What the heck is going on with AHRMA?

My personal experiences have made me very carefull to consider what motivates people. When I see something well written but includes hard to verify facts we may question the motivation.

83BSA likely has extensive writing experience as an Attorney. He is also an AHRMA Trustee.

When I read his post I see two back handed complements to Evelyn and Sean as well as promoting we ride AHRMA on weeks not racing WERA. Sneaky since many of us only can do so many races a year. He also made it clear of the advantages of going with an organization that races dirt and road course. Thank you for the input coming from an AHRMA Trustee and Attorney.

My motivation is clear. I am hoping more racers race with WERA, preferably vintage.

 

As far as promotion goes, I like this approach. "We're a hot mess and about to go bankrupt. Come race with us". Pure marketing genius.

 

your correct, i guess i shouldnt. my apoligies to wera , you and all other wera members, i do plan on doing my local rr in sept and oct. why? doesnt mean to much to me, i was just adding input to a thread that i didnt start . may be a subjective term, but it seems like a “shit show “ to me from where i sit in my lawn chair. done

 

Well, he was answering a question about AHRMA on the WERA board.

 

geezus.. he made a respectful, well thought out and well versed post. End of story.

 

I think Dave just made a general comment since he frequents the board, pretty sure races or definitely raced WERA and happens to be privy of the situation considering his position.

I didn't catch any underhanded comments, maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.

 

Just trying to keep score here....

Someone addresses the concerns posted in this thread while offering kind words about the things that have kept WERA strong over the years.

Those kind words are somehow considered underhanded lawyer speak and also a thinly veiled advertisment because it's worded respectfully and with proper vocabulary.

Do I have this right?

 

Ummm hello???

Long time I guess.

I’ve been away so long I got a “your password was released in a data leak” message!

I really don’t care to get into any he said she said bullshit, but there are a million sayings that pop in my head that are a propos to this situation. I think the best one is:
“Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you read.”

Mr Rutherford’s posts are carefully worded with truths, half truths and a LOT of omission, seasoned with just a tiny little bit of hard to prove slander and character assassination.
He is also bound as a trustee to uphold certain bylaws that he must think don’t apply on the wera bbs, including to not discuss ahrma finances online or to disparage other ahrma members in public or private, so I’m not sure what his motivation is to come over here and risk his name and reputation by sharing club financials and slandering other racers, but I am quite surprised to say the least. Suffice to say that you, the members of the wera bbs were just treated to financial information about how ahrma is doing that ahrma members have been SCREAMING for for the past 15 months and haven’t gotten. Whatever you did to inspire Mr Rutherford to share this with you and not share it with the members he’s supposed to represent, I applaud you for coaxing it out of him! All requests, pleas and demands for a financial accounting by the current board of trustees have thus far been met with silence. It’s good to know the good ole beebs still has some of that magic I remember so well!

This is exactly the type of behavior, btw, that has plagued ahrma recently and is causing the “shit show” everyone is talking about.
I’m not going to sift through all of Davids posts and give line by line clarifications. Some of it’s true. Some of it isn’t. Ask around and figure it out for yourself. I wouldn’t want to miss speak end end up being threatened with a lawsuit like my good friend Tim Joyce did recently… scary stuff!

I will share a few general, non volotile truths that you can take to the bank, swear on a Bible or whatever it is you personally do.

No club is perfect. I’ve been a wera member for 29 years. I’ve also raced with AHRMA, CCS, VRRA, AMA, NASBA and Pan Am SBK. Not one of them is perfect and they all have things they do better than all the rest. When I started racing with AHRMA in 2014 I spent several seasons where I split my time and money 50/50 with both orgs and saw firsthand how strong their strengths were and also how weak their weaknesses were.
One of ahrmas biggest strengths is also ironically one of their biggest weaknesses: they are member owned and vote in trustees every year to handle the running of the club. When members vote in good trustees, ahrma is super strong, but when they vote in weak or immoral trustees, ahrma struggles.
Ahrma is going through a rough patch right now with a small group of trustees that seem to have an ulterior motive beyond the welfare of the club at heart.

There is a huge money problem and the club finds itself going from being very strong to heavily in debt in a very short amount of time. Many hard working people have been fired, run off or have quit due to unpopular decisions by current leadership. We can argue till the cows come home about wether the firings and run offs have had merit or not, but the bottom line is many of the people who worked tirelessly to
make ahrma great are now gone.

