"This decision was reached following meetings with user groups, manufacturers, distributors, the aftermarket, the FIM, Live Nation, the Daytona Motorsports Group and MX Sports," said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman. "In particular, we received very good feedback from a sound symposium conducted in December 2007 with stakeholders."

Dingman added that the new rules will not affect the 2009 AMA amateur classes.

"The adoption of the 94dBA standard for 2009 AMA Supercross and Motocross competition is a big step forward for the sport and comes at a time when families with young children attending AMA Pro Racing events are expressing concern about loud motorcycles," Dingman explained.

"Few issues contribute more to misunderstanding and prejudice against the motorcycling community than excessively loud motorcycles," he said. "The AMA will be strongly advocating reduced sound in all forms of motorcycle competition and recreational riding and we will be working with the motorcycling community to achieve this goal. This action sets a positive example for motorcyclists of all ages and tells the world that we takes this problem seriously and that we are doing something about it.

"The most logical and cost-effective approach is to adopt the FIM 94dBA sound standard for 2009 because the manufacturers have already developed the engineering to meet the FIM 94dBA motocross sound-level standard and measurement method for 2008," Dingman continued. "The engineering and testing undertaken by the manufacturers will provide teams in both series with a significant head start as they prepare for next season."

The FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme), in consultation with the Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers' Association, first announced their goal to achieve a 94dBA sound level for motocross in February of 2006 and the standard was formally adopted in the 2007 FIM rulebook and implemented in 2008.

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About AMA Racing
AMA Racing is the leading sanctioning body for motorcycle sport in the United States. AMA Pro Racing series include the Monster Energy® AMA Supercross Series, an FIM World Championship, the AMA Toyota Motocross Championship presented by FMF, the AMA Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited, the AMA Flat Track Championship, the AMA Supermoto Championship and the AMA Pro ATV Championship. In amateur and pro-am competition, AMA Racing sanctions over 4000 events in 24 different disciplines. For more information, visit www.americanmotorcyclist.com/racing.