Crawford River Classic 2011

[Burgo68]

I thought vmx was about riding old bikes having fun and reliving the past.

burgo

[Shaun G]

Begining of last yrs season saw one of the clubs jnrs enter the senior ranks. He kicks the arse of half of the senior evo riders on the grid

With respect that is not exactly astonishing.

Over the years HEAVEN has seen some quick juniors transition into the senior ranks. To the best of my knowlege they don't tend to hang around for the long haul. I am happy to be corrected on this. It seems to me that the majority of young guy's just don't have an affinity with the older bikes that will see them continue in VMX. This is part of the reason I feel that the neglection of Pre '90 and later classes as we move forward is very short sighted.
Cheers
Shaun

[palooka]

Take your boy to a National and put him in the U/19's lets see how many
arses he kicks. Does he feel warm and fuzzy beating blokes twice he's age
and plus some, and with beer guts. +1 for what 27 said. Cheers John #185

[odd1]

Those people that are complaining were not out there racing it was a fantastic two days basically riding from dawn till dusk it is exellent value for money the atmosphere was great having the juniors there is great and having 2 lap races between our races gives you enough time to get a drink and another bike for the next race and some of the juniors were racing old bikes I suggest maybe we shoud start acting our age and not our shoe size.
Steve Baker #333

[Husky Parts]

I agree with you Steven Baker. #333
See you next time and you will have to sample my firewater.
Fernando Franco

[montynut]

Good point John and i agree ( took a mate on the weekend and he said " How come the juniors don`t ride old bikes" )

Put simply, Heaven don`t want Pre 90 as I and the other 6 guys that put our hands up ( and got our names recorded ) at Canowindrea last year found out.

My proposal to the ( incoming powers to be ) was to embrace Pre 90 and run it in the Pre 78 section of racing and subsequently be inundated with extra flaggies at tracks like Lakes and Canberra ...obviously fell on deaf ears

The vote at Canowindra last year was lost in a large part because the constitutional amendment that was proposed was seriously flawed. It fundamentally and completely changed the nature of the clubs aims and objectives. It went far far further than just adding Pre90 bikes it even removed all reference to classic or vintage dirt bikes!!!.

I for one was not against the Pre90s perse just against the proposed amendment and many others held a similar view I believe.

The future of VMX is I believe most likely with the +30 age group. That age group through to the late 30s and 40s are guys and gals with families who want a family club. To me that is the essence of keeping that age group. If the juniors are not there then a percentage of that critical age group will not be there. The juniors can ride what they want but are encouraged to ride VMX bikes and this year there seems to be a few doing just that.

If a 16yr old becomes senior and spends a year in VMX and then goes off to moderns what is the problem, if they stay with VMX well and good. I agree that there is little glory in a 17yr old whooping 50 year olds but I have not seen any of them strutting around like they have won the AMA championship but I have seem a few young guys having a great time with their family. Yes one of the arses that got kicked last year was mine but who cares. Hopefully the young guys respect the older guys and don’t carve them up and visa-versa.

The sorriest sight last weekend was seeing 8 bikes in the Pre75 (or was it pre78?) trophy race. That was a bit of a shock and a worry really. There were at least two bikes out with mechanical issues but still 10 is not really that great.

I would hope that the clubs that run VMX (in whatever form) or VDT would work together for mutual benefit although at times that may not be possible.

Just my 2 cents worth, well $5 worth maybe .

[Burgo68]

Take your boy to a National and put him in the U/19's lets see how many
arses he kicks. Does he feel warm and fuzzy beating blokes twice he's age
and plus some, and with beer guts. +1 for what 27 said. Cheers John #185

Just to be clear, my son is still a junior and finishes mid field. He's no Chad Reid, but has a ball getting away racing/ camping, having a boys weekend.
The other guys Im refering to are club members / friends, not my sons.

Geee, even I get warm and fuzzy if I finish a place.

Burgo

[Nathan S]

Definitely worth more than $5, Greg.
The young guys who race with Heaven very, very rarely fit the aggressive moto grommet stereotype - I've seen more agro from the 'old blokes'.

