Fred,
No need to take care of me or bring me back into the fold as I'm a modern bike guy for 99.9% of my stuff still racing Loretta Lynn's almost every year. I only joined into the AHRMA stuff a few years back to join buddies at Mid Ohio when it was still a joint event. Since I'm a current racer in the AMA national events as a "B" rider, I signed up for Intermediate at the Mid Ohio event and I was racing a 1983 Husky 510 TX 4 stroke which due to it's unique character fits in a variety of classes. There was some cooperation back then between AHRMA and AMA as far as skill structure goes where a guy could rider AHRMA expert and AMA National B class, which is no longer the case. Kip Bigelow of the AMA specifically told me in 2010 that if you race "expert" anywhere including AHRMA events, you're an A rider as far as the AMA is concerned now, which is directly opposite of what Pitracer was told by the person in Kip's position previously (but when the AMA and AHRMA worked together). And that's the problem, I won't race AHRMA while I'm still running B classes at Loretta Lynns to not screw up my eligibility, because in MX for AHRMA, I should be an expert, but I might do 1 event every 2 years. Anyone that races both knows the world of difference between the 2 groups and who is called a expert...... and in the realm of AHRMA, I should be an expert based on the membership skill there. What burned me about the AHRMA bump up is that I was bumped to expert in my first race ever with AHRMA when I rode 4 classes, in 3 classes I was beaten by another rider on a CR480R while in the 4stroke B class (there were like 2 riders total and we were run with expert four strokes) and I was the fastest in the entire group and won that class and beat the AHRMA experts in 4 strokes too along with a high ranking official who bumped me immediately. I had a black stripe on Thursday in the mail when the race was just completed on the prior Sunday, which was much faster than the 2+ months it took to get my membership card when I sent them money, it seemed important for someone to get me out of the class immediately.......but the rider that beat me in 3 classes straight up was left alone and not bumped up, how could that possibly be? Well it was because He wasn't against one of the "high ranking officials" in order to get evaluated. I could care less really, but you lost a possible every once in while AHRMA rider (in me with the split and new rules) due to the bumping process and due to the skill level conflict with AMA. I could see in the future where I would want to race these events when I'm older and nostalgic about the bikes I grew up on, but I'm afraid that AMA and AHRMA are putting each other out of business before I'd become an old bike mostly enthusiast. And I'm not saying I'm happy with the AMA either..... but you guys need to work together to get the riders that are out there places to ride without fighting over that small number between the groups.
I can honestly say that I had more fun riding the Trials event at Mid Ohio Vintage Days with zero experience in Trials and learning as I went along as it was just fun. No skill level questions or protests, no fights or protests over positions, just fun on an old motorcycle for the day, which is exactly what I was looking for, a fun departure from my norm of high pressure Loretta Lynn's races. The BS that comes with the skill levels, national points, and everything else in the MX side was a turn off towards AHRMA organization and the riders that take it as seriously as a world championship. There are guys that see it as an OLD BIKE SHOW, and others there that really want to race old bikes. It's hard to mix those two in my book which is why the "Racer" and Sport" groupings might be a good idea. Now the fall out of local Ohio / Michigan tracks that worked with AHRMA hosting events in the past falling off the AHRMA schedule when they happened to help out with AMA Vintage Days at Mid Ohio looks to suspicious to be a coincidence and illustrates my point that someone in the groups is in a pissing contest that is bad for the riders that just want to have fun.
Fred, you should be mending fences between the AMA and AHRMA and not worrying about me in particular to make things better for larger groups of people. I'm one guy that will ride 1 event close to home if it's not conflicting with Loretta Lynn's type stuff. But the AMA / AHRMA rift creates lots of problems for lots of riders. And that's just my opinion about the whole thing...... take it for what it's worth.
