It Was a Very Good Year...

from AHRMA MAG February 2023, Vol. No. 5, Issue No. 2

Project: FT-140

AHRMA NORTHEAST CELEBRATES ITS 2022 CHAMPIONS, AND WE CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT SEASON

WORDS: BOB CLOSE

PHOTOS: SARAH LANE

The fourth verse of that wonderful Frank Sinatra song starts out “But now the days are short, I’m in the autumn of the year…” Clearly, Frank never discovered vintage dirt bike racing with his friends and family, right? I think this stuff keeps us younger, healthier, as well as ensuring our chiropractors and physical therapists can trade in their vehicles for a new car every year. If that is not a feel-good story, I don’t know what is…

Many times in 2022, you have heard this scribe sing the praises of the great weather and excellent trail and track the Northeast regions was greeted with for our racing season. We can all thank (you can fill in the blank here) for the weather, but first we owe a deep depth of gratitude to our event hosts for allowing us to do what we enjoy doing at their facilities or properties.

We also need to burn some incense at the altars of our tireless regional racing coordinators, Merritt Brown and Ed Roman. To be honest, they look pretty darn tired by the end of each weekend, especially Merritt Brown –more on him later. Behind these guys, there is a short list of folks who have shown up to help with course setups. I know I’ll miss somebody but thanks to Rik Smits and Jay Danek.

Accompanying this article is a list of riders who won 2022 championship titles. First and foremost, we must call out several of our “Ironmen”- these are men or women who earned championships in both cross country and motocross categories. Merritt Brown, Dave Salmen, and Rik Smits lead the way with three championships each, but a big shout-out to father and daughter Experts Brian and Kelly Ashcraft, as well as Novice Mark Cuomo for taking wins in both disciplines. In Merritt’s case, don’t forget this guy is often found running the sign-up table at beginning of day and figuring out the results at end of day. Congrats (and thanks).

We also had several racers who won at least at least two championships (in motocross or cross country). Since I’m an cross country guy myself, I’ll make the case that this ain’t easy to do in cross country my friends. Mike Ferguson did it, and it should be mentioned that he was first overall in just about ALL our cross country races this year.

In motocross racing, Northeast veterans Marc Kalipolites, Mark Curran, Ed Abdo, and Jim Bell grabbed two titles apiece. Newcomer Henry Ahnert also took two titles AND it’s worth mentioning that he won a bunch of very fast motos.

Let me add this qualifier – it was an expensive year to go racing for many of our AHRMA brothers and sisters. Even with our “six event minimum, best seven count towards your points,” we know that some of you did not that meet that threshold, so to speak. We still want to thank ALL our 2022 sign-ups for coming out and joining us in 2022. Please grab your other brother Darrell (or sister Darlene…) and others to help increase our 2023 numbers.

A short preview of our 2023 season is up next, but I’ll keep it short based on the word count I’m seeing on this document. First of all – we are going to team up with our MidAtlantic/Potomac Vintage Riders Club brethren for one more motocross round (Allen’s Farm) and one more combined round – White Rose on October 21st and 22nd. And YES –you’d better start figuring out your Halloween racing costume – that event looks like a lot of fun! Our AHRMA National dual cross country/motocross event has moved to Bear Creek Sportsmen Club on Labor Day weekend for 2023. New on our schedule will be a mid-August visit to the home of the 1975 AMA 500 National – MotoMasters MX Park in Mexico, NY. This “New York State Vintage Championship” event at the sandy, vintage-friendly motocross track will be an (independent) promoter event, come one, come all, similar to the Robinson’s MX Rewind. And as we go to press – we have learned that the Leroy Winters Reunion Ride (2 Day Qualifier) will be coming to our Northeast region in 2023, celebrating the 50 year anniversary since the 1973 ISDT held in Dalton, Massachesetts. Stay tuned for more details!