AHRMA rd 8, "OHIO"

NQ1965

NQ1965

PR Elite
AHRMA race round #8 at Clear Fork Resort, Butler Ohio.... June 14, 15
http://www.ahrma.org/ahrma_pdfs/Z-2014/Nationals/VMX/Posters/Clear_fork.pdf

I have been slammed for two weeks with work and home life schedule activities and distractions and totally missed the pre-entry deadline (June 2nd).

We are still planning on racing. So.... who else is going racing?

Being a blissfully romantic motohead and am nothing but sure, that this will be, THE greatest race of the year and will wish nothing but tall tales and sympathy toward those who missed the Original Clear Fork Vintage Motocross race years from now. ( how's that for a line of crap? :) )

( Man... when am I gonna have time to work on those rusty and dirty bikes in the garage!?! )
 
Boy I wish I could make that. Right in my backyard. We head out for Maryland U to compete in NHD nationals with Jack Sunday morning for a week.
 
I'm in for PV but may go Saturday to check it out. I actually missed the online sign up by 18 minutes on 6/2 - ends at noon. I am extremely curious how they are going to put this track together. I went there last Saturday to ride and there wasn't really a track you could race on - what they have is also in a really low lying area and holds water. AHRMA says the plan is for natural grass track on the slope which if so could be cool.

While I am here - anybody with a 125 want a brand new 100/100-18 Bridgestone 404 for $60 OBO? I bought it online and highlighted the wrong line on the drop down menu. I thought about running it but I'm too old and life's too short to run the wrong tire! I can bring it there or to Athens. They are normally around $80+. Let me know if anyone has interest. Thanks
 
I'm not quite sure what to think of all of that.
copy/pasted from the Pdf flyer: (Both days run on a natural-terrain course utilizing the ski slopes to make a unique, challenging track ).

I'm trying to be open minded, (with resistance) about this. In light of my limited experience in vintage/PV racing.
Could be great fun, and could be quite disappointing.

I once read an article about Mammoth Mountain Ski-Motocross resort out west, and trying to visuallise the potential?
 
beenridin said:
Boy I wish I could make that. Right in my backyard. We head out for Maryland U to compete in NHD nationals with Jack Sunday morning for a week.
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Mike, how is that right in your backyard? You might be looking at the wrong place. Clear Fork is down near Mohican.

I'm not racing. BUT!!!! I think I might come out and watch a bit. Never been there.
 
NQ1965 said:
I once read an article about Mammoth Mountain Ski-Motocross resort out west, and trying to visuallise the potential?
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Dude, I've RACED at Mammoth Mountain MX!
 

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There is a misconception about Mammoth Mountain MX is at the Ski resort…… it isn't. The track is in the same mountain range, right near town, but not on any part of the Ski resort that you ski on in the winter. Although I would love to race at some ski resorts for the elevation change and scenery, and have also wanted to ride the Snowshoe GNCC in WV for the ski resort track too. Laid out correctly, it could be really really fun……. but you have to go and find out!
 
Vet261 said:
Mike, how is that right in your backyard? You might be looking at the wrong place. Clear Fork is down near Mohican.

I'm not racing. BUT!!!! I think I might come out and watch a bit. Never been there.
Click to expand...
An hour away is close in relation to other events we do
 
I just heard that the track will be natural terrain. Be utilizing part of their slalom course with mainly open grass with some areas having very wide tree spacing . It is situated between two hills and incorporates the hills for elevation changes. Sounds great! They have been working on it hard and should be very good for the vintage bikes.
 
Natural terrain , tree lined , grass track is a vintage racer's dream . May be a let down for PV riders . All the more reason to add a vintage bike to your racing arsenal guys !
 
Talking with the wife about it last night and questioned that very topic. Realizing that a lot of the Vintage racing was and still somewhat prefered on natural grass tracks, but I wondered how the old school AHRMA die hards feel about the type of track that is more era-like for the PV bikes. Can't see running PV bikes on grass track. ?
 
Why not? Sounds pretty fun to me. Heck I'd have fun riding my 450 on that.

Not like it's flat, it's on a ski slope.
 
Nothing better than a hillside grass track that morphs to a motocross track. Echo Hills was a fun local ski slope motocross track in the 80's. Mammoth East is just like Mammoth West being in the same Indiana town and mountain range ;) as a ski resort :rolleyes:. But it is a hilly cow pasture that becomes a cool motocross track. The AMA vintage series is there in October.

