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AMA Pro Road Racing releases 2011 racing schedule

AMA Pro Road Racing released its 2011 racing schedule, and there are some significant changes to the calendarAMA Pro Road Racing finally released a “preliminary� 2011 schedule today, with some sites still to be finalized, and two notable tracks dropped from the list. After some policy changes and disagreements resulting from the management change at AMA Pro Racing in ’09 resulted in both Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Miller Motorsports Park dropping off the AMA schedule, both those racetracks have been restored to their previous spots on the calendar. The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will once again host a round of the AMA Pro Road Racing series on July 22-24, while the World Superbike weekend of May 28-30 at Miller Motorsports Park will see the return of the AMA series machines after a two-year hiatus.

Notable for their absence from the schedule are the Road Atlanta and Auto Club Speedway California rounds—especially since those two events ran after the Daytona season opener in March, and their absence creates a huge gap in the schedule. After the Daytona races, the next AMA Pro Road Racing event doesn’t occur until two months later at Infineon Raceway in Northern California. Despite being located near a sportbike-rich location and home to most of the OEM subsidiaries, the Auto Club Speedway event never drew decent numbers to a facility accustomed to near six-figure crowds from NASCAR, and the lack of OEM sponsorship in the economic crisis surely doomed its continued existence in the AMA calendar. Road Atlanta, however, was a literal mainstay on the AMA schedule, and despite spectator count dropping somewhat due to the economy, it seemed to have a permanent place in AMA roadracing.

There are two “TBD� spots on the calendar. The one after the Road America round in June is said to be slated for Barber Motorsports Park, which previously occurred toward the end of the season, and the final season-ending event is rumored to be planned for the still-under-construction NOLA Motorsports Park (www.nolamotor.com) in Avondale, Louisiana, just 14 miles from downtown New Orleans.




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