On April 7, the AMA announced the AMA Racing Vintage Grand Championships, to be held at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, July 24-26, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and the Ashland County Fairgrounds in Ashland. In the following interview, AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman discusses the reasons behind the AMA’s decision to organize the multi-disciplinary vintage racing championship.
AmericanMotorcyclist.com (AM): The announcement of the AMA Racing Vintage Grand Championships followed an apparent disagreement with the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA). Leading up to the announcement, there were rumors that AHRMA would not be involved with this year's AMA Vintage Motorcycle Day. Can you tell AMA members and our readers what the fuss is all about?
Rob Dingman (RD): AHRMA posted on its website statements regarding a vaguely defined "dispute" over its sanctioning agreement with the AMA. I want to make it clear that the dispute was not between the AMA and AHRMA. We were drawn into a lawsuit between AHRMA's founder, Rob Iannucci, and its existing leadership back in 2001 and have defended the AMA for seven years. This past February, the AMA settled with Mr. Iannucci. There remained an ongoing dispute between Mr. Iannucci and AHRMA.
AM: Can you explain what is at issue, and how it arose?
RD: First, I want to acknowledge the role that AHRMA has played over the years in the growing popularity of historic motorcycle racing. Many racers participate in vintage racing, and these individuals are the reason why so many people are enthused about the sport today.
Mr. Iannucci's lawsuit was filed against AHRMA on behalf of himself and his team, Team Obsolete, in 2001. The AMA was named in the suit because we sanction AHRMA racing. The nature of the dispute has been written about extensively elsewhere. Sadly, the suit cast a shadow over the very future of AHRMA, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy.
In 2007, the bankruptcy court in Tennessee settled the financial claims between Mr. Iannucci and AHRMA. However, the AMA was left holding the bag for a dispute between the two parties that had nothing to do with us. This suit has cost AMA members three-quarters of a million dollars and, ironically, it was not even about money. That's just outrageous.
The current management of the AMA was not involved in the actions that led to the lawsuit or its ongoing prosecution, and I have never believed that the AMA and its members were being served by continuing it. After eight years, the AMA said, "Enough." AMA Board of Directors Chairman Stan Simpson and I met with Mr. Iannucci last year to settle the matter. On Feb. 19, 2009, the AMA announced that we had entered into a Settlement Agreement, which resulted in the case being dismissed. I understand that AHRMA believes that the AMA should continue to fight with Mr. Iannucci and spend AMA members' money, but that would be foolish for the AMA.
AM: If the case against the AMA is now settled, what exactly was the problem?
RD: The terms of our Settlement Agreement are confidential. However, Mr. Iannucci agreed to allow us to discuss them for the purpose of this interview.
One of the key provisions of the settlement is that, in order to receive future AMA sanctioning, AHRMA had to resolve its differences with Mr. Iannucci and Team Obsolete on or before April 30, 2009. We arrived at that date because AHRMA had pending sanction requests with AMA at that time, and to be completely fair to AHRMA, we approved all of them, which took us out to the end of April. We continue to believe that it is in the best interest of vintage motorcycle racing to end the litigation and disagreements and move forward.
On Wednesday, March 4, Stan Simpson and I met with the AHRMA board and its officers to explain our reasoning, answer questions and reiterate the need for them to reach a resolution. Despite what they wrote on their website subsequently, we provided them with a full understanding of the issues.
AM: Can you comment on the rumor that AMA was telling AHRMA what to do?
RD: That is totally untrue. The AMA did not tell AHRMA what action it must take. That was up to AHRMA and Mr. Iannucci to work out to their mutual satisfaction. We met with Rob Iannucci and worked this out, and they needed to do the same thing.
I want to add that the timing of our initial announcement about the AMA Racing Vintage Grand Championships on April 7 was forced upon us by a statement that AHRMA posted on its website, which essentially said that AHRMA was working on a replacement venue for AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days in case the dispute was not settled. We also learned that AHRMA tried to secure one of AMA's Vintage Motorcycle Days venues out from under us. We were flooded with e-mails from members asking us if AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days was canceled, and we took this as a direct threat to our event -- the proceeds of which go to support the nonprofit AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum.
Frankly, we were shocked that AHRMA would put itself in competition with us. Why would they jeopardize our 20-year relationship in this way? So we had an obligation to tell AMA members and vintage racing fans that there would be vintage racing at Mid-Ohio this year.
On April 30, we were notified by AHRMA that they were unable to come to a resolution with Mr. Iannucci. Regrettably, this means that we will no longer sanction AHRMA events or do business with AHRMA, and we’ve notified AMA Organizers of this.
AM: What does this all mean for fans of vintage racing and AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days?
RD: Make no mistake, there will be racing at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days. On May 1, we announced a number of details of the championship (click here to view the highlights) and we are moving forward to provide the best vintage racing program yet.
AM: Can you tell us more about the AMA's vintage racing program?
RD: Vintage motorcycle racing has become very popular in recent years in all its forms, including road racing, motocross, dirt track, hare scrambles and trials. The AMA believes it is only fitting that we elevate this genre to the same level as our other amateur championships, and that we do so at the granddaddy of all vintage racing events, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days. The creation of the AMA Racing Vintage Grand Championship is the next step for us to grow AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days and also increase the visibility of our AMA brand.
We are doing this by honoring the top rider in each vintage discipline with a championship title, and the A class winners will receive an AMA Racing No. 1 plate. In addition, two riders who excel across multiple disciplines will be named AMA Grand National Champions: the AMA Track Racing Vintage Grand National Champion and the AMA Off-Road Racing Vintage Grand National Champion. The class champions and the Grand National Champions will be invited to attend our AMA Racing annual awards banquet at the end of this season, where they'll be recognized before all of our AMA Racing national champions.
As a special incentive, each racer who pre-enters will receive two $10 BikeBandit.com gift cards (per racer, not per entry). And, each racer who pre-enters will receive two free entries into the AMA’s Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Pickerington, Ohio.
Even without the incentives, the AMA Racing Vintage Grand Championships are one of the best deals in racing, particularly with AMA Racing national titles on the line. In off-road and dirt-track, the pre-entry for your first class is only $40 and every additional class in the same discipline is just $20. And did I mention that all proceeds go to support the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum -- the mission of which is to preserve the history of motorcycling and honor those who have made lasting contributions to protecting and promoting the motorcycle lifestyle?
In closing, I want to invite fans of vintage racing, as well as fans of AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, to join us at Mid-Ohio this year as we celebrate the AMA’s 85th anniversary. It’s going to be our best event yet.