Editorial: Yes it is about the AMA again. A clickbait title would be "The AMA fails to help WERA".

I had my regularly scheduled doom-scrolling of social media rudely interrupted today by a post from Road Racing World. Go read it and support the community, this will be here when you get back.

*tasteful hold music plays, maybe something orchestral yet familiar... wait, is that a Slayer cover? By a string quartet? Nice.*

Oh, you're back! Great to see you. As you read, WERA had to cancel a round at Fontana due to Covid issues, more specifically Covid taking down the only people that could run their timing and scoring system.

First and foremost, I wish those affected by the virus a recovery that is rivaled in speed by their fastest riders, and I salute their decision to not travel during the ongoing global pandemic. I am sure that this was a tough decision to make, and I appreciate that they made it.

My problem is not with WERA, but rather with their sanctioning body, the AMA, not helping to locate someone that could help a racing club under their umbrella. Sure WERA could have done a better job in cross training some people, but this isn't about that. There are three racing clubs in California, and another couple farther up the coastal fog in Oregon and Washington, not to mention a variety of other clubs all over the nation. Granted some of those clubs are not AMA sanctioned, but this little one called MotoAmerica that some of you may have heard of most definitely is. Given all those options there has to be a trained timing and scoring person that could be borrowed, right? To my knowledge, most of the clubs in America use the same transponders and as such would use similar timing systems. Granted WERA points may not be calculated the same as other clubs, but most racers that I know would be fine waiting a few days - even a week - for final results to be posted.

Championships are just getting started, so race now, give trophies to the top three in each race and figure out the year end points later. Most racers that I know just want to race.

Why is it then, that the AMA did not step up and make sure they took care of one of their clubs? Did WERA not ask? Did WERA ask and the AMA refuse? Is every other racing club hosting an event on January 23rd and had nobody to spare? I understand that the Tuesday before an event is short notice, but five days is plenty of time to learn the basics, especially since we as a world have figured out how to do just about everything via a video conference. Are you telling me that there is literally nobody at the AMA that cares enough to step up and learn something new to benefit American road racing?

And one final question that will likely not be answered. When the chips are down, what exactly does WERA or any other AMA sanctioned club get out of forcing their members to also be members of the AMA?

Besides one less round in 2022, that is.