Vital MX Perspective: Davey Coombs 2

"We've got more stuff coming, I promise. We will impress you. We are not fooling around. We really want to make American motocross work." That was how the press conference announcing the first of the changes for the 2009 AMA Toyota Motocross Championship ended, and the guy at the mic was Davey Coombs.

When the AMA decided it wanted to step out of the racing game and putting the rights to the various AMA Pro Racing properties up for bid in '07, it was interesting to watch the jockeying between various interested parties, who at one time or another were all hinting (or at least felt) that they had the upper hand. In the end, it was the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) who came away with the winning bid, taking control of all the properties. Currently DMG's interest seems to mostly lie with road racing, and for now the moto side is being run by MX Sports.

During the press conference Davey mentioned, "For the last several years it's been difficult to get a lot done, because we all know that there was sort of an imperfect relationship between AMA Pro Racing and the NPG. When AMA Pro Racing basically put motocross out for bid, with all the other racing entities, they wanted a partner who would give them the kind of performance that Live Nation (now Feld Entertainment) does in Supercross. That's where MX Sports stepped up. MX Sports was a company my father started in 1982, that was based entirely on the AMA Loretta Lynn's Motocross Championship. We've always focused on amateur racing, but at the same time, we've had pro nationals going all the way back to 1973."

"My family has sort of been in front of the NPG, but the NPG was a group of 12 separate promoters. Now, with this new order, MX Sports will take the commercial and marketing responsibilities of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championship. We've been doing our due diligence, talking to everybody from Team Managers to people along the fence, to our friends in the media, and we've come up with some really cool changes."

So for now, call this a transition period. MX Sports is working on further changes for the teams, the riders, and the fans. You can check out the links to The MX Sports announcements at the bottom of the page. For some further discussion with Davey (who has scaled back his role with Racer X Illustrated to focus on the MX Sports side of the business), check out the Vital MX Perspective with him by clicking the link below.

	Click the following link for a Vital MX Perspectives audio/slide show with Davey Coombs.
If you missed those MX Sports announcements and need to catch up, you can check out the links below. • Click the following link to read about the first round of changes coming for the 2009 AMA Toyota National Motocross season. • Click the following link to check out the 2009 AMA Toyota Motocross Championship Schedule.

What do you think? If you’re a Vital MX member (membership is free), you can leave a comment below, or talk about it in the Vital MX Forums.