AMA Vintage Race at ACTION sports cancelled.

Mike

Mike

PR Addict
Just got an email from Alex Hunter of AMA saying that they have cancelled this event. It was one of the best events in what previously was a first class vintage racing series.

I was a big AMA supporter for their efforts last year to grow vintage racing but that really limits my opportunities to race. They have Log Road scheduled for the same weekend as Monster Mountain makes no sense.

Glad I rode the series last year it was a blast, this year its mainly AHRMA with only two AMA events.

:(
 
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I just saw that also dam man I really liked that place oh well I guess it will be ahrma and new bike races
 
There seems to be some confusion about Actionsports vintage weekend. I just talked to Drew and as of right now it is still a go just not part of the AMA series. Drew said that he will make an announcement soon. This is the one race this year that I was really looking forward too, hopefully everything will work out.
 
kevin849 said:
There seems to be some confusion about Actionsports vintage weekend. I just talked to Drew and as of right now it is still a go just not part of the AMA series. Drew said that he will make an announcement soon. This is the one race this year that I was really looking forward too, hopefully everything will work out.
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Kevin

I don't know, but hope there is an event at Action Sports on the planned date. I emailed Drew and also asked a question on his Facebook page, he has not responded to either. I also spoke to Alex Hunter at the AMA and he said "I’m extremely disappointed Drew dropped out on us" So that's all I know.

So I guess we will see,
 
I informed the AMA that I was not going to sanction our vintage race with the AMA this year. I did not want them to put the date out in their magazine and I told them that. I did not buy an AMA charter this year for the first time since 1979. I told them NOT to announce that the vintage race was cancelled, just to take it off their schedule.


When the AMA started running their vintage races it split the riders between AHRMA and the AMA. My AHRMA event had 348 entries. With the AMA It went to 189 in 2013 and 166 in 2014. I don’t know why riders seem to be hard core AHRMA or AMA and not both but many seem to be. Now with no AMA vintage series, even though it wasn’t very well promoted or successful, I’m sure attendance will continue to go down.


We lost our AHRMA event because I loaned my starting gate to the AMA for Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio. I’m sick of all the politics. We were considering running the vintage event non sanctioned and sending info through the mail to every AHRMA and AMA vintage rider that attended our events the past 4 years, but now that they have announced our event as cancelled I don’t know if there is enough time to get the word out and turn things around.


My boys and I love our vintage event, it is one of our favorites. We love motorcycle racing period. I have been promoting since 1979, 36 years this year. We put 100% effort into every event and you know we will if we hold this one, but we have to make money and we make no apologies for that. If we can’t I’ll sell out and call it a day. We have considered that as well.


Please keep an eye on our website www.ActionSportsRacing.com for updated information early next week. If we do hold the event at this point I’ll offer a pre-entry with a deadline a week or two before the event. If we get enough pre entries we’ll hold the race, if not we’ll refund everyone’s money. Let me know if you think that will work. If so spread the word and we’ll make this event happen.


Thank you,

Drew, Kyle and Ryan Wolfe

Action Sports Promotions Inc.
 
ActionSports said:
I informed the AMA that I was not going to sanction our vintage race with the AMA this year. I did not want them to put the date out in their magazine and I told them that. I did not buy an AMA charter this year for the first time since 1979. I told them NOT to announce that the vintage race was cancelled, just to take it off their schedule.


When the AMA started running their vintage races it split the riders between AHRMA and the AMA. My AHRMA event had 348 entries. With the AMA It went to 189 in 2013 and 166 in 2014. I don’t know why riders seem to be hard core AHRMA or AMA and not both but many seem to be. Now with no AMA vintage series, even though it wasn’t very well promoted or successful, I’m sure attendance will continue to go down.


We lost our AHRMA event because I loaned my starting gate to the AMA for Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio. I’m sick of all the politics. We were considering running the vintage event non sanctioned and sending info through the mail to every AHRMA and AMA vintage rider that attended our events the past 4 years, but now that they have announced our event as cancelled I don’t know if there is enough time to get the word out and turn things around.


My boys and I love our vintage event, it is one of our favorites. We love motorcycle racing period. I have been promoting since 1979, 36 years this year. We put 100% effort into every event and you know we will if we hold this one, but we have to make money and we make no apologies for that. If we can’t I’ll sell out and call it a day. We have considered that as well.


Please keep an eye on our website www.ActionSportsRacing.com for updated information early next week. If we do hold the event at this point I’ll offer a pre-entry with a deadline a week or two before the event. If we get enough pre entries we’ll hold the race, if not we’ll refund everyone’s money. Let me know if you think that will work. If so spread the word and we’ll make this event happen.


Thank you,

Drew, Kyle and Ryan Wolfe

Action Sports Promotions Inc.
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If you schedule an event that weekend, I will be there.
 
Where is this Action Sports place? :)

Should make the vintage race, if it happens. How about a GP make-up race day if it doesn't?
 
