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AHRMA Dissolution?

Discussion in 'WERA Vintage' started by 83BSA, Oct 30, 2006.

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  1. cyclenut

    cyclenut Well-Known Member

    Well said, some people act much different when behind a keyboard as opposed to a face to face discussion. I'm sure some pyschologist could explain it better.
     
  2. charles

    charles The Transporter

    An interesting and developing area of law- Free Speech and the Internet.
    'Bloggers' have come under attack...what's next? Someday, people won't be able to say or write anything until they obtain permission in advance from 'the
    authorities.'

    Now Mongo here is different... he permits us to say almost anything, right here on these hallowed threads...Mongo, Champion of The People, Upholder of
    Liberty and Man-Law.:bow:
     
  3. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    The laws haven't changed, however people are finally realizing the same laws for print apply to the interwebs.
     
  4. charles

    charles The Transporter

    Some folks do, for sure, act differently, face-to-face, but not everyone, because some folks mean what they say and say what they mean.

    Interesting...why should 'psychologists' be able to explain this "better" than
    anyone else? I mean no offense, sincerely, but don't you think we (as a society) have overestimated so-called 'experts', that we don't trust our own
    intuition anymore? Never mind, it's off the subject, just casual thoughts here...

    Back to AHRMA and T.O.
     
  5. Wade Parish

    Wade Parish North Central Hawker

    So sorry. I've read this whole thread but I still don't get what the beef is between Ianucci/TO and AHRMA.
     
  6. Yamaha Fan

    Yamaha Fan Well-Known Member


    Page down until you find the section titled legal update...



    http://www.ahrma.org/whatsnew.htm


    It would seem this stems from an initial battle that Ianucci/TO lost followed by the revocation of his AHRMA License.. All down hill from there :down: It does not spell out the details but there seems to be hints, certainly someone could find where this action was filed and fill in the blanks.....

    I met Ianucci when I welded up a header pipe for one of his bikes that Roper was riding at the GNF in about 2000.... seems like some sort of resolution could have been reached...
     
  7. charles

    charles The Transporter

    Bob, I suspect there is more to the case than that.
     
  8. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Team Obsolete Open Letter to AHRMA Members

    I obtained the following "Open Letter to AHRMA Members from Mr. Iannucci today. I post it here in multiple sequential parts (due to space limitations I am unable to overcome. Mongo, am I missing something?) simply for everyone's information.

    AN OPEN LETTER TO AHRMA MEMBERS
    Rats jumping off a sinking ship… The latest in the AHRMA follies – Rusty Lowry resigned as corporate treasurer “to spend more time with his family”. Dave Lamberth resigned as Executive Director “to spend more time with his family”. Matt Benson Resigned as Director of Communications “to pursue other career objectives”. Trustee Goodpaster – withdraws from the election “to spend more time with his friends”. AHRMA’s fourth (4th) set of high-priced outside Litigation Attorneys, who have plundered AHRMA’s treasury huge, are now jumping ship too (they fired AHRMA!). But perhaps the most shocking news is that AHRMA’s clever and secretive bosses may have recently exhausted their insurance coverage rather than stopping this madness years ago as they could easily have done. Chairman Janiec likely knew the coverage was exhausted before he signed the misleading August 31 “Litigation Report”. What do these guys know (that they are hiding from us) and when did they first know it?
    All we at Team Obsolete wanted to do was race our bikes and support the Sport that we love.
     
  9. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Open Letter Continued . . . .

