The History of AHRMA & TO, Chaper One, as told by Stu Carter

There are several people who want to know the history. Since I relish all the spicy things in life including gossip, rumor, innuendo and lies. And since I can easily bend reality to my own miopic version, I have decided to present my little revisionist history chapters on AHRMA (Smith) & Team Obsolete (Iannucci). After all, everyone is entitled to my own opinion......

CHAPTER 1. Talledega...the last race of the season...early/mid 90s? There was a fierce battle for the 500 Premier championship between TO's rider, Dave Roper and Barber Dairy rider, Steve Matthews. Both riders were running G-50 Matchless motorcycles with Roper on an authentic racer and Matthews on a Walmsley replica. After the 1st race, TO protested Barber's legality. Barber's bike was using a smooth bore carburetor which was specifically forbidden. The protest committee found that the carb was indeed illegal. However, it was also decided by the protest committee to allow Matthews to keep his points for the season and to keep his points from the protested race which was contrary to the rules book. The rules book addressed the specific penalty for cheating (abeit supposedly inadvertantly) which was stripping the points. The protest committee ignored the rule book even though the bike had competed with an illegal carburetor. I believe the carburetor was changed and the Sunday race took place. Smith was directly involved with the protest committee at the track and was reportedly instrumental in the decision which by every account was wrong. Thus began the battle of the wills.

I remember an incident a year or so earlier when a racer from Rhode Island named Jamie McNaulty was running in F2 for the championship and was protested at AHRMA's Road Atlanta event. Jamie had bought the bike and supposedly was unaware that the bike was slightly overbore. The protest was on displacement. Jamie was found to be guilty of running an oversize twin. He was stripped of all his points and actually suspended for one year. I never saw him again. However, the rules were very specific as to the penaly.

Sadly, AHRMA didn't arrive at the right decision with TO and Barber which was simply wrong. This was my first experience in seeing outright prejudice against Iannucci by Smith. During that period of AHRMA, Smith led with an iron fist and was noted for his micromanagement. The behind the scenes talk had Smith tied in with Barber who hosted the event. Smith's long time friend, Brian Slark, was working for Barber. The relationship was just too cozy and it didn't take too much effort to connect the dots.

The right thing was to strip the points and award Roper the championship. It was there in the rule book, black and white. I believe that incident was the first manifestation of the battle of the wills that still goes on today.

CHAPTER 2...........to be posted soon.

I'll be glad to field any questions

Stuart Carter, Historian,

Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.......which are we?

 

stu,wasn't it over just a mikuni carb being period for the g-50 not a smooth bore?

 

Thanks, Stu. Looking forward to subsequent chapters.

Steve Bem

 

Correction: More revisionist revisions: Place...Putnam Park. G-50 vs. G-50. Barber's bike was running a smooth bore concentric carb. TO protested, 6 weeks later in Vintage Views the protest committee found the carb illegal, fined the team $100 but allowed them to keep their points. Iannucci appealed (ala Bridiot/Bridget) but was not allowed to attend the meeting to represent himself and lost the appeal. Later at Talledega, Barber came out with an illegal MV Augusta to clinch the title on Saturday. The race director refused to accept a protest on the legality of the MV. On Sunday it was G-50 vs. G-50; Roper cleared away but...............The Fix Was In.

Discussions???

 

I haven't read this yet, I will in just a minute but this will be good.
Look who the author is.

 

actually I think it was a Gardner Carb that was in question. It was being used by the top INCA riders on their British Singles in Europe but it was not deemed period in AHRMA and therefore not a legal carb. I am not sure what was illegal about the MV on the saturday at Tally though.

 

From Vintage Views May 1994, Roadracer's Corner by Jack Turner:

"At Putnam Park we had a protest by Dave Roper of Team Obsolete against Stephen Mathews of Barber Dairy Racing. The protest was for the use of a smoothbore carb with a concentric float bowl. The Barber Dairy Matchless G50 was using an Amal Mk2 concentric carb with a smoothbore modification. Rule 9.7.13a prohibits this, and the Team Obsolete protest was upheld."

This should clear up the type of carb used.

 

As for the MV Mathews raced at Talladega in the Saturday Premier race, it was a mid-70's narrow angle, four cylinder with a drum brake mounted to the front. The narrow angle refers to the included valve angle and gives the bike a better combustion chamber than the earlier MV's which had a wider included angle. MV ran triples until the late sixties, then experimented with wide angle fours in the early seventies, and finally settled on the narrow angle fours around 1974. Agostini won the last four stroke 500GP in 1976 on one of these bikes. The late model MV's are not like-design to the models that MV ran prior to the AHRMA imposed cut-off year of December 31, 1968 and therefore should be considered not legal in 500 Premier.

Erik

 

It surely would win honors for coolest F500 bike around, though.

 

Eric,
Yes the carb protest was eventually upheld but the appropriate penalty for the illegal use was not applied ergo Matthews was allowed to keep his points for that race and the entire season. Wasn't this a violations of the rules?