My fear is that without it being AMA and/or AHRMA, you'll struggle to draw the long distance travellers that it has in the past.

And there just doesn't seem to be enough "currently active' vintage/PV racers in Ohio and surrounding states to make up for that. We all know there are a lot of ex-racers out there that still have bikes, just not active anymore.

We thoroughly enjoyed racing the Flashback weekend at Action Sports, but it did suck having such a low attendance last year, especially on Saturdays vintage races.

You get a very discouraging feeling in your gut when you pull into the facility in the morning, and there are very few vehicles in the pits.
"Uh-Oh.... this ain't good"!

I'm even being cautious this year on my riding and racing commitments.
Again we are overwelmed with rebuilds at my work, pulling 12's and working weekends since January and will continue through the end of May.

On Easter weekend I snuck into the garage and tore down the 98 CR250 and the Yamaha MX250 for top end jobs. Both cylinders have to go out for work as soon as pistons arrive. I've ordered about $700 in parts that are trickling in daily, and still have more parts that need looked up and ordered. Haven't touched the KDX yet and it needs a top end. Basically all the winter rebuild work that I didn't get to!

And I haven't been on a bike since the end of October. (what's that.... 6 mos almost????) I was very pleased that the first Action Sports GP race was cancelled due to rain, and yet not sure if I'll make it next weekend either. This is a tough year for sure!

I just wish we could keep the Vintage scene growing, slowly and steadily year after year, instead of watching it decline and slipping away.
 
NQ1965 said:
My fear is that without it being AMA and/or AHRMA, you'll struggle to draw the long distance travellers that it has in the past.

And there just doesn't seem to be enough "currently active' vintage/PV racers in Ohio and surrounding states to make up for that. We all know there are a lot of ex-racers out there that still have bikes, just not active anymore.

We thoroughly enjoyed racing the Flashback weekend at Action Sports, but it did suck having such a low attendance last year, especially on Saturdays vintage races.

You get a very discouraging feeling in your gut when you pull into the facility in the morning, and there are very few vehicles in the pits.
"Uh-Oh.... this ain't good"!

I'm even being cautious this year on my riding and racing commitments.
Again we are overwelmed with rebuilds at my work, pulling 12's and working weekends since January and will continue through the end of May.

On Easter weekend I snuck into the garage and tore down the 98 CR250 and the Yamaha MX250 for top end jobs. Both cylinders have to go out for work as soon as pistons arrive. I've ordered about $700 in parts that are trickling in daily, and still have more parts that need looked up and ordered. Haven't touched the KDX yet and it needs a top end. Basically all the winter rebuild work that I didn't get to!

And I haven't been on a bike since the end of October. (what's that.... 6 mos almost????) I was very pleased that the first Action Sports GP race was cancelled due to rain, and yet not sure if I'll make it next weekend either. This is a tough year for sure!

I just wish we could keep the Vintage scene growing, slowly and steadily year after year, instead of watching it decline and slipping away.
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We are very concerned about rider attendance along with the weather on race the race weekend and everything else that goes along with holding motorcycle racing events. Most riders, vintage or modern don't want to race their bikes in the mud, I understand that. Many riders feel vintage bikes are too hard to find parts for and all are too expensive to maintain to tear them up in the mud.

We have tried to increase our rider turn out by offering classes for modern bikes the past 3 years but we don't get any. We have been trying anything we can think of to save and grow the event. We were hoping to build a larger vintage event like Diamond Don's in Texas or Unadilla's vintage Rewind but the attendance is going down instead of up. We had 348 entries with AHRMA and hoped it would continue to build, but AHRMA didn't give us the event the next year because we loaned our gate to the AMA for Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio. We had the largest rider turn out both years at the AMA vintage series with 189 and 166 entries, not riders, entries, that includes motocross and harescrambles, that's not enough and it's getting worse every year. We have had nothing but positive feedback from all of our events and great feedback from our vintage riders but the attendance has declined every year. When the AMA started their vintage series our entries went down by 160 in one year. AHRMA used to cut off motocross entries at Mid-Ohio at 500 riders per day. The AMA doesn't get near that. There evidentially are just too many AHRMA riders that won't ride AMA events and vice versa. Some people seem to hate AHRMA and some the AMA, why is that? It's only hurting the events. Maybe there are just too many now.

We had considered, in order to try to save the event that we would not have any sanction so there are no membership fees to pay and hopefully no loyal hardcore AHRMA or AMA riders that won't ride the others event. But now that the AMA announced that the event wouldn't happen, something I told them NOT to do, I don't know if there is time to fix it. Please keep an eye on our website www.ActionSportsRacing.com early next week and we will update the status of the Action Sports Vintage Flashback. Thank you.
 
We don't have the gab or threads posted on Pitracer about AHRMA events like there used to be a few years ago.

Even though the AHRMA season opener in Florida had a really good Ohio rider turnout this year, who knows how many hit the other AHRMA events throughout the year?