    AHRMA bosses in their infinite wisdom have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of member’s money (ask them exactly how much) funding a sixteen (16) year legal battle to drive AHRMA founder Rob Iannucci and Team Obsolete out of the sport, a battle that they themselves intentionally provoked. Along the way AHRMA’s in-house lawyer Ted Bendelow has stuffed his pockets with AHRMA’s funds, a reward for masterminding the legal assault against Team Obsolete. Throughout all of this is the puppeteer Jeff Smith, who had his entire family on the AHRMA payroll for years, and whose fragile ego sparked this ugly affair in the first place. Smith still lurks in the shadows, pulling the strings (he is AHRMA’s “Litigation Special Advisor” – sort of like the fox guarding the chickens).
    Questions that AHRMA owner-members should ask their trustees:
    • How much of owner-member’s money has been secretly and pointlessly spent by AHRMA bosses in the past twelve years hassling Team Obsolete, including Rob Iannucci, Dave Roper, the late Don Vesco, Giacomo Agostini, Jim Redman, Johnny Kain, Erik Green, Yvon Duhamel, Dr. Lon McCroskey, and others? (Clue: They know exactly how much)
    • How much was covered by insurance? (Clue: Probably not much)
    • Why has AHRMA concealed all this huge stupid expense from its owner-members?
    • Why do the AHRMA bosses continue this ugly litigation? It seems that they would rather bankrupt the organization than do the right thing, so long as they are not squandering their own money.
    • How can these funds be recovered from these irresponsible bosses and put back into AHRMA’s treasury? (Ohio law permits the owner-members to demand reimbursement from bosses who have squandered an organization’s funds. AHRMA is an Ohio Corporation.)
     
  10. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Open Letter continued . . . .

    • Is there any liability insurance coverage left? If yes, how much? If no, when did it run out?
    We challenge the AHRMA bosses to publish a full accounting of every cent of litigation expense involving Team Obsolete, from 1994 to today, with breakdowns, and to account for any insurance coverage.
    In 1999, after pointlessly hassling Team Obsolete for a decade, Jeff Smith illegally terminated Rob’s membership (in violation of AHRMA’s very specific procedures) and banned the other Plaintiffs from riding the greatest stable of active Historic Race Bikes on the planet. MV Agusta and Benelli multi’s. The fabled Honda Six. AJS Porcupine. The AJS Triple Knocker. BSA ex Works Triples, XR750TT Harleys, G50’s, 7R’s, Manx Nortons. All genuine and with spectacular histories.
    Our famous riders included Agostini, Redman, Read, Duhamel, Nixon, Vesco, Emde, and others (some of you were lucky enough to see Agostini ride our MV Agusta 500 Triple at Mid-Ohio this year, no thanks to AHRMA). All told, we sponsored about fifty (50) riders! We also promoted some fabulous events, at Daytona Biketoberfest, Del Mar, and Laguna Seca, with broad support from everybody except AHRMA, who refused to grant us sanctions, organized boycotts, and repeatedly sued us for innocently using the same class titles that they let all other promoters use.
     
  11. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Open Letter continued . . . .

    At Team Obsolete’s peak in the mid nineties our lineup was second to none. At Daytona we had Ago, Redman, Aldana, Nixon, Duhamel, Roper, Vesco, plus Erik Green, Johnny Kain, Dr. Lon McCroskey, Tupper Robinson, Russ Mowry, Cal Rayborn III, Mike Green, and John Wiman. We ran these fabulous bikes. What great times. The Daytona crowds then were more than thirty five thousand (35,000)!
    It’s all gone now. How very stupid. AHRMA and the Sport will never recover. The AHRMA bosses poisoned the well. Shame on them.
    Where was the AMA during all this? Nowhere. They ignored their absolute obligation to protect us from this abuse. Instead, they decided to continue to make money from AHRMA. This is why the AMA is also a Defendant in this case. Remember the Roger Edmonson lawsuit, and his $4.5 million recovery from the AMA?
    It was never our objective to “bleed” AHRMA dry. We just wanted to end a huge injustice and Smith’s abuse of power. We wanted to stop these bosses from running AHRMA like it was their personal property and from spending its money like it was their own. It is the AHRMA bosses that are bleeding AHRMA, not us. They created this mess, not us. All we’re trying to do is fix it. The bosses will continue to “bleed” AHRMA’s treasury until you the members stop them. You can do it if you try.
    Stay tuned.
    Team Obsolete
     
  12. Shyster d'Oil

    Shyster d'Oil Gerard Frommage

    Maybe a third party mediator could help sort out a settlement. Perhaps an attorney/mediator who has a great love for the sport and would like to see this mess go away and see Vintage racing return to some of its former glory. I wonder who that attorney might be. . .
     