 

Good stuff. More please . . .

 

The protest was at Daytona...

Stu
The event was Daytona; Barber machine won with an illegal carb as per the rules. The penalty was $100.00 cash money "and we'll call it even"
The rule book called for disqualification of the Barber bike... there was NO other options per the book. Bottom line was, it should of been DQ'ed, and when not, it should of been under appeal. I was there... saw it all. Later a Board member asked me, "What would you have done?" I replied; "Had I not caught it at TECH (which I use to run), there is no other wayout but to DQ the bike, it was illegal."
The AMAL you're all talking about was later fitted... and created further troubles for all concerned.
Bottom line is, AHRMA officials did not, once again, use the rule book. This has been a on going battle since I wrote it. MG

 

Okay I read all this, most interesting. But i must have missed one part, or you left it out relating the story: when other riders found out that a travesty of justice had taken place, involving one of their own kind, what did they do about it? If nothing, why, can you explain it if only to me, maybe I'm dense
about these things. Were the AHRMA trustees executing riders who bitched?
Was anyone 'disappeared'? tortured with red-hot pincers? found wandering around Uganda years later, mumbling something about 'member owned'?
How about that part of the story, surely you left it out for some reason...

 

Good point there. what the rider's and teams do? Was there a outcry? What was the offical reason for the lawsuit from TO against AHRMA?

 

Charles & bax504

There was an outcry! I was #2 (TO being #1), and I went to trustees and found the same as I've always found, NO BACKING from Fred (our Chairman), nor any other Trustee there at the time. "It is Jeff's call", so I was told. I told Fred, and others, "this is bull shit! The rule book clearly states the carb is illegal! The bike should of been caught at Tech (but since I was no longer in charge, that process had left); regardless... whether it passed tech or not, the carb found on the bike at the end of the race made it illegal, period." The punishment was outright DQ, no other.

This type of BS within our ranks is not the first time this has happened, infact it's happened a number of times, any appeal always ended up with a Kangaroo Court (hand picked appeal board people that were bias or poss bias). The horror stories i could tell you people! MG #21

 

I really like the old AHRMA classes that they have. We did vintage days A few years back and it was really cool to be out on the track with springer/joyce, not that I got to see them long...but we were there. We liked the ultra cool vintage 500 class.
What we didnt like was the general attitude in the paddock, 99 percent of the people with the vintage bikes couldnt give 2 shits about winning a race.and the other 1 percent spent so much money on there bikes and riders that is was almost comicial. For any given race there were only 2-5 guys actually racing. I like AHRMA, Its just differnt. They are kinda like a concours de legance car show...an WERA is A super late model trophy dash in the heart of the south.......Did I mention I really like dirt car racing.
Its A shame all the lawsuits are over A 3 dollar trophy

 

Okay, I get it, so: why weren't these sycophants voted out? Was the voting rigged ? No one interested in being a trustee? Riders didn't band together and say- "We won't accept this. Do the right thing or we don't race, we don't pay any entry fees, we don't pay our dues next time."??? Seriously, now, was that and is that the primary problem- that we just can't get together and stick together despite the wrongdoing in front of our eyes and noses?

 

That is what I need to know. People that was there and were affected by this mess. I understand that there were issues, but was this what started the TO lawsuit? I don't know but would like to know. I want to race with AHRMA this coming year. Will it still be there? Only time will tell. I will not be racing a vintage bike this coming year, a RS125, so i have options. I always enjoy the AHRMA crowd for the most part. Thanks again.

 

Charles...

You tell me! I tried my best was up against Fred & Company (I wont name names until I need to, which may be sooner than later). As for the membership, they saw all good, the Board could do no wrong, JS was former World Champion! I mean, who could think any wrong of him or the others? It was all smoke and mirrors. I resigned from the Board at the end of my final term, and told I would get this and that for serving(at Daytona); I didn't want it, nor did these things ever come to life. Again, more BS.
I tried a number of times when I was Sec and afterwards to rein in JS in regards to some of the things he was doing/done, but had no support from the Board. I think it was Rusty who said at a meeting (via phone), "what is Green wiening about again?" Just shows you what kind of disrespect there was for fellow trustee's. O think that title, TRUSTEE, needs to be removed or the meaning changed.
The way it suppose to work is, the Exec Dirt was to report to the Secretary of AHRMA... this was very short lived; instead it was Fred. When I did ask questions or pushed things, I would get, ""it's executive committee privalige" and Fred would say no more. TOTAL BS!
I was, and astill am, as BY THE RULE BOOK guy, what is good for one, is good for all. Others never saw it that way. Instead we had mayhem. We had trustee's being race promoters... and then the rule books was null and void! I have so much paperwork still regarding these things...

My suggestion? DO NOT RE-ELECT ANY OF THE CURRENT TRUSTEES, and surely do not elect JS to the Board.
Some asked why I retired from Road Racing and AHRMA in general in Aug 1997... fact is WCBR was fed up with AHRMA, Fred Mork and JS.
MG #21