It is good to see the AMA Pro Road Racing paddock getting some love this month, the series desperately needs it. With more than a few video projects going on in the AMA, fans should have a bevy of good media to consume this year, even with all the shenanigans going on with TV rights this year.

Our latest attention turns to a new web series, Following Fillmore, which as the name implies, follows KTM factory rider Chris Fillmore as he trains with the Bostrom Brothers, gets some chalk-talk from Jason Pridmore, and hits on Cal Crutchlow, among other things.

Coming to a YouTube channel near you starting March 7th, if the show is anything like the trailer, we should be in for a real treat…especially the ladies, who tell me “Chris is so dreamy” all…the…time. The trailer is after the jump, enjoy.

Self-described as an “all access behind the scenes with the fastest riders in America,” Road Warriors is a documentary that follows five riders in the AMA Pro Road Racing Championship over the 2012 season: Josh Hayes, Danny Eslick, Melissa Paris, Elena Myers, and Austin Dehaven.

In a series that desperately needs to promote the sport and the riders within it, Road Warriors looks to be a much needed shot in the arm for AMA Pro Racing. We hope the full-length documentary is just as good as the trailer, and that it helps generate some buzz for the 2013 season. Check it out after the jump, and be sure to follow the film’s Facebook page.

I have to admit, the whole E15 controversy that has been brewing between the EPA and AMA has me a bit confused. Namely, I do not know how the EPA ever thought that a four-gallon minimum purchase requirement solved anything for powersport users who were concerned about putting E15 in the tanks of their motorcycles and ATVs.

Realizing that a solution to the actual problem had to be devised, the EPA has now dropped the four-gallon minimum on fuel pumps that dispense E10 and E15 from the same pump, and instead the government body says it will likely require gas stations to label shared pumps, as well as offer a dedicated E10 pump/hose for vehicles.

In 2010, 439,678 motorcycles were sold in the United States. In that same year, 82,000 motorcyclists were injured in motorcycle crashes, and 4,502 were killed. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the direct cost of these motorcycle crashes was $16 billion or more. Thirty-times more likely to die in a vehicle accident, the typical fatal motorcycle crash costs an estimated $1.2 million according to the report, while non-fatal crashes range from $2,500 to $1.4 million depending upon the severity of the injuries and incidents.

In making its recommendations to curtail the costs associated with motorcycle crashes, the GAO says that only effective measure is the mandatory use of a motorcycle helmet. Citing several studies that say motorcycle helmets reduce the fatality rate of motorcycle crashes by 39%, the GAO also cites the NHTSA, which says that motorcycle helmets prevented 1,550 deaths in 2010. The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) says helmets saved the economy $3 billion in those 1,550 instances.

This information seems to confound Jeff Hennie, Vice President of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF), who told the Associated Press that his group is “100% pro-helmet, and 100% anti-helmet law,” and went on to state that “putting a helmet law in place does not reduce motorcycle fatalities.” The MRF has the stated goal of promoting motorcycle education and training, but a track record of ignoring the prior, while failing to achieve the latter.

Whether your poison is World Superbike or AMA Pro Racing, this weekend provided some excellent motorcycle racing. Out of all the memorable moments where we yelled at the TV this race-day Sunday (and there were more than a few), our favorite, hands-down, has to be “the pass” that Tyler O’Hara pulled on Michael Barnes coming down the final stretch at NOLA.

Full-throttle on the Harley-Davidson XR1200 race bikes for the win, a race that would also who would win AMA Pro Racing XR1200 Championship, O’Hara pulled a classic move on Barney — no really, he pulled Barnes back by the arm just ahead of the finish line.

It is debatable whether O’Hara would have caught Barnes on the drive to the finish, and both riders have a good on-track rivalry, and off-track sense of humor, but Barnes was clearly not pleased with O’Hara’s race shenanigans (we think it is sort of winning, in the Charlie Sheen sense of the word).

Nonetheless, the AMA ruled it an “avoidable contact” and displaced O’Hara from 1st to last in the race, which sent him into third place for the Championship points.