I will not attempt to place blame or discredit anyone, but these decisions and a refusal to provide any financial transparency have cuased some serious unrest in the Roadracing ranks. The unrest is very real and many members are upset, with the most vocal being silenced with baseless suspensions for made up crimes they did not commit or overzealous punishments for minor violations. These are facts. I’m not taking sides, making up stories or blaming any one person. There is a board with 12 trustees as well as an executive director that make these decisions. The ED seems to be the main target of everyone’s ire, but the BOT share in all of this. The resignation by Jim Korn yesterday speaks volumes to the problem as Jim was arguably the hardest working, most trusted trustee with the most true north moral compass in the entire org. His departure puts the BOT in a weak spot until another trustee can be sat, which likely won’t take long, but until then, the drama, unrest and accusations will fly. He also resigned from his position as race referee, which normally would be considered the easier position to fill, but in this case, Jim was also picking up a lot of slack from the new roadrace director, who has been very slow to get up to speed and relied heavily on Jim’s help and experience.

All of that political drama and bullshit aside, ahrma is a strong organization with a very large member base and is likely to weather this storm just fine after all of the hubbub dies down, Jims very large shoes are filled and some of the bad apples get voted out. Ahrma is a great org that has temporarily fallen on hard times and will likely be great again.


Until then, you will probably see a few ahrma racers dipping their toes into the wera pool to see how the water is. I know a good two dozen or so that are planning to come to the VMD for the first time since it went to WERA and I think that’s a great thing. I know several more that are also planing to go to the cycle Jam and even a few that are joining me at RRR next month for some regional racing with wera. This is a good thing for WERA and a good thing for vintage racing overall! Racers racing with other clubs always strengthens both clubs and is probably one of the reasons why Sean and Evelyne have always allowed racers from other orgs to race one weekend with wera without buying a wera license.

Please welcome any new ahrma members you see joining the WERA ranks and show them that ahrma isn’t the only race org that knows how to put on a great show.

Myself, I have missed my WERA family and have hated not being able to race with y’all the last 3 years more than the one race/year I could squeeze in. The job with the school required I go to every race on the ahrma schedule and traveling to races all over the country burned up all of our pto and all of our spare $$$. We still managed to make one WERA event every year but it was definitely not enough! Getting sacked from teaching the school was not a fun experience, but it did have the benefit of opening up our schedule and finances to race more with WERA
and other orgs again, so Eileen and I are both VERY excited to come back HOME to the club that started everything for us and start a new chapter.


We will be mostly hitting the endurance and mid Atlantic rounds this year, with a few trips up to Canada to race with our northern friends in the VRRA.

I’m also launching my own school this year and will hopefully be announcing a date soon for both new racer licensing schools as well as advanced technique clinics for licensed racers that want to improve their skills. The licensing schools will be recognized by WERA, AHRMA, CCS, USCRA, VRRA and Pan Am
SBK, so regardless of which org you plan to race with, look me up if you want to take a school with a unique approach that will give you a leg up on the competition!

Sorry for the super long post. I felt there was some air that needed to be cleared.

I hope to see many of you at the track soon!

 

This was what was said "And, thanks again to Evelyn and Sean for the great program they struggle to keep alive"

Thanking them and then saying "the great program they struggle to keep alive" appears to be a back handed complement. An experienced word smith might be making the point their organization is barely alive. Obviously this is not true.

 

BOOM!! Game, set and match to Mr. Morrow.

 

east coast 100 swag available soon. be one of the first to order a t shirt

 

Jesus fuck, make your drama bite sized, I ain’t reading walls of purse fighting text, especially when you numb cunts keep quoting it over and over and over again.

 

I think that I can safely speak for all of WERA, and probably AHRMA, when I say that we all know that you have nothing better to do with your time. Make a pimento cheese sandwich, crack open a Bud Light, and enjoy the show.

 

AHRMA is Drama! I Really liked racing with them, but the BS old boys club is getting in the way, the infighting and people lost over the last year is a tough one. I hope they can keep the club solvent and find a way to stop bleeding money. Funny that people in power put so much time and effort into winning a championship that in the end of the day means nothing if it bought. Good luck to them it would be sad to see them fail.

 

TL;EAD

 

Is it possible some folks are reading way too deep into an otherwise benign comment?

 

The financial information he posted was posted on Facebook months ago..

 

Pickled said "purse fighting text". Ha ha ha!

Even though I may be involved in this pastime, that is a hilarious description!

 

Hey RZ Racer, Mark. I have been wanting to take a class to improve. If you do a technique school on the day before a WERA race you will likely see me in it.