Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Russ March "brought the AMA into the 70's and made it a truly responsive and responsible- membership organization." pe n ch an t for "house cle aning" th a t resul ted in the destruc t ion o f hundreds of irreplaceable AMA files an d records, Bill Berry also presided o ve r some of the m ost exciting developments ever in AM A racing and o ve r the ad van ce s o r tie s 0 f a m aj 0 r move by motorcyclists into mailers of legislation and politics. On the racing front , the biggest co up was the sanctionin g of a $6 ,60 0 National Short Track Championsh ip in the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the Houston Astrodome. Th at event in February 1968 drew m ore than 34 ,0 00 sp ectators, at that time the lar gest crowdeverto have seen a Grand National motorcycle race. The Astrodome National has grown into a two-nigh t show including a pair of championships and in 1973 the Texas race weekend was expanded still further to include a Sunday a f tern o o n exhibition of international speedway racing. The new system of districts and regions formed the basis for a system of regional and district referees and a general upgrading of the MIA system of officiating races. The professional rider point fund, established early in the '60s , was growing more substantial with each year and the 1969 rule book issued the first AM A guidelines for running a professional motocross race. Outside the competition area, a major trend had developed toward motorcycle involvement with the legal and political processes. Developments along this line were regularly reported in AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING. These articles usually penned by Paul McCrillis (prior to the establishment of the MIC) under the title of "Out of Committee" were intended to involve AMA members in the political process by making them aware of what the legislatures of the country could and would do for him (and to him) as a motorcyclist. AMA membership continued to skyrocket in proportion to increasing motorcycle sales with Berry enjoying the pleasure of announcing the registration of the 100,OOOth member in March 1968 . A major developrnen t in the area of sportsman competition was the inau~ation 0 i system qualify rid ers to parncipate In d istrict, regional and nat ional sportsman c h a m pio nship events . All sportsman events sanctioned at a sanction meeting were to be point-payers: and an im p ressive bank of IBM data processing equipment was brought in to handle the logistics of awarding points to the tens of thousands of riders who would earn them during the year. Plastic membership c a r ds and c re d i t-card type data imprinters for registration at sportsman even ts helped solv e some of the problems created during the conversion to a sportsman points program. But th e big problem then, as now, was one of getting a prompt and accurate report of finish positions and points from the club or promoter of the sportsman even t. Berry regularly editorialized on the "garbage in -garbage out" theory of data processing which notes that if the information put into the computer is incorrect or inadequate, then the computer cannot be expected to spew out data that is correct. One of Berry's final acts as executive director was to go to Europe to work out a tentative agreement for American Motorcycle Association admission to the Federation Internationale Motocycliste . Berry's resignation was announced in May 1970, with the note that "prior to the selection of a new executive director, a re-evaluation of the duties and responsibilites of this key A~IA position is being undertaken by the Executive Committee." That ambiguity was the only "official" indication of any dissatisfaction on the part of the Executive Committee with the performance of Berry, but it is generally conceded that his was not a voluntary resignation. The review of the duties of the executive director lasted throughout the summ er of 1970 during which time Berry's deputy director, Garry Payne, ran the organization with guidance from president Will i am B agn all . Developments included a format ch an ge which marked the discontinuation of publication of AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING and th e t IishmeJ;l 0 AMA EW th Bill Berry created the spark for the AMA's venture into legislation and politics. official monthly publication of th e AMA. The first issue injuly 1970 carried the first actual even t , coverage of a motocross race ever offered in an AMA publication. Shortly after Berry's departure , the Executive Committee rescinded an earlier vote to raise the membership du es t o 55 effective june I, 1970, and to include AMA NEWS as a m embership benefit. Instead, a second vote left the dues at $2 and AMA NEWS remained an optional benefit avai lab le at a cost o f $ 3 per year. In September 1970, with no maj or announ cement regarding changes of duties or r esponsibilities of the ex e cutive dire ctor followin g its investigation, the Executive Committee named 3 3·year -old Russell E. March to that post. A member of the Board of Trustees and of the Executive Committee of the AMA, March had previously been a sales manager for the Buco Helmet division of American Safety, Inc. It was also in 1970 that the name Ed Youngblood, who would eventually succeed' March, appeared without · fanfare on the masthead of M1A 1\'EWS under the title Managing Editor. Youngblood was hired to replace Garry Payne-who left Columbus and moved to the West Coast after being passed over for the executive directorship. March quickly picked up where Berry had left off, joining AMA president Bagnall in a trip to the fall Congress of the FIM in France. The American Motor cycle Association was unanimously accepted at that Congress as the American affiliated organization of the FIM. The flamboyance and international scope of that first Russ March accomplishment would typify most of the activities in which he was to involve the AMA. Following his unceremonious dismissal less than three years later on grounds of "conflict of interest," March's defenders would note that he brought the A.1\1A into the '70s and made it a truly responsive and responsible membership organization . His critics would accuse him at best of bad management and at worst of thiev .ry. March 's successor, Ed Youngblood , now general manager of the AMA, says, "Enough opinions and rumors exist about the AMA 's management by Russ March to rule ou t any possibili ty of a real c o n census on his successes and failures at this time. Moreover, many of the programs he established are still being carried out and these simply cannot yet be judged. There is no denying that the Russ March yearshave left us with some very serious problems, but I really don't think anyone can yet judge how that three-year period will ultimately fit into the overall picture of the AMA's history." Youngblood. who was March's first hiring at the AMA, continues, "Upon his departure from the executive director's chair in August, 1973, March immediately became the scapegoat for everything that migh t be wrong wi th the American Motorcycle Association. "I think that as we work out the problems we've inherited and develop new programs during a normal evolutionary process, it will become less and less popular to heap all past AMA problems on the head of that single individual. It will become more apparent, I think, that bad decisions were the result of an inadequate organizational structure from top-to-bottom, Russ March simply made it abundantly clear that in 1970, the AMA had a hundred-horsepower engine in a ten mile-an-hour frame." Certainly any analysis of what Russ March did to the American Motorcycle Association is only fair if it follows an analysis of what he did for the AMA. March's style leaned toward announcement of the u new ." Following FIM affiliation, he arranged for a dues increase to 57 ,effective january I, 1971. Revenue generated would pay for new programs, new services and a new look, including an insurance program protecting the A.I\1A member whenever and wherever he might ride his motorcycle. Underwritten by Continental Casualty Company of Chicago, the program offered the amateur competitor as well as the casual road or trail rider 51,000 in death and dismembermen t insurance and 510,000 medical coverage. Nothing approaching thiLsort Qf coverage_had

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