the A-Team I put together a team, an army of like-minded people who were interested in the future of Vintage Motocross in the Pacific NW. Anyway we were told that were supposed to write a Proposal to form our own Region, and present it at the Board of Director's Meeting at the Farm in August. But there was another development; Ahrma Classes at Hammer & Tongs


the A-Team introduced TECH to H&T-
Len Lowery & Mark Schmidt enjoying a moment with KTM Man Jon McLean

In the beginning I was really just shortening the file name Ahrma Team to "A-Team" which made me think of the old crazy TV show. The A-Team where (whenever trapped) was apparently able to make something (usually a tank) out of nothing. (coat hangers, cigarette butts etc.)

Ahrma at Hammer & Tongs 2005 Parallel to all the drama about Klamath Falls was unusual advent of Ahrma Classes at Hammer & Tongs. How this came about is like this: I had made the casual suggestion online on one of the BBS Boards that we run Post Vintage Classes at Hammer & Tongs. To my surprise I was taken up on this offer- I was contacted by Dave Janiec and asked to go ahead with this idea, and we did it.

We could run the regular schedule- H&T Style classes, and the Ahrma Classes could run inside them.

How this would work is that 250 Evolution (for example) would comprise Historic, Gran Prix & Ultima 250. If the reader is unfamiliar with VDR / Hammer & Tongs classes, the program is simpler than Ahrma- rather than three different eras, everything after 1974 is called Evolution, and eveything before in called Vintage. Here is a very quick diagram, w/o all the fine details:

So the Plan was that Ahrma management would keep an eye on us, see how we did running Hammer & Tongs, and see if we were doing OK. Then in August we'd have a meeting. We were supposed to write a proposal to run the Pacific NW as a new region from the Northwest.

Humorously, Ahrma PV Riders would be guests at Hammer & Tongs. But the riders were all Hammer & Tongs Riders anyway, so we were our own guests. So we went out of our way to make ourselves feel welcome. Cool.

Critics pointed out that if someone had a Historic 250 and a GP 250 they would have to pick one, or we'd have to run a separate Moto, which we were prepared to do. But we were not called upon to do so during the whole season. In fact we had fairly few Ahrma Entered PV Riders for the 3 race series. (22, 24, 30)

from AHRMA Racer RUSS HOEHN I raced during what most fellow racers believe was the “Golden age of motocross, the 1970’s”. When bikes evolved to long travel suspensions I continued to ride on most of the same tracks. Naturally, I race both Vintage and Post Vintage bikes on the same day at VDR events, and. have not experienced any difficulties. The current Ahrma leadership believes we should not run Vintage and Post Vintage on the same track.

If we are forced to continue running V. and P.V. as stand alone events soon we will lose tracks and promoters due to low rider participation. We are at a crossroads now. Many of the guys I race with ride both classes and would benefit from foreword thinking leadership at the helm.

The only way we can assure this is to become proactive participants in our destiny. Awareness and involvement are necessary to achieve this goal. Cooperative scheduling on occasion, between V. and P.V. will strengthen the organization, something the old guard is hesitant to do. The outcome of this situation is uncertain; however, our commitment to each other, the organization and the sport will secure a powerful platform in which to prosper.

-Russ Hoehn

LONG VERSION NEXT PAGE

or use this map

THE STATE OF VINTAGE - Map of Issues
1 the Legitimacy of Critics Keeping Regionals Alive

2 PACIFIC NW MESS - the Short Version

3 How things fell apart for Post Vintage Stats: the Actual Percentage
4 Graph of Northwest Entries Northwest Riders

5 Klamath Falls Race called off The Advent of the New PNW Region
6 the A-Team Ahrma at Hammer & Tongs
7 the Region the Big Meeting
8 Philosophy of Vintage Approach to Criticism
9 2006 races my own Responsibility
10 madness the last straw

 

©2007 SIEGE