Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

D-36talks to itself: Secession orno? By Lane Campbell District 36 has not seceded from the Union - at least not t his week. T hough t he question of bolting t he AMA was bro ught to a head a t th e gen eral meetin g J an uary 14, t he d ist rict's Bo ard of Direct ors is determin ed to with old action an d carefully ta lk it all o ut. T ho ugh sub-surface d iscon te n t has alw ays be en p res en 1, it was in sura nce th at fin ally brou gh t the pot to a b oil. News th at th e AMA was droppi ng blanket rider med ical insura nce coverage as of Decem ber 31 triggered th e foll owing eve nts: A few clubs either st opped paym en t on th eir ch ecks fo r AJI,IA san c tion fees , or a t least attem pted to st op paymen t , - CMC 's S tu Pe ters fle w to Fairfield , California th e nigh t of the meetin g to give t he club d el e g ate s a dol lars-and-cen ts presentation o f his organization 's ins urance and sanction program. - AMA Field Representative Mik e He nshaw went in to th e meeting prepared t o re ceive hell fo r actions taken by th e Execu ti ve Board - and he did. What happen ed at the genera l meeting and at th e following week's board mee tin g was either a trib u t e t o democratic proc ess or an irrit a ting stalemate, d ep ending on one's political stance . T h e standard porridge of complaints about the operation & policies of the AMA had to be heard all over again; then Pe ters, ac com p anied b y Maynard Gerrity from International Ra cing Insuran ce Asso ciates (Canada), laid the CMC package on the tab le. Their co vera ge is built a ro und a $ 3,000 death & dismemberment b enefit and a $3,000 limit , SlOO deductible medical policy th at p ays 100% o f covered e xpenses. A number o f personal liability /property damag e op tions may be built aro und thi s "co re package ", depending upon circu mstances. For instance. an y closed-ci rc uit d ir t race wit h some fo rm of co urse control (this excl udes cross-coun ty o r en d ur o ), with $ I 00,000 PL/PD w ould co st a blanket $1 70 for th e event, regardless of number of entries. With $ 3 00 ,0 00 liability, th e ta b w ould go to $200, and w ith$1 millio n liability, the cost would be $220. For a road race, ad d $5 0 across the board th e fo rego ing figures. For roinis, medical co verage a lo ne (no liability) i s a va ilable a t $ 105 , and for cross-co un tr y or enduro, medical-only co verage can b e had a t 1.5 0 per rider, up to l!00 riders. AMA Congressman Lercy M cDonald then spelled out .a typical insurance package available through t he AMA, .using figures he had recently received by mail. The policy i s a $ 10 ,0 00 limit $ 100 deductible medical co verage that pays 60r. of c o vered exp en ses. The premiums were based on an event with 2 50 to 300 entries, broken down by type of event. For motocross, the premium would b e $222, for hare s crambles $ 174, and for short track $ 129. Liability coverage would cos t ex tr a. O th er plans were availabl e a t h igh er o r lower cost , depending on numb er o f rid ers and other facto rs, but no hard and fas t figures wer e available the nigh t of th e me e tin g. At this point, th e meeting divi ded in to two c am p s: o ne side saying, "We've hear d this much , let's hold off and fin d w ha t other insurance is available independent of either AM/\ or CJI,IC and .s let the Board decid e", and the other sid e: saying, "\Vhy wait aroun d ? Let 's drop out of AMA and go with CMC now!" Before this debate co uld come to a real head, the Boa rd was thrown into a n em ergenc y session over a third fa ct or the cancellations of the Y ·A~1A program. T he showdown came after the general meeting reconvened. Under D-36 by -laws the only op tio n the delegates had was to try to veto the board on the ru le req ui ring AMA membersh ip to ride for D-36 points. T he measure fell short of the necessary 2 /3 majority by two votes. T his left the Board free to ta ke up the ins urance