Hammer and Tongs no more.

[firko]

My old friend CJ (Siege) has announced that Hammer & Tongs motocross series in the Pacific Northwest of the USA has come to an end after nine successful years. Apparently a new club and series has been set up without his knowledge and will start when the 2012 season resumes. He was informed of it only a couple of days ago but asked me to hold off on posting anything until he's got his head around the implications. With the series being USA based, you're probably thinking "What's it got to do with us?" and the answer would be 'nothing much' except that we, as a global movement are now losing one of the most unique and well presented VMX oriented sites on the 'net and Sieges wonderful T-shirts will most probably no longer be produced. http://www.siegecraftnw.com/hammer.htm

Siege (real name Christopher James) is a one off bloke whose take on life is a tad different to most of us. He is first and foremost and artist and perhaps the artistic temperment that drove his will to do things in his own style wasn't understood by some of the racers and had something to do with what's happened. I don't know the politics behind the coup so can't comment on that element but I do know that after devoting nine years into something he loved with a passion, he's pretty upset. I hope that once everythings settled down Siege can continue to contribute to our sport in some way or other...his unique talent and left field take on our sport is too much of a treasure to lose.
Below is Siege's announcement....written in his own inimitable way.......
canceling the 2012 Season is not exactly what I expected to be doing on
the morning of the first day of the year

a few days ago I was informed that for the last six months key members
of the H&T family have privately been putting together a new club -

I was not made aware of this - and so my apologies to everyone : the
tentative nature of the dates at Riverdale now makes sense
poor Dan Dale was being pulled in various directions - like a fool I
just had no idea

this will be a PNW Vintage & Evo Racing - bigger and better than Hammer
& Tongs
I am told a website & everything is all ready to go, which is excellent

the last few days have been a blur for me -
replaying conversations with all the colleagues & good friends

OK. If the scene has to compete against itself, it will be an absurd
mess.
I am prepared to get out of the way in the name of progress and unity -
we are one family- as I have been saying for the last ten years
no bad blood, no reason for it

so the 2012 Hammer & Tongs Racing Season is cancelled.

I have encouraged the new club to use the dates I have set out so
riders won't have to change their plans based on H&T dates
and here I encourage all H&T Riders and racers to help this new outfit
-

of course this includes the Tieton Highlanders over in the Yakima area
and Ryan Leach who may be putting together a Vintage Race Series at
Albany
and Woodland's revived Winter Season
and Ahrma of course, not only the NW, but all across the country -

know that all you guys are going to have work your butts off to make
this all happen
and every little effort - every little moment helps those doing the
heavy lifting- every single kind word matters

I am not going anywhere - want to get things in shape- to go out into
my cob web draped shed
to try to find all the parts of the race bikes that I have half built,
scattered here & there in boxes
these are all bikes I set out to build when I accidentally got
"involved"

----------------------------------------------------------

I am very proud of Hammer & Tongs

Nine years.

the Classes, the rules, the easygoing approach - all this keeping the
CHEAP EASY & FUN goal in focus
the key to it all is a website that highlights riders- especially those
riders who are new, or slow, and not mx stars

we are ALL stars, and I went out of my way to make riders feel
important and have something that they could say SEE? there I am ~!
to their friends

we have the bike show coming up on January 14th -
which I guess oddly will be my retirement party
the last hurrah for Hammer & Tongs -

please everyone take part - bring a bike, bring friends
we have every reason to celebrate what we have, all meanings.

- SIEGE

[tony27]

Pretty sad for that to happen behind his back, didn't think VMX was like that

[firko]

One thing I'll personally miss are the Siege models http://www.wischt.com/siegeshirts-models.htm
        
                                 Below: Siege and some of his models.
                

[BAHNZY]

Two sides to every story, would like to understand the reasoning from the other side.

[firko]

Here's Marty wearing his Firko shirt, the last design produced. I'm very honoured .
                