[Barronvmx]

Sorry but I just had to add a comment even though I left the club 5 years ago when we moved to bris vegas.
My son use to ride as a junior in heaven on a RM125B and raced against the other kids who were on moderns and VMX. He had a great time and we did as a father son team. He is now 21 and although girls and partying has taken over he will still be at CD8 with me which means he's been to everyone except the first CD because we weren't involved in VMX.
When he was racing in seniors he rode in the pre 78 250 class, Evo or what ever bike I would let him ride and was near the front most of the time. He was middle pack in moderns and hated the must win mentallity, so VMX was great fun.
The future of VMX is with the juniors and there parents. But most importantly it should be fun like any sport so the VMX members as a community can enjoy each others company otherwise ther is no future.
Stop the bulshit, enjoy your racing and take less time to pick to pieces what others work hard to provide so you can enjoy you weekend off racing or assist them physically not verbally.
Heaven almost imploded years ago and that would have been a loss for NSW and the sport.
So stop running heaven like a business, start running it like a club and think about all the members not your own agenda.
Glenn W. 

[PCMAX]

I have to say the "politics" re the juniors is amusing. I started racing with HEAVEN to attempt to re live some of my mis spent youth on bikes of that era.
My sons were keen to race so I built them a couple of VMX bikes to race in the spirit of the club They both run around at the back of the pack but absolutely love the racing and weekends away.

There are some very talented/fast juniors on modern bikes and that is what it is and is and is within the clubs guidelines. Having said that I would be good to see more juniors on old bikes and perhaps a separate point score to provide a bit of incentive 'cause lets face it they are never going to keep up with a modern bike.

I'm certain that the guys on the modern bikes are having just as much fun and will still be very quick when they move into the senior ranks on some old machinery.

When all is said and done no one's racing for "sheep stations" the juniors are about having a bit of family fun & bonding and give a lot of us a welcome break from back to back racing.

[Iain Cameron]

Montynut, I agree with the second 1/2 of your post in Tas we have to run juniors and moderns just to make events a goer (not enough old farts /bikes ) . The Nifty's boys where a good example of juniors to seniors. as for the first 1/2 Im not a member of Heaven now so no comment  Im not pro pre 90 or against . I started riding in the 70's so thats whats I ride .Barronvmx well said .

[gwc162]

Thanks to everone in Heaven for a great weekends racing, riders and committe all did a great job. see you at the next one.
Geoff

[Shaun G]

The vote at Canowindra last year was lost in a large part because the constitutional amendment that was proposed was seriously flawed. It fundamentally and completely changed the nature of the clubs aims and objectives. It went far far further than just adding Pre90 bikes it even removed all reference to classic or vintage dirt bikes!!!.

What a crock of Merde!

I stewed on this over night but as the author of the proposed amendment I can't help myself from commenting.


The amendment  request was;

The motion seeks the alteration of the following section of the constitution;
Part 1 Preliminary
II. Statement of Objectives

1) Promote period, vintage and evolution off-road motorcycle events and racing
3) Open to Pre 1965 and to Pre 1985 off-road motorcycles only.

The motion requests the following;
a) Remove the words vintage and evolution from 1) so that the statement reads;
1) Promote period off-road motorcycle events and racing
b) Remove statement 3 entirely.

The change to the statement of objectives was intended to allow the membership of the club to democratically decide what "period" motorcycles that it would choose to promote. In case you don't understand, the use of the term "period" is common in all forms of motorsport rulemaking and of course was already part of the original statement.

The removal of statement 3, a statement that was introduced subsequent to the original constitution, would return the power of deciding what we ride back to the broader membership via democratic voting.

Anyway as I have said elsewhere the ship has sailed. We now have a situation where there are now two NSW organisations promoting events for Evolution and later era's with one of them also embracing Pre '90.

While the situation remains that HEAVEN'S premier Pre '78 event has you lamenting "The sorriest sight last weekend was seeing 8 bikes in the Pre75 (or was it pre78?) trophy race. That was a bit of a shock and a worry really. There were at least two bikes out with mechanical issues but still 10 is not really that great."

I hope that a remedy can be found and that the numbers will flock back to compete in the earlier classes. In the meantime Retro MX will continue forward with our view of how to progress the future of classic MX in this state. At the end of the day a division is good for neither organisation and a situation that I would rather not have. However it is the way it is.

Cheers
Shaun Gallaway #27

[GEORGE]

And the vote on this amendment should have been

carried out at a special general meeting held at a

suitable venue eg a licenced club on a week night

not at Canowindra on a Sunday morning - IT WAS A SET-UP  :'(

              GEORGE

[czeck]

NOW,  I cannot help my self
This is a CRC thread, get you politicing done somehere else, like I said many times before if you want to change something get involved.

What I saw at the CRC was a whole buch of riders having fun riding their old bikes over 2 days of great weather. The tracks were perfect. There were young guys riding and having fun, there were old guys riding and having fun, there were juniors riding and having fun. On Saturday night people were talking, drinking and having fun.
All you misery guts need a life, if you got  something to say it at the right place. And this isnt it
Rgds
Carl  Blecher