  13. Hyperdyne

    Hyperdyne Indy United SBK

    I KNOW... I KNOW... I KNOW....

    Oh c'mon, c'mon c'mon... I got this one!!!!

    :crackup:
     
  14. Boltos

    Boltos Well-Known Member

    Tim, They have started a new AHRMA BBS group with the Yahoo Groups, you might wanna join in on. Subscibe to it at:
    http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/AHRMA_roadrace/

    ...as well as any others of the AHRMA faithful. Many of us visit both sites.

    As this discussion goes, that famous AHRMA BMW racer Samuel Clemens once said: "Rumors of my Death are greatly exagerated..."
     
  15. YAM#849

    YAM#849 y'all watch this...

    If that's the case, what will it take to end this? Smith is no longer a trustee. Who else are you guys mad at? The members are the ones who are losing out here.
     
  16. charles

    charles The Transporter

    Carl, I trust it is more than a matter of Ianucci/Team O. being "mad" at someone...its a lawsuit, it's complex, it involves money, and now that Ianucci /Team O. has set forth questions for AHRMA to answer, tell me why AHRMA management doesn't answer them? Ohhhh...I forgot, they're "in litigation"!!! When I was a member of AHRMA, that's they way it appeared to me- that AHRMA was being run like it belonged to a select few. If the current members of AHRMA want this legal matter resolved, why don't those members
    request a detailed explanation of the posture of the case? If necessary, hire a law firm to obtain it. When you pull the tail of the tiger, prepare to be chewed on.
    Well, I, The Transporter, volunteer my services to resolve the matter in
    mediation or in the Cage of Doom, all parties willing.
     
  17. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Carl -
    Those are not my statements. Your quote is excerpted from Iannucci's "Open Letter." I'm mad at those that are trying to, or are through their actions or failures to act, destroying a vintage racing opportunity. See my earlier posts - I want AHRMA to succeed. I fear it may not. I want to mobilize likewise concerned folks to head off disaster I fear may be looming. Rumor is AHRMA is shopping for a buyer, and consulting bankruptcy counsel. Neither is an attractive proposition for the future of vintage racing. If you're considering liquidation or reorganization, you don't have much to attract potential buyers. Particularly if one of your "assets" is a federal lawsuit in the E.D. New York in which your current-soon-to-be-former counsel are seeking withdrawl under a sealed Rule Nisi Motion.

    I've emailed Dave Janiec in an attempt to learn more from AHRMA. Whether and to what extent he'll respond to me differently than the stonewalling I received at Barber remains to be seen. I hope so. If and when I hear from him, I'll post it here.

    More to follow.
     
  18. charles

    charles The Transporter

    Thank you for your sincere-and candid-efforts to shed light on this subject.
    By doing this, you are serving a higher purpose. And yes, the current situation
    is rather tragic...
     
  19. 83BSA

    83BSA Well-Known Member

    Boltos -

    Thanks for the link. I went there just now, and one person has described me as "the T.O. guy who was rabble rousing at Barber". Correction: I am not a Team Obsolete guy. If asking two pointed questions at Barber in response to Will Harding's invitation and encouragement to all to ask any question you have is "rabble rousing", so be it. I will try to subscribe to the AHRMA link, and I'll report on how that effort is received.

    I fear objectivity has taken a vacation. My goal is to improve vintage racing so that it flourishes for all. Apparently some folks just can't avoid their myopic view of the world . . . .
     
  20. NYCNorton

    NYCNorton Holmeslice

    Well put.

    I think people need to realize that there are TWO sides to this. So far anyone who points this out opens themselves up to ridicule. This is silly.

    C'mon racers... look around you. Things are not good. You can pretend it's the big bad wolf and close your eyes and plug your ears and hope it goes away, or you can do something. The facts have yet to be put on the table. Members of a member-owned organization hold the key, so demand the facts.

    Nobody wins if this continues (at least no one who has an interest in racing).
     
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