In other words, Tyler O’Hara lost $4,500 dollars in prize money ($2,000 for second in the race, $2,500 for the drop from second to third in the Championship), while perpetrating one of most awesome/punk-kid moves we have ever seen in motorcycle racing. The video of “the pass” is after the jump. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

We have already shown you photos of the Ducati 1199 Panigale RS12, the 2012-spec version of the race bike that is only available to motorcycle race teams. For 2013, not too much about the race package has changed (note the Ducati Test Team livery that the 2013 Ducati Superbike 848 EVO Corse SE wears as well), but honestly…we will use any excuse possible to post up pictures of this tasty machine.

Not to be confused with the Ducati 1199 Panigale R, which will debut at EICMA and be available to mere mortals, the Ducati 1199 Panigale RS13 is not a street bike, and unless your name is Carlos Checa, you’re unlikely to get your hands on one. Continue drooling after the jump.

Today, another chapter was written regarding the AMA / Derek “Nobby” Clark inauguration debacle and controversy, as the American Motorcyclist Association announced that it would have all voting members for the Hall of Fame cast votes on a supplemental ballot concerning the induction of Nobby Clark into the organization.

Allowing the entire voting-membership to decided on Mr. Clark’s appointment to the Hall of Fame, the move will not impact other candidates for the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame (AMHF), and comes in response to the organization’s finding that Clark had been inappropriately added to the original Hall of Fame voting ballot.

Cycle News is reporting that Kenny Roberts Sr., the Godfather of American Road Racing, is leaving the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, after getting wind that Dave Despain and Dick Mann had made similar gestures regarding their status with the Hall of Fame. The blowout comes after Derek “Nobby” Clark was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, only to have his name withdrawn from the organization’s list of distinguished members. The reason given by the AMA was that there was an error in the balloting process for submitting Clark’s name to the voting ballot, though some outside the AMA say the reason Clark was removed was because of his criminal record, or for other reasons.

Working on the race bikes of motorcycling greats like Kenny Roberts Sr., Giacomo Agostini, and Mike Hailwood, the support for Clark has been resounding in the old-guard of American motorcycling, which is where the resignations from Despain and Mann come into play. This of course has created a cascade effect, where now King Kenny has also voiced his desire to leave the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Others are sure to follow suit with King Kenny after the delicious quote he gave Cycle News: “I just emailed Chris Carter and asked him where I send my shit back. I don’t get it. If Dick Mann is resigning from the Hall of Fame, I don’t need to be in it. It’s bad that it has to come to this, but what are you going to do. If Nobby doesn’t deserve to be in there, nobody does.”

Like everything with the AMA, the issue with inducting Clark into the Hall of Fame is a convoluted one at best, as it shows an interesting dynamic to the old-boy network that is alive and well within the American motorcycle community. On the issue at hand, Roadracing World published an interesting play-by-play of what happened behind the scenes regarding Nobby’s induction, balloting, and removal, which included some quotes from Superbikeplanet‘s Dean Adams.

Adams, who sits on the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame’s Roadrace Committee, has his own interesting dissection of what transpired, which includes his own analysis of the movings and shakings inside the AMA and the AMA Hall of Fame. It paints a disturbing picture of either wanton or willful negligence as to how the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame operates, as well as how the inner-cliques of the industry work with and against each other.

In case you haven’t done the 14 turns of Wisconsin’s 4.048 mile track, we have got a video of some guy named Josh putting in a very tidy lap on his Yamaha YZF-R1 at Road America this past weekend. Setting off from pit lane, he gives a wave to his friend Geoff before entering the course on this nice Sunday morning ride. From what we understand in the YouTube comments of this video, Josh is quite the motorcycle enthusiast…even his wife rides!

For a while now I have been trying to figure out what exactly the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) does, because while the MIC “exists to preserve, protect and promote motorcycling through government relations, communications and media relations…” the industry group does a pretty poor job of doing much of anything along the lines of its mission statement, if it does anything really at all. Showing signs of life though, the MIC is making headlines today after it disclosed Harley-Davidson’s Q1 2012 earnings, ahead of the publicly-traded company’s shareholder meeting. Nice.

The move caused a bit of a shuffle over in Milwaukee, as the Bar & Shield brand had to make an emergency filing with the SEC that it had in fact found a 25.5% sales gain in the first three months of the year (bravo to Harley, by the way). For those that aren’t as a familiar with the MIC, the nonprofit group is essentially comprised of representatives from the various motorcycle OEMs, aftermarket, and other industry businesses, and is the corporatation-focused counterpart to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), which supposedly has the best interests of motorcyclist at its heart.