About Us
The
American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association Ltd. is a not-for-profit organization
dedicated to restoring and competing on classic motorcycles. With well over 5,000 members,
AHRMA is the largest vintage racing group in North America and one of the biggest in the
world. The association has grown steadily over the years, reflecting the increasing interest in classic bikes. AHRMA traces its roots to efforts
to organize vintage road racing during the late 1970's in the Northeast. In
the early 80's, other group's began emerging around the nation, adding
scrambles, observed trials, dirt track and concourse events to the
competition options available for vintage riders. Among these organizations
were the California Vintage Racing Group and, in the Southeast, the Historic
Motorcycle Racing Association. By 1986, it was clear that a national
organization would be necessary to administer this burgeoning sport. AHRMA
was originally formed as a privately held business corporation. Other groups
were brought together under one banner and one set of rules, and in 1989
AHRMA was reorganized into the member-owned association of today.
AHRMA
offers vintage national and regional roadracing, motocross,
dirt track, observed trials and cross country competition.
The machines active in AHRMA these events span a full 50
years, from the 1920s to the mid-'70s. The
national-championship schedule typical includes 15-20 rounds
apiece in roadracing, motocross, dirt track and trials.
AHRMA nationals take place at some of the finest and most
historic venues: Daytona, Road-America, Willow Springs,
Miller Motorsports Park, Barber and Peoria, to name but a
few.
Realizing that the definition of "classic" varies from one
generation of enthusiasts to the next, AHRMA began adding
classes for long-travel motocross machines from the late
1970s to early '80s and for roadracers from early in the AMA
Superbike period (up to the 1980 model year). These
Post-Vintage motocross classes have been incorporated in
many of AHRMA's regional series and also have their own
national circuit. The three Vintage Superbike classes have
been added to AHRMA's normal roadrace program.
In an effort to
bring single-cylinder roadracing to the U.S. and to rejuvenate twins racing,
AHRMA in 1993 began offering Sound of Singles® and Battle of
Twins® classes, with a full national series in 1994. Bolstered by
the presence of world-class riders on machines such as the exotic Britten
V1000, AHRMA's Daytona SOS/BOT events have attracted worldwide attention.
Since 1995 the organization has been offering the almost-anything-goes Sound
of Thunder® for singles, twins and triples, with Daytona as the
opening round of the world Sound of Thunder series for several years.
Including these innovative modern bikes with the vintage program has met
with widespread acceptance and allows AHRMA to host its own events instead
being the guest of another racing
The organization occasionally sponsors
concours d'elegance, swap meets and banquets featuring world renowned
speakers. One of the organization's best-known activities began in 1992 when AHRMA and BMW of North America began promoting the BMW Battle of Legends®, extremely popular events pitting motorcycling's
legends against one another on identically prepared BMW motorcycles. Tens of thousands of
fans enjoy the Legends races during Classics Days each year during Daytona's Bike Week. Legends and non-racing Legends Emeritus have included David Aldana, Hugh Anderson, Mark
Brelsford, Don Castro, Yvon Duhamel, Chris Draayer, Don Emde, Walt Fulton III, Dick
Klamfoth, Kurt Liebmann, Dick Mann, Bart Markel, Eddie Mulder, Jody Nicholas, Gary Nixon,
Reg Pridmore, Phil Read, Roger Rieman, George Roeder, Jay Springsteen, John
Surtees MBE, Don Vesco, Walter Villa and Walter Zeller. Races have been held at
Daytona Beach, Florida; Loudon, New Hampshire; Sears Point, California; and Lexington,
Ohio. The BMW Battle of the Legends Grand Finale took place in March 1997 at Daytona
International Speedway.
In
2004 Triumph Motorcycles introduced their Thruxton road
bike. Triumph teamed with AHRMA to form a special class of
modern road racing just for this model. Prize money was
paid to winners and much interest was generation for the
Triumph Thruxton and this class.
In
2006 Buell Motorcycles and AHRMA offered a contingency
program which included prize money for racers on the Buell
motorcycles competing in some of the existing AHRMA classes.
The
2007 Season was treated to 24 hand shift Harley Davidson and
Indian motorcycles of which 20 were shipped in from
Australia. This was the largest field of hand shift
motorcycle to road race at Daytona since these 1930’s and
1940’s classics were considered modern bikes.
The
2008 Season was treated to the one-off 1600cc Irvin/Vincent
which competed at the Daytona Speedway and won its race on
Tuesday in the Battle of Twins Formula 1 class
The
2009 Road Racing races will be held at Savanna, Georgia,
Daytona, Willow Springs California, VIR, Virginia, Road
America, Wisconson, Grattan, Michigan, Mid-Ohio, Miller
Motorsports, Utah, Sandia, New Mexico and the final race is
held in Barber’s Motorsports park in Alabama. The national
road racing series is held at the above 10 tracks and our
four cornerstone events at Daytona, Mid-Ohio, Miller and
Barber attract from 15,000 to 50,000 spectators on the race
weekend.
For
the 2009 season AHRMA is proud to offer a race school taught
in a one on one session by multi-world champion Doug Polen.
His classes are live and on the track with Doug riding near
you and electronically coaching you during your track time
with a helmet to helmet communication system. It doesn’t get
any better then that.
AHRMA members enjoy a professionally edited
monthly journal "Vintage Views"; an
annual racing rulebook/handbook; access to a site on the World Wide Web (www.ahrma.org);
a variety of AHRMA logo products; and the AHRMA/MBNA MasterCard. The association
maintains a Benevolent Fund to aid riders who are injured or otherwise in need.
Surveys have found AHRMA members are mature, fairly affluent,
well-educated and very dedicated to motorcycling. Among the
findings of our 2008 survey (along with other data where
noted):
