2012 AMA Pro Road Racing
A week after Mid-Ohio was confirmed as the eighth round of on the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing schedule, three additional events were announced Friday.
The newest-confirmed rounds, which AMA Pro Racing will promote with its partner M1 PowerSports, will take place at Road Atlanta in Georgia, Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida and NOLA Motorsports Park, New Orleans.
This makes for an 11-round schedule in 2012 AMA Pro Racing, which will run four series in 2012: AMA Pro National Guard Superbike, AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike, AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com Supersport and AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series.
The 2012 schedule features four more than 2011 AMA Pro Racing season, which was plagued by the cancellation of Virginia International Raceway
Each of the three new 2012 events will be Big Kahuna Nationals; these Big Kahuna events have been successful since they began at Road Atlanta in 1998 under M1 Entertainment, which is currently known as M1 PowerSports.
Following is the information from the 2012 AMA Pro Racing Press release.
M1 PowerSports began promoting the Big Kahuna events at Road Atlanta as part of the 1998 AMA Pro Road Racing season and the series will make a return to the 2.55-mile circuit in the hills of Braselton, Ga. for the Big Kahuna Atlanta on the weekend of April 20 – 22, 2012.
The track is located just 35 miles outside of Atlanta and has a rich history with AMA Pro Road Racing dating to back to Eddie Lawson’s 1980 AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike victory. The series last raced at the facility in 2010, where fans witnessed Blake Young sweep the National Guard SuperBike doubleheader weekend in dramatic fashion.
Geoff Lee (President of Road Atlanta) says: “Road Atlanta has had a storied legacy of terrific top level professional two wheel racing over its 40+ years. We have been staying close with AMA Pro Racing in the hopes of being able to strike a relationship to bring their series back here soon.
“This could not possibly be a better way to do so. We, and our fans, are thrilled to have M1 PowerSports returning and bringing the Big Kahuna back to Road Atlanta where it began. With an event of this stature in place again we look forward to more great racing and adding many more years of ‘legend and lore’ to our motorcycle history at Road Atlanta.”
AMA Pro Road Racing will head south after the New Jersey Motorsports Park round for the inaugural Big Kahuna Miami, scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 21 – 23, 2012 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which is located south of Miami in Homestead, Fla.
As fall weather begins to draw in across the country, fans will find the Miami area a tropical oasis while being treated to an entertainment spectacle from M1 PowerSports and the stars of AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike, AMA Pro Daytona SportBike, AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport and the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series.
Matthew Becherer (Homestead-Miami Speedway President) says: “We are thrilled to partner with M1 PowerSports to bring the AMA Pro Nationals to Homestead-Miami Speedway.”
“Our track will be active more than 280 days in 2012, and this event – featuring the biggest motorcycle series in North America – is a great opportunity for South Florida.”
Two weeks later, the AMA Pro Road Racing season will come to a close at America’s newest racetrack, with the Big Kahuna New Orleans scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 5 – 7, 2012 as the first professional motorsports event to be held at NOLA Motorsports Park. The track, which was designed by Alan Wilson, is located just 20 minutes from the historic French Quarter area in downtown New Orleans, La.
The state-of-the-art facility features excellent areas for spectator viewing and is focused on making motorsports accessible to a broad range of enthusiasts across all facets of the motorsports community. AMA Pro Road Racing will hold the season-ending awards banquet in the New Orleans area on the Monday evening following the event.
Mitch Wright (General Manager of NOLA Motorsports Park) says: “We are excited to be partnering with AMA Pro Racing and M1 PowerSports for our inaugural professional event.
“M1 PowerSports has a proven track record of fun, fan-friendly motorcycle events and the riders in AMA Pro Road Racing put on an incredible show. New Orleans and NOLA Motorsports Park will provide the perfect place to cap off their season and have one heck of a party.”
AMA Pro Road Racing competitors will have the opportunity to check out each of the new tracks before the respective event weekends in a set of official series tests. In an effort to reduce the costs associated with traveling to these tests, each will be held following an event in the same region.
The test at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be scheduled for soon after the Daytona 200 event weekend and the NOLA Motorsports Park test will be held soon following the event at Barber Motorsports Park. Full details about the test events will be released at a later date.
2012 AMA Pro Road Racing Schedule:
- Daytona International Speedway, Florida: March 15-17
- Road Atlanta, Braselton, Ga.: April 20-22
- Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.: May 4-6
- Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah: May 25-28
- Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.: June 1-3
- Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.: June 22-24
- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio: July 13-15
- Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif.: July 27-29
- New Jersey Motorsports Park. Millville, N.J.: Sept. 7-9
- Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Fla.: Sept. 21-23
- NOLA Motorsports Park, New Orleans, Oct. 5-7