AMA Pro Racing officials unveiled today a revised 2009 schedule for the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship and National Hot Shoe Series. The changes bring together a combined 23-race schedule, including 14 Grand National Championship and nine National Hot Shoe events.

"Finalizing the 2009 AMA Pro Flat Track schedule has been a long process," said Mike Kidd, AMA Pro Racing Flat Track Director. "A great deal of planning has been put into it and we recognized that there were changes from our original schedule that needed to be made. We hate to lose any events, however the revised schedule has some major improvements."

Due to scheduling conflicts, two Grand National Championship events were cancelled: the July 18th event at Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, Ohio and the August 1st event at MetraPark Raceway in Billings, Montana.

The first addition to the Grand National Championship schedule came earlier today with an announcement about an October 24th season finale at the Pomona Fairplex, to take place in conjunction with California Bike Week. On August 4th, the opening day of the 69th Annual Sturgis Rally, the series will also visit Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, South Dakota, adding to the schedule a race near yet another major bike rally.

"If you look at the overall picture, we are now hitting Daytona Bike Week, the Red Bull Indianapolis GP weekend, the Sturgis Rally and California Bike Week which are four of the largest motorcycle events in the nation," said Kidd. "Throw in the events at Springfield, Lima, Peoria and the two new National Hot Shoe events and this is a great schedule for our fans, riders and sponsors."

The National Hot Shoe Series will also see two exciting additions to an already strong schedule. During the same event weekend as the AMA Pro Road Racing round at Heartland Park Topeka, the National Hot Shoe Series will run on the facility's half-mile dirt track on Friday, July 31st. Completing the schedule changes is the addition of a short track event in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 3rd, the night before the newly-added Grand National Championship event in Rapid City.

View our AMA Flat Track page for the full 2009 Schedule.