Want to race?

Here's what you need to know to get started in motorcycle racing, along with a look at the 15 kinds of competition sanctioned through AMA Sports, the amateur racing arm of the AMA.

The Basics

• To race, you'll need to be an AMA member. You can join online or at the track.
• You can find events to enter by searching our online database of AMA-sanctioned racing events.
• You can also download a copy of the AMA Sports rule book. In the rule book, you'll learn which classes you're eligible to enter and find out how to prepare your bike for competition. Then, all you need to do is get your bike and your gear ready, and contact the promoter putting on the event for the details about the race itself.

Types of motorcycle racing

Motocross
Motocross is the most popular form of amateur motorcycle racing, and with classes for machines from 50cc to over 450cc, and riders age 4 to 50-plus, it's a sport for the whole family.

Motocross races are run over natural-terrain courses with hills, jumps and tight turns, typically with two races—or motos—in each class. It can be one of the most strenuous sports in the world, and the most fun.

Each year, the best amateurs in the country compete for a spot in the prestigious Air Nautiques AMA Youth and Amateur National Championships at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Tennessee. Just about every pro motocrosser in the United States passed through the Loretta Lynn Ranch on the way to the bigtime, and the best there receives the AMA Sports Motocross Horizon Award.

Arenacross
Motocross racing goes indoors in Arenacross, with tight courses set up inside arenas and other venues across the country. The tighter indoor tracks tend to put a premium on technique and finesse, as well as fitness. AMA Sports sanctions a national series in Arenacross.

Dirt Track
One of the most traditional forms of motorcycle competition in the U.S., dirt-track racing grew from the age when riders would compete on county fair horse tracks groomed to deliver a hard-packed surface.

Riders compete in four different types of events: oval short-track, half-mile and mile tracks, and TT courses, which feature at least one right turn and a jump.

Each summer, the AMA sanctions the Dirt Track Grand Championships in Springfield, Illinois, and presents the Horizon Award to the most promising rider on the verge of a professional racing career.

Road Racing
Road-race events, run on paved tracks across the country, are where you'll find the latest generation of sportbikes being used to the limit. Want to see what you can do? This is the place.

The annual AMA Road Race Grand Championships, held each summer at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, draws top club-level riders from across the country. The best wins the AMA Sports Road Race Horizon Award with the aim of going on to a career riding in professional AMA Superbike competition.

Enduros
Enduros provide a common first step into competition for anyone who enjoys off-road riding. Typical enduros are run on a challenging route covering wooded trails and dirt roads.

Riders are flagged off in one-minute intervals, and follow a set of route instructions as they try to maintain a designated average speed. The ability to stay on that average speed, combined with the needed bike-handling skills, make enduros a unique challenge.

AMA Sports offers the AMA FMF National Enduro Series, where the sport's top riders compete.

Hare Scrambles
Hare scrambles are conducted on long, marked loop courses through woods and over rugged natural terrain. Events are run for a designated number of laps or length of time, typically two hours. Competitive riders not only need to be fast, but also physically fit enough to maintain a race pace for hours.

The top level of competition is the AMA FMF Racing National Hare Scrambles Series.

Hare and Hound
Hare and hound races are often referred to as desert races because of their popularity in the Southwest. Riders race over a natural terrain course at least 40 miles long and pass through a series of checkpoints. But unlike an enduro, this is an all-out race featuring a mass start.

For top level riders, AMA Sports sanctions the AMA FMF Racing National Hare and Hound Series.

Supermoto
The newest form of racing, at least in the United States, is Supermoto. Racers typically ride modified motocross bikes fitted with road-race-type tires. They race on courses that are part asphalt and part dirt, often with jumps and other motocross-type obstacles.

Supermoto draws racers from many disciplines and puts a premium on all-around skill on a motorcycle.

Drag Racing
If top speed and massive acceleration are what you crave, drag racing should satisfy your appetite. It's all about getting down a quarter-mile track fastest, whether you're racing the clock or another competitor lined up alongside.

Classes are divided by engine displacement and the level of performance modifications allowed. The top level for aspiring pros is the AMA Dragbike Series.

Dirt Drag
Think drag racing on a dirt track. Same sport, different quest for traction, huge rooster-tails.

Hillclimbs
Hillclimbs are essentially one-person drag races up the face of a challenging hill, with each rider allowed at least two attempts to conquer the hill. The winner is the rider who climbs the hill the quickest or, if no one reaches the top, makes it the farthest.

The best amateur riders in the country compete every year in the AMA Sports Hillclimb National Championships.

Observed Trials
Unique in the world of motorcycle competition, observed trials puts no premium at all on speed.

Observed trials competitors must negotiate several "sections" of extremely difficult terrain without putting their feet down. Penalty points are assessed for mistakes, and the rider with the lowest overall score at the end of the day wins.

Some sections are so difficult, it's hard to imagine a mountain goat traversing them, much less a rider on two wheels. The top rung of the sport is the AMA/NATC National Observed Trials Championships.

Land Speed Record Trials
Land-speed trials are all about going faster than anyone has gone before, typically on miles-long courses over perfectly even terrain like the Bonneville Salt Flats. Classes are determined by engine displacement, modification levels and various degrees of streamlining, and encompass everything from small-displacement racers to high-powered, custom-built streamliners made for the sole purpose of topping 300 mph.

Speedway
Using lightweight, single-gear bikes built solely for this type of competition, racers battle handlebar-to-handlebar on ultra-short oval dirt tracks typically a quarter-mile in length or less. Races typically last four laps, putting a premium on good starts, and the ability to slide the rear of the bike all around the oval.

The best in the country aim for the AMA Sports Speedway National Championship races.

Ice Racing
When nobody else is riding, some motorcyclists go racing. Ice racing looks like a dirt-track race, except it's run on ice. Racers modify a variety of machines to run on frozen lakes and ponds using off-road tires, often studded with hundreds of sheet-metal screws.

AMA Sports offers a national championship ice-racing event every January.