Motoamerica

Race Watch

TERRY KARGES WAYNE RAINEY CHUCK AKSLAND RICHARD VARNER

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MOTOAMERICA

Wayne Rainey's plan to lead the next generation of American roadracers to world championship success

Matthew Miles

Two-time AMA Superbike and three-time FIM 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey says he’s just a cog in the wheel of MotoAmerica. That’s the affiliate of the KRAVE Group, comprising Terry Karges, Rainey, Chuck Aksland, and Richard Varner, which purchased the commercial rights to US roadracing from the AMA this past September. In actuality, the 54-year-old Californian brings a familiar face, legendary determination, and international support to a national championship that has struggled for years under mixed leadership.

Shortly after KRAVE made its plans public, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Rainey and Aksland at a hotel near Varner’s Champions Moto offices in Costa Mesa, California. While Rainey and Aksland have known each other for decades through their mutual friendship with Kenny Roberts, they only recently met Karges, a former marketing and sales VP at Roush Performance, and energy-sector-leader Varner.

motorcycles and started building a bike. He met Terry, and a few years later, they came to Gordon McCall—Gordon puts on the Quail motorcycle show, and he and I go way back. They asked, ‘Do you think Wayne would be interested in giving us a hand?’ ” Rainey agreed to make some phone calls. “I started thinking about motorcycles again,” he said. “It was fun putting that project together, and I got to know Terry and Richard. They kind of dragged me back into the industry.”

“About six years ago,” Rainey said, “Richard got into

Prior to meeting Karges and Varner, Rainey had received a call from Dorna, the Barcelona-based rightsholders for MotoGP, World Superbike, and the CEV Repsol International Championship. “They asked if I had any ideas to help American riders get back into MotoGP,” he said. “There were a lot of Spaniards, a lot of Italians, but not a lot of Americans, and the Americans over there were getting older.”

Rainey thought long and hard about Dorna’s question. Over time, he came up with a plan for a youth roadracing series based on a TV reality show. Karges and Varner liked the concept, but Rainey was unsure what his next step should be. “Chuck!” he exclaimed. “I’ll call Chuck.”

Aksland was working at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and Rainey would call him and say, “ ‘Hey, I need some information on this.’ Finally, it dawned on me: Chuck has to be a part of this. What I’m trying to do, he can do real quick.”

Aksland, who managed Roberts’ GP team through Rainey’s championship years, laughed. “Well, not quite snap your fingers...”

During the MotoGP race weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in July of 2013, Rainey and company pitched their idea to Dorna. “They could see what we

were trying to do,” he said. “They talked to their broadcast partners and told us, We want to do it.’ ”

A few days later, Rainey received a phone call from Gill Campbell, CEO/ GM of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. “She was pretty upset,” he recalled. The Central California track was preparing for World Superbike’s return later that same year and had been discussing support classes for the event with representatives from the Daytona Motorsports Group.

“They don’t think roadracing has a big future in America,” Campbell told Rainey.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“Buy it.”

Rainey says the process by which the AMA reacquired the sanctioning rights to US roadracing from DMG and then sold the commercial rights to KRAVE was “complicated,” with numerous twists and turns, some of which may never be public. The series will be known as the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Motorcycle Road Racing Championship.

Superbike will remain the premier class—with a twist. “Superstock 1000 will run with Superbike but be scored separately,” Rainey said. “Our next class

will be Supersport, and then we will have Superstock 600.” A single-make, entry-level class is planned for amateur riders ages 14 to 20. KRAVE is negotiating with Vance & Hines to continue the Harley-Davidson XR1200 class. Plans for a Moto2 class were put on hold.

“Our end goal is to align ourselves with the FIM world championship classes,” Aksland said. “Superbike will move

toward 2015 World Superbike engine rules. The chassis side will pretty much stay what it is. What is currently Daytona SportBike we’re calling Supersport, and there will be some subtle changes in engine rules to better align it with World Supersport. That should help other manufacturers who are racing 600s, like Honda and Triumph, be more competitive with Yamaha. That class will move to slicks. Superstock 1000 will be on slicks as well; Superstock 600 will be on DOT rubber.”

Aksland confirmed that Dunlop will supply tires. “Fuel will continue with a spec,” he added, “but we’ll open it up to other brands. That will create opportunities to get more companies involved in the sport and for teams to get sponsorships.”

What role will the AMA play? “The AMA will license riders and publish the rule book, once it’s

established,” Aksland said. “And they will provide support at the races to uphold those rules.”

FIM-approved racetracks— Circuit of The Americas, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mazda Raceway Faguna Seca, and Miller Motorsports Park—top MotoAmerica’s wish list. Seven to 10 events are planned.

“We think with our discussions with Dorna we’ll have a presence at the MotoGP races and also with the World Superbike event, so that’s three FIM tracks,” Rainey said. “Our idea is to run even if it’s wet, so we’re taking that into consideration. But we also know that all of the tracks in America are not at the same standard as the rest of the world.”

“If the series grows in value and prestige and becomes a happening event at these venues year after year,” Aksland said, “I think it will be easier to start the

transition of working with the track owners to make improvements, but that’s not going to happen overnight.”

Aksland has also spoken with Daytona. “We’re negotiating with all the major venues, the normal venues, that we would select to have an event, and Daytona is one of them,” he said. “It’s up to us to make an agreement; it’s not a requirement for any of the transactions.”

“As far as the walls at Daytona being close,” Rainey said, “when I raced there, 30 years ago or whatever it was, you just did it. There are great finishes because of the way that track is laid out. But that’s a different kind of race for us—more of an endurance race.”

Now the $64,000 question:

Will this new series be televised? “We know it’s important to have live TV,” Rainey replied. “In America, there’s a lot of stickand-ball sports that fill up time.

We’re starting from a pretty low point. We have no illusions that this is all built from where we’re starting.”

One thing is certain, Rainey and Aksland emphasized, MotoAmerica is funded. Tom Moser, former global sponsorship director for British American Tobacco, a heavy hitter among heavy hitters, is writing the business plan. Roger Elliot, a partner with the man who developed Speedvision, Roger Werner, has also been retained.

With MotoAmerica, Rainey has come full circle. “This is where I came from,” he said.

“It’s a big challenge, but I think we can do it. We can make our championship relevant on the world stage. And I know these American racers will prove us right.”

Near the end of the interview, Aksland told the following story: “We were at Laguna for World

WAYNE RAINEY ON DIRT TRACK...

“I was a dirt tracker for 11 years. Dirt track will always be the best way to become a great roadracer. It goes back to Kenny, through Eddie and me, and Nicky.

"The way a rider has to ride a motorcycle, it’s going to move around. How you react to the bike when it moves around depends on your background.

“Marc Marquez rides the bike loose. He’s got all the gadgets to keep him from doing that, but he rides past those gadgets, and he’s the fastest guy most of the time. Why is he so successful? It’s how he trains.

"I’ve heard some of the top riders say that the way current bikes are, dirt track is not a good thing. If you told that to Marquez, I think he’d just laugh.” -MM

Superbike. Wayne, his wife Shae, my wife Debbie, and I were at a restaurant. Wayne was kind of zoning out, looking down. I go, What are you thinking about?’ He shook his head, looked up, and said, Marc Marquez.’ You could tell he was thinking about how we can beat him. That fire is still there. He’s a competitor.” Cttt