From AHRMA media and PR man Matt Benson:


I don’t know who your “insiders” are, but after reading a couple of posts on the Roadracing World website regarding the possibility of AHRMA running some AMA Pro Thunder rounds, I could find no one at our national office or in our road race program who has been contacted by the AMA about this. One of our road race officials noted that Pro Thunder and AHRMA’s Battle of Twins classes are too dissimilar to be easily mixed, and that at high-profile venues such as Mid-Ohio and Daytona we are already pressed to get our own program run on time.

With regard to Jonathan Glaefke’s post, when it comes to safety AHRMA’s record–for Vintage or modern racing–is second to none.




From racer “Super Dave” Rosno of Team Visionsports and Visionsports Riding Schools:

I’ve been watching everything unfold with the AMA Pro Thunder series possibly moving to AHRMA. Having raced a little bit of everything, I would have some concerns as a competitor.

AHRMA is a nice organization full of wonderful people. It is a “family” racing atmosphere that was originally set up for racing vintage motorcycles. At one time, some of those bikes were thought of as oil-puking machines that were, well, old. Now, they are still old, but they are beautifully prepared machines that are reliable.

The trick comes in with traffic in two forms: Traffic on the track and traffic in the number of races at an event. As AHRMA is relatively low-key, so, this is a good organization for a “recreational racer”, a guy who races infrequently or is not “racing” at a quick pace. Some of those riders just enjoy the opportunity to get their unique machines on the track. Because of this, some of the speed differentials between those slower riders and the faster riders is extraordinary.

I have ridden a 400cc Honda in AHRMA events off and on for quite some time. I usually ride it in the fastest session. The bike makes just a bit over 50 horsepower, and I have had closing speeds on bikes while on the brakes that I though was about 40 mph. Take a 110+ horsepower Buell out and just watch what happens.

AHRMA has a great number of races during their events for the various classes of bikes spanning decades of racing in addition to several modern “alternative” classes for Singles, Twins, Triples, and two-stokes. There are only so many minutes in the day to get these races completed.

So, my question is, how will Pro Thunder riders be separated in order to maintain their safety, along with other riders, in practice sessions? Will the AMA Pro Thunder series be relegated to an eight-lap race among 17 other races during a day? Will it be combined with other races? Heats during the day for grids or qualifying? I can’t see any space for it.

Beyond these simple concerns there are more. Will the AMA send a tech staff and equipment to support the AMA Pro rules for fuel, engine concerns, and the like? Indeed, the AHRMA staff is very nice, but I did not see them enforce published rules for the MZ Skorpion Cup series time and again.

AHRMA is “Fun on Old Wheels”. OK, and now some newer ones, too. But Pro Thunder is PRO. As I see it, there potential problems, but the most serious is the possibility of rider injury.