Looking at the AHRMA 2014 results, doesn't really look like either of the Ohio events last year had great turnouts.
 
Keep trying Drew... Even if this year doesn't happen stick with your idea for next year by sending out fliers to all of those who have ridden your events these past 4 years! I for one am not opposed to riding a non sanctioned event. Being an earned AMA life member used to mean something to me but all it does now is give you a AAA discount... When I joined AHRMA it was exciting and going to out of state races was fun but since the "Battle of the A's" has taken place it just killed the sport...

My personal opinion: You start early for next year and bring some other promoters which I know are out there ready to pull the trigger you could have your own series! It might take another year to get it going full strength but if anyone can do it would be you and your son's plus all your great friends that help you.

Now if you need someone to pass out fliers this year at Vintage Days I would gladly help! Cruise the pits & camp grounds Friday & Saturday evening when everyone is kicked back soaking up some cold ones..

Let me know if I can help!

Mike
 
Too many events, Too many sanctioning bodies, too many classes.
Remember the good old days of vintage events when it was more about the machines and less about people and money?

Drew, come back to promoting amateur and youth motocross. That is your wheelhouse. NO ONE does it better.

The vintage stuff is cool, but like you said, WAY too much politics.
 
Thank you very much Mike, that is good feedback and a great idea.

I have been talking with my sons all morning and here is what we have decided to do. We are going to reschedule the" Action Sports Vintage Flashback" tentatively for Saturday and Sunday October 3rd and 4th, 2015. This date does not conflict with any vintage event we can find. That gives us almost 6 months to get all this organized. This event will not be sanctioned by any organization and no memberships will be required.

The race format will be the same as the past two years with Vintage Hare scrambles Saturday morning and Vintage Motocross immediately after, and the same schedule Sunday for all Post Vintage riders. We will offer an Open Post Vintage class on Saturday and a Open Vintage class on Sunday for anyone that is interested. We will also offer a few modern motorcycle and mini bike classes on Sunday only. We need these entries to help make the event successful.

We will announce when online pre-entry on XTRM.com is available soon along with all classes. All pre-entry money will be held by XTRM.com until after the event. If we do not receive a pre determined amount of pre entries, that we will announce when pre entry opens, the riders credit card will not be charged. If we cancel the race due to severe weather conditions the riders credit card will not be charged.

Now this leaves everything up to you the riders. If you want help us build a strong, annual vintage event you must pre enter to make it happen. I have been promoting motorcycle racing events since 1979 and I guarantee that if you pre enter for this event, and it does not happen for any reason, you WILL get your money back; you have NO risk. I also guarantee that if we DO run the race we will put 110% effort in to the entire event like we always do.

I will have a flier on our website www.ActionSportsRacing.com soon. We are excited about the possibilities and the future of this event, and ask that you help spread the word to every vintage and modern motorcycle racer, website and all social media contacts you know. If another quality track wants to be involved in some sort of mini series we would welcome them as well. We love this event and want to see it grow into something great.

Thank you,
Drew Kyle and Ryan Wolfe
Action Sports Promotions Inc.
 
ck1racerx said:
Too many events, Too many sanctioning bodies, too many classes.
Remember the good old days of vintage events when it was more about the machines and less about people and money?

Drew, come back to promoting amateur and youth motocross. That is your wheelhouse. NO ONE does it better.

The vintage stuff is cool, but like you said, WAY too much politics.
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Thank you, and I think you're right but I have to have a bunch of people to make enough money to keep my dozer, loader, 4 water trucks and tractors maintained and keep them all in fuel and then have some left over. I love running races, that's about all I've done since I was 19 years old, but I do it for the money and I make no apologies for that.
I'd love to run modern motocross but we never get any riders down here. I feel like we have the best track in the state, if you like real motocross. I think if the riders gave it a chance they'd love it. Our hills are awesome and our track is as safe as a mx track can be. We have Ohio's version of Unadilla in my opinion. I tried to get into the Battle Series, I tried to get an AMA Pro-Am MX and I tried to get another area qualifier or regional qualifier this year but I didn't get anything. I guess I'm not much of a politician. Thanks for saying that "no one does it better", we try to make that a fact every time we run, but that doesn't seem to have helped much at this point. Thank you.
 
I informed the AMA that I was not going to sanction our vintage race with the AMA this year. I did not want them to put the date out in their magazine and I told them that. I did not buy an AMA charter this year for the first time since 1979.
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I tried to get into the Battle Series, I tried to get an AMA Pro-Am MX and I tried to get another area qualifier or regional qualifier this year but I didn't get anything.
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But your not running AMA, back then, just now, for sure not later, huh?

I'm confused. But not really or maybe....

As they say on ESPN....and I'm sure the OH & KY Vintage Riders want to say, "COME ON MAN"!!!!

Steve Hunter
AMA.618152
 
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