Two sides to every story, would like to understand the reasoning from the other side.

One thing that interest me the most is , are the new people from the conservative camp ( collecting , restoring and some racing )  or are they from the " lets burn fuel at all cost " camp ?

True Bahnzy, there's always two sides to every story and it'd be only fair to give them an opportunity to explain their reasons for the coup. Like Walter says, perhaps they're a tad more conservative and would prefer to go a bit more mainstream. I guess we'll eventually find out what happened. One thing for sure though, anyone who puts 9 years into VMX deserves a big thank you. Even it had turned to shit at the end (and I don't know if it has or hasn't) he must have been doing something right to last as long as he has.

[Graeme M]

I don't know anything of the way that the H&T thing rolled, but I have always thought Siege's website the best around. Written with a great style, amply illustrated by superb photos that make you feel you were there, and all the while so well supported by his great T-shirts and even better models! 

I have a couple of Siege shirts and wear them plenty. I admit to being slack and not buying more, but they are definitely something else.

Whatever happened, here's a big thank you to Siege for all his efforts over the years. And a special thanks for lightening my dull Monday mornings at work - I usually jumped in for a look to see what was new on his site and many of the photos from H&T have been my screen backgrounds for some years now...

[Tahitian_Red]

Hi Firko,

I guess the Mayans predicted this.    

I am stunned to hear the way it may have all come about.  I always kept abreast (no model pun intended) of the goings on, in the Pacific Northwest, but I only raced one H&T event (the inaugural Washougal VMX event) and it was amazing!  CJ had a simple formula and it worked for nine years, but I could smell the barbarians at the gates from reading some of the posting on their Yahoo Group the past few years.  H&T was a twin-shock (pre-82 YZ exception) organization and mostly geared towards 74-81 bikes, so that leaves two ends of the spectrum unserviced.  Maybe some of the grumblings for change came from there. 

I think they had a great thing going with a guy that put of lot of time and energy into a labor of love.  Hopefully the new org can live up to CJ's standard.  Viva Siege!
 

[VMX247]

Bit disgusted at the way it looks from this side,how a group of people could have no guts to approach Siege and Co with a new proposal or contract. Ashameably it happens in VMX society!!
With the amount of sponsorship and people on board that Seige has had over the years,it will be interesting to watch this new series/committee.

We'll always have a Siege shirt hangin on our line   

[BAHNZY]

Bit disgusted at the way it looks from this side,how a group of people could have no guts to approach Siege and Co with a new proposal or contract

Again, two sides to every story, and usually the truth lies somewhere in between.

[Tex]

It's a shame they couldn't have worked out some kind of compromise and worked together. His website will also be missed by me. 

Tex

[number 87]

Great series - great site - models - bikes etc. . . . . . Shame when ANY passionate racer/rider/restorer/brains trust/event organiser etc fades away.

dont mean to climb too high on the soap box but an opportunity to express some thoughts . . . .

Yea, back stabbing does happen unfortunately anywhere in the world  , and sadly VMX is not exempt . 

Having race lots of different disciplines and been involved with our sport at all levels over lots of years i have seen far more arguments, back stabbing, shit fights etc from us "older" racer/rider/restorer people and it is pretty easy to work out why . . . . . . Passion!! . . . . we have simply been around longer and our thoughts, habits and opinions are more "set in concrete". . . and hence we are less accepting of change, evolution or different points of view or opinions . . . . . . Have seen it here on this forum and within clubs.

It is human nature (we all think we are right) but human nature can be a destructive thing

it worked for nine years, but I could smell the barbarians at the gates from reading some of the posting on their Yahoo Group the past few years.  H&T was a twin-shock (pre-82 YZ exception) organization and mostly geared towards 74-81 bikes, so that leaves two ends of the spectrum unserviced.  Maybe some of the grumblings for change came from there.

 

We have to be careful this "passion" does not become destructive . . . . . . .

#87