Membership with AMA, AHRMA or both? Your 2015 racing plans.

Dano762

PR Addict
Help the AMA and AHRMA get some voice of customer to see how paying customers are spending their race dollars.

I am entering races sanctioned by both organizations. This doubled my race date options and let me stay mostly within a 6 hour drive.

I renewed AMA and added a first time AHRMA membership this year after AMA cancelled their series.

If you are not racing this year, are members of neither, and you have/want a period bike or have raced before, what would it take to get you back to the track?
 
I'm a member of both and have been for quite some time. I won't be able to race until after July due to hernia surgery next week, but will attend some events as a spectator until I can ride again in early Aug. I'll be riding my 74 KX125 and my son will be riding his 77 YZ125. My hopes is that everyone one works together to support the local vintage racing. It won't happen over night, but I think there are some positive things coming.
 
I am a 20 year member of AMA and auto-renew it each season. But I'm a little different because I do quite a bit of modern bike racing as well so I always need an AMA card.

I started with AHRMA membership in 2007 to race at Mid Ohio on a borrowed CR450. I raced Mid Ohio again on my own '83 RM125 in 2008, then I followed the whole AHRMA series in 2009 (raced 7 events in 6 different states).
2010 and 2011 I continued AHRMA membership and tried to do one race a year (usually Gatorback, FL).

I stopped renewing my AHRMA membership because I felt it was just getting too expensive. I just don't get why it had to go up to $75 a year. They have basically lost me unless I decide to compete in the whole series again (which I will probably do at some point).
 
I ride both. I too ride modern and need the AMA card. My Ahrma membership lapsed when the AMA did a series for ,two years and there was plenty of racing. Now I am back to doing both. I just want to ride...
 
34 years old and been an AMA member for 16 years. I also race modern enduros and I am a member of an AMA club my family started in 2008. I bought a PV bike to race but then the AMA cancelled the series...so I bought an AHRMA membership too.
 
I joined the AMA 36 years ago, let it lapse for a short while and am on my 22nd consecutive year. When I got into Vintage racing with AHRMA 16 years ago, you needed an AMA membership to race as the series was sanctioned by the AMA. Once the two split, I maintained my AHRMA membership through 2013 but didn't renew it last year.
 
I've been AMA Life for some time. I let AHRMA expire after 2012 and the Action Sports thing. I've enjoyed GP's for years now. I can race an old bike at the 11:00 session and have done so many times. Think I might give the '96 Husky a try again at Fast Traxx tomorrow. Got frustrated with the bike there last year so it's set up totally differently now.
The Chillicothe race conflicts with the next Fast Traxx GP so I'll have make a decision for that day...
 
AHRMA, AMA, and OUTLAW, Chillicothe and Sandusky Valley Riders. Last year it was 100% AMA Vintage Series for me. This year with no AMA series or structure priority # 1 is AHRMA, # 2 AMA (primarily Mid Ohio) and then other riding opportunities like Chillicothe and SVR. I'm hoping we have a viable regional AHRMA series in 2016, plus a few nationals & Mid Ohio.
 
AMA life member here 35 plus years....First year ARHMA member. Just getting into the vintage side of things.
GNCC type racing including two Blackwater finishes as a young man....In my blood until I'm dead it appears.
 
Once AHRMA raised the price to 65 bucks I was out, 75 is ridiculous. They raised the price once the cash cow (Vintage days /AMA) split. You can thank Jeff Smith IMO for this mess ! Lawsuits ECT . . . .
 
Wow that's awesome! Would love to hear some Blackwater stories!
1988 and 1989 ....One of the hardest and most rewarding events ever for me. I ran a Honda CR125 with a few special parts. Flywheel weigh and custom porting and exhaust. I ran out of a Pa, based team call Northeast Honda. We were a small factory backed team formed to mainly contend for a victory in this event.The event itself was very tough but I finished both times with ease, relatively speaking. Oddly enough the famous water crossing was one of the easier sections. The huge rocky downhills were the most challenging to me and most riders. Huge hills, straight down , full of slick rock...Scary as hell...I still sport scars from both events from a few of the bigger hills. I have the pinball machine in my basement now. Good times, great memories and stories for my family and friends. Finishing for me was considered a win although I never placed better than in the top 20 both times..I would compare it to the Erzburg with Rednecks if you were looking for a modern day equivalent.
 
That's cool. Great accomplishment to have finished the event! I'd love to have one of those pinball machines too.
 
Thanks....I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. There were many riders as good or better than I so I consider myself to be very fortunate to have had such a great opportunity. None of us realized at the time just how infamous these events were to become. They are blown up bigger than life today but at the time it was simply another dirtbike race in the woods, much like today's GNCC events...only the GNCC's of today are much better in almost every respect...
 
Last edited:
I recall as a teenager reading the articles in Dirt Bike magazine about the Blackwater races, usually featuring Dick Burleson on his Husky's.
 
Back
Top