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.)
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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 1970s. 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
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