Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128205
AHRMA Post-Vintage National Round 2 best efforts of another Team Italy rider - Roberto Checchin on a '78 Suzuki - collected a clean win. Ed Sherry Jr. was another rider who likes to play in the mud, starting his multiclass race day with a third. Soon, word was out that there would be only one moto, as lap times were increasing as the top layer of mud got peeled away to reveal the kind of sticky gumbo that brings to mind freshly poured concrete. The Open Age Expert and Intermediates are popular classes, with Team Italy's Roberto Cancelli winning the Expert division on an RM, as Colorado's David Mires chased him (Left) Fast and "Furio": Furio Francesco was part of the large Team Italy group and dominated the day's action, muddy or not. He powered his borrowed RM to a win in the supercompetitive Over-40 Expert race. (Below) Cincinnati's Tom Bellamy powered his yz through the muck to collect a pair of seconds in the Over40 Expert and Grand Prix. RAIN RUNS RAMPANT . AT AHRMA NATIONAL tage raters headed their way. With only two weeks to work with, and then the nonstop soggy conditions, what could've been one of AHRMA's best vintage venues instead turned into a survival contest. After waiting to see if the track would improve, Dave Boydstun, AHRMA's off-road czar, called the riders' meeting to order a couple of hours late and announced that the day's Post-Vintage National was going to proceed as scheduled crummy weather or not. Dave had some other news for us: a new record for post-vintage rider turnout of more than 250 entries, and he announced that the post-vintage (bikes from '75 through '83) riders are now the fastest-growing segment of AHRMA. With that ringing endorsement, practice and then racing finally got under way under angry-looking skies - at least for some. Conditions during practice were actually the best the track would see all day, yet many riders came off the track from practice shaking their heads, and more bikes ended up on the trailer. If you could stay upright and keep moving for four laps, you were going to finish well, in part because so many riders voted to sit this one out after seeing the conditions. Of course, some guys are fast no matter what the track is like, as Furio STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARK THOMPSON WALDO, FL, FEB. 28 eni, vidi, vici" rang true for the Team Italy riders who came to Florida to help AHRMA kick off Bike Week. Unfortunately, we don't know the latin for "wet" and if there's one word to describe AHRMA's vintage motocross races, that would be it. It was very, very wet, as new arrivals quickly discovered as they were pointed toward the semisolid portions of the rice-paddy parking lot at the new Waldo, Florida, track. With heavy rains on Thursday, Friday brought more of the same, and the expected starting time for the day's fun kept dropping further and further back. Many riders took one look at the soggy track and the dark skies and never bothered to unload. Waldo is a new stop on the AHRMA National circuit, and the event came close to not happening at all. The original promoter who leases the land from the owner made promises that AHRMA discovered he couldn't deliver, including the use of land that isn't even part of the property. When the landlord discovered this, he evicted the first promoter, and Randy Woho and his crew took over the giant task of getting the facility ready for the hundreds of vin- "¥ 58 MARCH 19,2003· eye I e neVIl's Francesco of Team Italy (all dressed in matching UFO gear) powered his RM to the holes hot ahead of the Over-40 Expert pack, with Florida's Kevin Hodge following on an '81 Maico and Cincinnati Yamaha/Honda dealer Tom Bellamy on a YZ250 a close third. All three riders hardly seemed to notice the glop that was stopping others dead or sending them on out of control off-track excursions. Hodge and Bellamy kept the fast Italian visitor close but could never make up the distance. Some riders liked the sticky goop, however, and perhaps nobody more than Dave Berger as he began an assault on multiple classes on a day when most riders chose not to ride at all. Berger powered his '81 Honda CR250 into the lead and, despite the home on his Maico, with Ohio's Tom McAllister in third. In the Intermediates, Ed Sherry Jr. was having some more muddy fun on his way to a win, with Virginia's Thor Lawson ('78 Honda) and Georgia's Mike Heath (Husky) taking the place and show spots. A race that many in the crowd were waiting for was the last moto of the day, the Historic 500 Expert and Intermediate. Ron Pomeroy, a name long-associated with Bultacos, was behind the throttle of an immaculate 370 Pursang prepared by Woody Grave's GP Products in Florida. Pomeroy quickly demonstrated how a pro rider does things, powering the red Pursang into the holeshot and a solid win, roosting through the last turn on each lap with a monster roost