q uestion on January 21, kn ow in g that a sizable nu m ber of member clu bs wanted so me sort of change . When th e board me t o n that date , eigh t o ut of the nine members were pr esen t to hear pr esen ta tion s b y S tu Pet ers fo r CMC, Mayn ard Gerrity fo r Internation al, and Virgil Craycro ft fo r K .K. In suran ce Admin istrators. Mr. Craycraft, represen tin g his co mp any a t th e mee tin g, was also associa te d wi th th e AMA program at o ne ti me . Accordi ng t o o ne b oard memb er , tryi ng to co m pa re all th e di ffer ent insuran ce pr ograms was lik e co m paring ap ples an d o ra nges, du e to the differen t number s invo lved, bu t on an overall bas is, th e ins u ra nc e pa ckages were surprisingl y co m pe ti tive wi th each o ther; di ffering a po int her e, a p o in t there. After wa d ing th rou gh t est im on y and d is tric t business until I a.m., the bo ard voted to co ntin ue th e saga into a special mee tin g February 4 . Whatever is d ecided at the mee tin g will then go to the fu ll m em bersh ip ·o n February II for approval. Analysis Any rep o rt of fu rthe r d evelo pme n ts is in d an ger of becomin g a co ntin uing " Play boy Philosophy " . T h e deb ate co u ld co nti n ue for weeks. T he D-36 Board of Directo rs is d e termined to mo ve at its o wn pace and attem pt to h e a r all th e fa cts . Gauging th e membership of th e dis t ric t, it ap pears that a rough 25% of th e clubs arc staunc h AMA and will fight t o keep th e Dist rict in. Another 25 % ar c ready t o bolt th e AMA right now and take up CMC san cti ons. (In fact, Cyclcland Speedway of Chi co has ap pare n tly d on e so independently) . The remaining 50% is still a swing vote , a nd these people seem willing t o give pro- and anti- AMA fo rce s a fai r hearing. T he AMA is definitely o u t of the insurance business, and the burden of obtaining rider co verage has sh ifted to t he individual clu b o r promoter, regardless of whose sanction package is adop ted . T his increases th e temptation for promotin g clu bs to run totally " outlaw" events - no san c tion, n o insu rance - in th e belief th at th ey will st ill get enough riders t o su p port a low-budget program. Th e d efen sive m easures th at th e AMA (an d p ossib ly other sanctioning bodies) co uld take against such events migh t se t the sport bac k some 10 years. The de cisions of th e AMA ruling h ierar ch y ar c t aking too long t o filter down to th e field p eople ; th e clu b delegates kn ow it , and t hey're angry abou t it . Putting more Class "A " members on the Execu tive Bo ard may help. The cl u b p eople also wan t a detailed breakdown of c osts for th e AMA's enthusiast and co m petit io n programs, and Mike Henshaw has promised to ge t it for th em. On e thing the AMA still hasn 't gotten across to th e D-36 people is how vital their political action programs are to co mpe tit io n riders as well as enthusiast members. Onl y a few of th e delegates to th e Jan. 14 meetin g had any feeling for this, or were willing to see their membership money support such programs. This kind of sentiment should s tand out as a kind of danger signal, as w e go in to an e Ie ct io n year. (Po liticians up for re-el ection are notorious for taking p ot-shots at any minority that docs not h a ve a w e l l- f in a n c e d "defe nse program"). Even w ith all th ese cross-curren ts o f discon ten t, at least one Board member to ld Cycle News, "There's going to be so me splinte ri ng. no doubt about it , b ut basicall y the d istrict is still pretty so lid." At least until m id -February, District 36 is still officially AJI,IA all the way. • D&S ~ OTORCYCLE CARRIERS ~ ~ rt : ~ ' , SING~ ' .. I ,. Alhambra Honda 1334 W. Valley Blvd. Alhambra , CA Footh ill Cycle Ace. 3067 Footh ill Blvd. La Crescenta, CA Santa Ana Honda 301 W. Warner Santa Ana , CA Alhambra Yamaha lB50 W. Valley Blvd. Alham bra, CA Glendale Yamaha 1120 S. 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