For the 2019 season we are remaining “self-sanctioned”, meaning there are no structural changes to our program, but in preparation for the 2020 season we will begin promoting AMA membership on our webpage, in our registration system and at our events.  When 2020 comes all road race competitors will need to have an AMA membership – that’s either good news or bad news depending on how you look at it, but from a club perspective there are several upsides.

One of those is the obvious one – Membership in the AMA has several individual benefits that our members will be able to use including one of the best roadside assistance programs in the country, discounts on a variety of products and services from both motorcycle and non-motorcycle businesses.  Most importantly the AMA is a strong lobbying effort on behalf of motorcyclists around the country and fight for things like our rights, as competitors, to change our machines in ways that wouldn’t be allowed were it not for the work the AMA puts in, things like changing our exhaust systems, which has really come under fire in recent years.

Secondly being AMA sanctioned means that our club’s points will count for those racers hoping to give pro racing a try, be it for one round, or a whole season.  While this rule has been in place for a number of years, the AMA has been generous in allowing our racers to compete in their races even though we have not been sanctioned.  This is changing and we want to make sure that our racers continue to have the ability to “move up” if they want to give that a try, especially since it looks like we’ll continue to have  a MotoAmerica round here well into the future.

There will be more information on this soon, but I want to assure you that there are no changes for 2019 and we’re simply preparing for the future.

In a more present tense announcement I’m excited to welcome David Meyer to the UtahSBA team as our new Sponsorship Manager.  With a number of years experience under his belt and a wide ranging skill set in sales and customer service, he will be a champion for our club as we partner with various sponsors throughout the season.  If you’re interested in sponsorship of the UtahSBA please reach out to him at sponsorship@utahsba.com.

April 20th is coming quickly and we’re excited to be partnering with our friends at Apex Trackdays for our New Racer School and early season test day.  The structure of this day is pretty straight forward – the UtahSBA will be running the school in what would typically be the “C” session at the Apex day (from :40 after to the top of the hour) with our classroom sessions running during the other sessions.  

If you want to take the school, please sign-up with the UtahSBA here.  https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/utahsba-new-racer-certification-nrc-april-20th-utah-motorsports-campus-746665

The school isn’t limited to just brand new racers.  If you’re a racer looking for some coaching and direction for your race season, feel free to sign-up, but realize that your attendance is required for the whole program. There is no way to participate in the school and the trackday at the same time.

If you’re one of our racers looking for some great pre-season seat time, please sign-up with our friends at Apex Trackdays here.  http://www.apextrackdays.com/shop/ . They will be running two sessions that day (A/B+ and B-/C) – please sign-up for the session that’s the best fit for you!  

Last, but certainly not least, if you were at the banquet you heard the news that Scott and Melanie at Fastline Race Tire are retiring.  After years (and years and years) of service to our club they’ve decided to hang up the tire irons and move a different direction. I can only express personal gratitude for all they’ve done for our club over the years and I hope you’ll join me in wishing them the very best in their future.

There is no need to panic, however, as a couple of very well established vendors in our club have agreed to pick up trackside tire service. Pirelli tires will be sold and taken care of by our friends at MotoStation SLC and Trackstar Racing will be taking care of Dunlop tires and riders going forward.

I’ve rattled on enough for today, but know that the team is working hard to constantly improve the UtahSBA!

Until next time-

Scott