Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE V intage motorcycle racing isn't what it once was when it reached its peak in the early 1990s, but AHRMA is still out there producing vintage racing for just about every genre of motorcycle racing and there are still a few prestigious events that have some draw- ing power, such as the AMA's Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio and the Barber Vintage Festival in Birming- ham, Alabama, which has emerged in recent years as the premier vintage meet in the country. I thought it might be interesting to look back at the beginnings of vintage racing in the U.S., track its rapid growth in popularity in the late-1980s and early 1990s and its almost equally rapid decline by the early 2000s. For a time, the AHRMA races at Daytona rivaled the Daytona 200 for crowds and interest by the motorcycling press. The series produced its own racing stars, some who were legends of the past like Dick Mann, Roger Reiman and Gary Nixon and others who emerged as riders known primarily for vintage racing, chief among those being Dave Roper. For a bit of a history lesson on vintage racing I con- tacted Mike Green of West Coast British Racing in Livermore, California. Green was there at the start of the vintage motorcycle racing movement in the early 1980s and, like Roper, became one of vintage rac- ing's premier competitors. He was the perfect person to help guide me through the history of the sport. In America, vintage motorcycle racing emerged in the early 1980s, but the roots of the movement go back to as early as the mid-1950s, when the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA) was formed and there was the first organized effort to find and preserve old-time motorcycles. That movement quietly grew until according to Green one of the first informal vintage motorcycle racing exhibitions was held at Sears Point in 1974 during a Classic Sports Racing Group car event. Then, by the early 1980s, several club road rac- ing bodies were beginning to run vintage classes. One of the earliest was the AFM on the West Coast. Green credits Chris Quinn (who still runs Wheel Works in Hayward, California, today) for getting the AFM to add vintage to its program. "It was Chris who went to the AFM Board and lob- bied for a Vintage class," Green recalls. "The rules were simple; Pre-'67, with four classes: 200cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc. The bike had to be of the "period". For some years the vintage class with the AFM (both North and South) gained momentum, and there was some good times had by all." Quinn said they used to have a parade lap of vin- tage machines during the AMA National at Laguna Seca. "It was interesting if you happen to be a fan of the bikes, but boring for most fans, people put- ting around at 25 mph," Quinn said. "The people who ran it didn't want to go any faster that than, but some did. Then we went to Ontario Motor Speed- way and they decided to run a vintage motorcycle race there. If the bike was over a certain age, show up. We had guys like [Don] Vesco and Buddy Par- riott who came and hadn't been on the racetrack for years. We had a great time. "After that we came back and Mike [Green] and I sat down and talked about what it would take and we put together the rules for the California Vintage Racing Group (CVRG). We sat down here at my offices with guys like [Mert] Lawwill and Dick Mann and got our way through a three-page sheet that had all the rules in it. The only reason the rules were there was to keep bikes of similar performance on the tracks at the same time. We didn't want a put a FOUR DECADES OF VINTAGE RACING P120

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