What the heck is going on with AHRMA?

I told a couple of friends in Daytona that I planned to do AHRMA later this year, and they told me it's a total shit show now and that they are not even going anymore. This is a shop that used to go with 15 bikes. I didn't think much of it, because customers can be fickle.

Then I hear that a major sponsor of the series no longer wants their name associated with the organization, even though said sponsor has already paid and knows they won't be getting any money back.

What the hell is going on? I was hoping to enter some events later this year and do a partial season next year. Wondering if this will affect my plans.

 

It was grumpy old men having a constant pissing match 22 years ago when I raced with them...I imagine more of the same.

 

More cash deficits have occured, is my understanding.

 

From my perspective, politics and money. There are a lot of good people in the club, and a lot of fun racing. I have done most of my racing with them on vintage 2 strokes. My opinion has always been, when you have elected officials, politics and power get in the way. Its like an HOA, it has good intentions but politics and power get in the way of what it is truly meant for. I like racing, and I don't want to have to take part in politics to enjoy it.

 

i did the first 2 rounds. i dont vote for members , never have, i have a few friends i know and talk to. i stay out of the politics. it does seem like a shit show thou

 

I raced CMP and as long as you stay out of the political circles, you will have a good time racing with friends like any other event. I highly doubt you will have any problems racing with them. The people who are backing out, are getting too involved with political things, and are mad at the current leadership (I'm not saying they are right or wrong to be mad at them.) I had taken a break from racing for 2 years-ish. CMP was my first event back. I had a great time and none of the online drama was happening at the track (or at least not near where I was). Because I do not wish to be apart of the politics, I stay out of it. I have a family of 6 and racing is a hobby, I'm not going to worry about what some rich guy did or didn't do. I'm glad there are people concerned enough to try to fix the issues, but that won't be me at this time. Unless something major changes, I'm sure every race this year will happen.

 

I raced dirty bikes with AHRMA. The racers are good people. Just show up and have fun.

 

Thanks. I know there was always drama beneath the surface when I raced with them in the past, but I didn't let it bother me because I was just there for the race. Some guys I know got heavily into the protests and the rule changes using xyz engine case to build abc bikes, etc. but it didn't effect me, so I didn't care.

Seems like they always have good turnouts, so hopefully the club keeps going.

 

goes to show you - not all democracy s are good.

 

We all are too!

 

Aren't they a non-profit org? So there's that.
Even in the 90s they had in-fighting so what's changed? The only thing I see is that they have a new race director and their mx races have gotten real big.

 

First hand experience helping them,,,, lot of 'nepotism like' behavior, esp the rules and regulations are written around the person writing them or someone close to them. You stack that up year after year and it makes for a confusing set of ever evolving classes and lot's of buthurt.. Conversely Sean and Ev don't have any skin in the actual racing and can therefore keep an unbiased, easy to enforce structure.

 

I know just from moving here to California,they have supposedly dropped an event out here.
Im not promoting another organization,but the guy that picked up the ball told me,he had no idea
why they had stopped at this particular venue,but they weren't scheduled anymore.
Never raced with them before.My 01 r6 only fell into heavyweight.

 

I only raced one race with AHRMA, on my RC390. I thought the bikes were supposed to be stock, but everyone's RC390s were built to the hilt. It was like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

 

im sure that post will be deleted and the way things are going people will be suspended

 

They are massively in debt and now have some clueless people in important roles making very bad decisions. Safety of riders has been compromised as one of the things impacted by their current state of affairs. I'd stay far away from them right now when it comes to roadracing.

 

This was my experience as well, the rules are usually written to benefit certain people, so that those people can win championships or races. I tried to propose a rule change once for BOT2 so that the MA Twins bikes could compete- basically allow the water cooled equivalent of Superbike 900cc air cooled twins. But that never got anywhere. The SOT3 class which allows SV's is limited to SuperStock rules so there are very few pure SOT3 machines racing. My proposal never got anywhere because of politics, I was told.

It doesn't help that many of the rules are written for machines that most people have never heard of, or very few people understand so it's difficult to interpret unless you're an expert.

It's interesting that the off road stuff has grown, One of the big complaints when I was racing with them was that Road Race subsidized the off road races.

Hopefully they fix Move in for when I come back later this year- honestly getting there days in advance and lining up for a parking spot isn't something I can afford to do anymore.

 

In what way?