 
It has always been difficult to have one track that satisfies both factions of vintage racing . The vast gap , in suspension travel and action of course , is the culprit . The old short travel machines lend themselves to carving tight turns , natural drop away jumps , grassy sweepers , and most single jumps ( even table tops ) that you don't flat-land at speed , etc. . The PV racers with double ( and actually triple in the rear ) the suspension travel get bored on tight tracks with few or no jumps , and rightly so . It can still be fun but just not challenging enough , especially for more talented racers . Mid-Ohio is a perfect example . The first few races I ran there were on the early parking lot/field , grass track that was practically table flat . PV guys were always disappointed . After the short AMA sanctioned stint of races there were jumps left in for AHRMA races . PVers happy .... some vintage guys , not so much . Even though there were no doubles , some of the singles would shoot you up and let you flat land which felt like the bike ( and your spine ) were going to break in half . Take a look at AHRMA 361's avatar of his PV Honda ( I took that pic ) ; suspension crushed , tires bulged almost flat , and frame almost dragging the ground ! We were hitting that same jump on vintage bikes the day before ( Even ME ! ) . I know of broken footpegs , flat tires , and tweaked bikes from it . As the day wore on just about everyone dialed it back so we didn't bust our bikes and ourselves up too bad but it was hard not to go for it if you were battling . Those jumps were taken out and PV racers are a bit disappointed with nowhere to let her rip and catch some air .

As in everything , you are not always going to please everyone . My favorite AHRMA tracks were the ones that did it well . Casey had the absolute best vintage track IMO (Which I believe would have still been a good PV track but they had an even better one for them ) , that I understand is gone now . Log Road is suitable and enough of a challenge for both ( I even did a double there ! ) plus track prep was fantastic . Smith Road is also a good mix . I heard many stories of other tracks that only lent themselves to one faction or the other and I avoided ( or attended ) some of them for that reason .

I hope the promoter of this event sees fit to try and accommodate both long and short travel bikes . You can always take sections out that aren't suitable , but it is hard to put in something if it doesn't exist . Still great to have another Ohio event none the less . Don't think I can make it unless I can weasel out of a previous commitment .
 
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Now that I think about it, in the intro to my Fox Greatest Hits video there is some actual race footage on a grass type track of PV era. The video shows them racing up a rough hillside having some pretty nasty and deep accelleration bumps.

Video clearly appears to be somewhere in the east. Made me think it could of been Unidilla.
That Mammoth east video is pretty cool..... Now I can't wait!
 
Had high hopes and low expectations, and it was worse than we expected.
Sadly disappointing for us.

We arrived
we unloaded
we inspected the track
we reloaded
Asked for our gate fee back and went home.

Hopefully our friends that stayed and raced were able to salvage some fun from the event.

I guess I'm not just not a very good AHRMA member.
 
Wow!!

As busy as you have been
after carving out the time for bike prep and race day
as much as you like to race
there must have been significant issues for you to pack back up and head home.

Next week will certainly be better.

Have a great Father's Day and will see you next week.

DanO
 
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For starters, I mean no disrespect to the innocent volunteers that put their own time into this event, a bad attitude on my part doesn't necessarily reflect a bad job on their part.

It's really kind of funny looking back on it. When we first eyeballed the track/course, Nancy looked at me and said: You're not honestly thinking of paying them money to race on this are you ? ( and she knew I wouldn't, she just didn't expect me to say "Lets pack up", so soon. )

When we got there we were parked right in front of the low lying wet area that Bill88L referred to. There were harescramble racers cutting through and going around this area. We asked a bystander where the MX track was and he directed us up toward the slopes but to the east around the woods bend, back in the small valley. We thought "whew...thank god" it isn't going to be anywhere near this swamp mess.

We briefly talked to another racer back there and pretty quickly could follow the course layout by the three miles of yellow marker tape staked to the ground. Obviously no starting gate, a real short start to the first turn which immediately zig zags you up the side of the grass hill. It reminded me of a faircross layout.

It all came down to course layout. The natural terrain was ok enough to stage a grass race on, but the course layout completely missed it in my opinion. It had stupid flat zig zag turns everywhere. It was almost as though they were purposely designing it to resist any chance of getting out of 2nd gear. And I didn't spot a single jump anywhere!

Course prep you ask... What course prep? Stakes and tape.

For Mike and Nancy, we are stretched extremely thin on time right now. Just yesterday got to wash the dirt off of my 98 CR250 from the GP race 2 weeks ago. Our truck is still broke down ( we rented a Uhaul cargo van for moto transportation), and my Honda power washer self destructed yesterday. So getting bikes ready to race is hard, and we simply decided to save our bikes, our money and our time for a track and organization that will give us a real track and a great event like next weeks AMA/Action Sports vintage event.

My apologies to be so negative on this one, I really don't like it when this side of me comes out, and I truly do wish those that stayed and raced had a good experience and weekend.
 
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