t have to pay it, and no promoter has to pay it, but that has to come from sponsorship, or private money, or the promoter’s sanctioning fees, or wherever. But any way we look at it, we see the sanctioning body and the community as exactly that. It’s almost like a small country. We’ve got our own laws, we’ve got our own police force, we’ve got our own currency, our own language we talk. If you talk some of the insider language to people on the street, they don’t know what it is. But we have our own economy, and that economy in sportscar racing, it takes a $5 million hit every time we go racing.

Well, I don’t know what the numbers are right now in motorcycle racing, but the concept’s the same. Every time they go racing, there has to be money to support it, and we have to live within our means. I think that’s been part of the problem the AMA has dealt with, is that the management of the AMA, in trying to please all those members, actually went out and subsidized programs that didn’t need to be subsidized because they couldn’t stand on their own two feet. And I hate to be harsh about it, but the real world demands that my checks clear the bank, and yours too, and I think we have to do this in a businesslike way. Look, there’s lots of issues, and we can’t begin to know what they all are today. But what we’ll do is we’ll work with the people who are in the sport. We’ll find out what their issues are. We’ll make a list of them. And then we will prioritize them based on our ability to address them properly. Some will be quite easy. Some will require a lot of thought. Some will require outside funding. All of that has to be dealt with. But I assure you that we will make every effort in every discipline to grow this thing and go with it. And again, I’m calm now, but I am – I joked with one of my fellow members that I’m kind of like the guy who wants to charge into Hell with a water pistol looking for a fight with the Devil. I just can’t wait to get started.

And by the way, while I’ve got one more minute at the end, I want to recognize the other members of the Daytona Motorsports Group who you may or may not know. Right here is David Atlas. Over on that side is Tom Bledsoe. Tom is Treasurer of NASCAR and has been associated with the France family for years. And Jim is probably here, but he’s probably wearing a fake mustache and glasses and a big nose, because Jim France does not like to direct from the center of the stage. He’s a soft-spoken regular guy. He’s probably the most regular billionaire I know. You would not know him. I’ve seen him loan a pen to people so he could get an autograph for some lesser light at a NASCAR race right next to him. He’s a regular guy, and this is his passion, and like I said, with his backing, this can’t fail. I hope we have your backing, too, because we’re going to need it.

Q: Rob, is there a dollar figure associated with this transfer of the rights, and if so, what will AMA members see from that compensation?

DINGMAN: As I stated earlier, there are a lot of details that we’re still working out. Once we have a definitive agreement, then we can talk more about what the finances are, but I’m not prepared to talk about that at the moment until we finalize the arrangement.

EDMONDSON: I don’t want you to be mistaken about that term, “definitive agreement” or “agreement in principle.” An agreement in principle is part of the contracting process. We’ve agreed to all the terms the AMA has and we have. It’s simply a matter now of having some of the best motorsports attorneys in the country make a contract that makes it clear, so that we can avoid the unpleasantness of the 1990s where we started arguing over who owned what, and what was the appropriate way to go. When you’ve got a proper contract, you never have to look at it, and when you’ve got a proper partner, you never have to look at it, because the contract is just there to sort out the mess when the fights start. But that’s the definitive agreement. We expect to have that put together in the next couple weeks.

Watch the Edmonson Interview HERE

Watch the Dingman Interview VIDEO HERE