Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

T hus, after World War II , Scramb les and Hare and Hound even ts go t AMA approval. Cl ubs were formed along the lines of traditional AMA road r ider clu bs to promote th ese off-road events, whic h paid no money but awa rded trophies to t he winners. Foreign engines were sti ll handicapped by size in Scrambles and Hare and Hound races, but it' no lo nge r mattered, for on the rough courses lightness, agility and telescopic struts counted far mo re than cu b ic inches. By 1964 other pressing business in ter ests . and a wave of protest and ridicule in the motorcycle p ress nudged Harley-Davidson management to divest itself of AMA control. The opportunity came when the o ld industry association, the parent body of AMA, merged with a floundering motor scooter assocation and installed its top man, William Berry, as Lin Kuchler's successor. • Berry's job was to set up an elected body of rulemakers and mend H·D 's reputation with the enthusiast press. The first step in the democratization process was to legally separate AMA from the trade association. T h en AMA ordained a Competition Congress to make the racing rules. The first th ing this Congress did was repeal the engine displacement ru le and for the first time in seve ral decades, 75 Occ engi nes of all types raced together in AMA events. America soon affiliated with the rest of the racing world by aligning with the Fed eration International Motorcycliste of Eu rope in the late 1960's, for the First time since the war. Suddenly, AMA was avalanched with members. Berry gave lip try ing to meet the demand fo r AMA services as membership in the unwieldy association grew. Finally h is boss, the Boa rd of Directors, who were all industry personnel. resp on ded to the de mand of the cust o mers by replacing Berry with one of their number, a helmet salesman named Russel March. March promised to rev up the AMA . Under March's orders the AMA staff was expanded. An nual dues we re raised twice to pay fo r bold new programs in racing , politi cs, youth projects, insurance and public rela t io ns. The Acapsule history of the American Motorcycle Association 1924-1974 By Charles Clayton Few of man's institutions have served him so well as th e American Motorcycle Associatio n, which was fou nded in 1924 and is still go ing st ro ng. It was set up by a consortium of American motorcycle manufacturers to cert ify each others' records and d ignify vari ou s raci ng ac hieve me n ts , In the half-century since, AMA has evolved in to a struggling democracy of motorcycle en thusiasts and in dustry members, loosely allied for the good of the sport. An AMA members hip card carries a fascina ting his tory with it. AMA had been ru n almost since its fo unding un til 1957 by a man named E.C. Smith, who retired in t hat year and was replaced by a Har ley-Davidso n e mp loyee named Lin Kuc hler. Harley.Davi dson had virtually owned the AMA since Indian first we nt out of business in 19 5 6 . The racing rules at that time favored American engine designs, {side valve, . 45 -cub ic inc h V-t wi ns), giving them a 50% size advantage ove r the "foreign" {over head va lves} racing machines. It was horribly unfair, but those were the rul es, a nd m any fa mous racers obtained th e i r lfreatest satisfactions from supertunmg the little engines and "beating Har ley at their own ga me." Ear lier in t he AMA's history, thro ugh the , 19 20's and ' T hirt ies, there were only tw o kinds of raci ng - Professional racing, m eaning board track, speedway and hillcl im bing. And Enduros, field mee ts and other no n-m oney -pay in g road eve nts. E.C. Smith is credited or blamed wit h popularizing the concept of everything outside of AMA racing being treated as "out law" races. In the face of s tro ng p ublic disapproval directed against m o to rcy cle riding in general d uring t he Depression and after World War II, AMA tried to disassociate its activities an d mem bers fro m the objects of scorn and contempt by directing its own con tempt agai nst all non-AMA .motorcycling. . In order to race thei r products co mpe titively and avoid the "outlaw" st':gma. A merican importers of foreign moto rcycles devel o pe d new kinds of racing competition which catered to the non-professional or " sports man n rider. Come along on Cycle News' Camerino , Ita ly September 9-14 Incl usive, 1974 Talladega, Alabama September 1st, 1974 See the biqqies and save lots of mon ey on our new To ur Packages aboard regular ly scheduled air transportation t o a number of major motorcycle events throughout t he U.S. A special package program is inclu ded for the upcoming INT ERN ATIONAL SI X DA YS TR I AL. We are offering th is as an additional readers service. send to: CYCLE NEWS, INC. P.O. Box 498 , Lo ng Beach (lS ()5~~g . (lS. (l~\!»'Zlo'lil Ontario , California October 6th , 1974 ... _ .- - Please rush me furth er infor mation on the f lights I have checked below : Please send all inf or mat ion t o: ISDT TOUR [ ] Name [ ] Address ONTARIO ROAD RACE TAL LADEGA ROAD RACE , " .. [ ] - - - - - - -- - -- - City _ State Zip ... - - - - - - - - CA 908 0 1 I T ravel Dept. 'lil Talladega Road Race From most major U.S. cities underst and t hat all pa rticipa nts m ust complete an d" sig n t he Passenger Protection Contract, prior to anv flight reservations, or d ep o s i t m o n ie s , being accep ted by Cycle News. Soon Marc h claimed 200,000 members in the association. This was not quite accurate however, for discrepancies began to appear in Ma rc h's reports to the Board of Directors. An audit of the books and an investigation revealed a "conflict of in terest " on Marc h's part. He was apparently buying insurance, goods and services for the Al\IA, a t highl y inflated prices, through a company ·he owned. When the Board was made aware of this, they fired Mr. March and pu t a young AMA staffer, Ed Youngblood te mporarily in charge. Auditors discovered that 50,000 AMA me m bers didn't exist, but that a $350 ,000 deficit was real. V 0 I u n t eering their b usiness knowledge in a way that they hadn't anticipated when they were elected to the Board, the Directors of the AMA trim med its losses and re-organized the association so that no one cou ld take such advantage of it agai n . As the Golden Anniversary approaches, AMA is st ill undergo ing changes . Rece ntly non-industry members of the Board were enlarged to three and a new co m m i ttee took o ver profess io nal ru lemaking du tics from the Congress. AMA membership is back on the rise (really so this time) and the list of sanct ioned racing events is all-i ncl us ive. Through AMA , A mericans are full participants in every type of World event from Six-Days Trial to Speedway. As the American Motorcycle Association progresses into the futu re , it rests on a half-century of rapidly improved tradition, • International Six Days Trial - Italy Motorcycle Racing Tours Fly ioith us! AMA board was en larged to ad m it two direct ors elec ted by the en th usiast (non-indus try) membe rs. Telephone (_ - ' _ _ 5

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