If a particular club in Oz wants to do pre '90, so what. If it is what the membership wants, then that's what it will be. Does that decision influence my thinking on the future of Vintage motocross? Nope. Everyone is so worried about the "future" of "the sport" and think they have the answers. They don't. And those that claim they do, are they concerned with the sports future or trying to satisfy their own ends? Dunno, don't care. I remember some years ago the QVMX club were considering whether to allow the pre '85 bikes to run in the club. I wrote to a Mr Black (I think) who was asking for comment so I wrote and told him how the WA guys were running their club (pre '75 only, no trophies, etc.) and that perhaps the decision to include post '75 would not be in the best interests of pre '75. I never did here back from him.
I'm just glad that I live in WA where the local club knows the real meaning of Vintage motocross racing - preserving an important MX era. That support continues to grow each year. The club now has 175 members with 125 of them riding at our annual club event at Wandering this year. They don't race for gongs or rewards, only the satisfaction of racing against mates, grouped in classes of the same ability. The emphasis is on participation. Always has, always will be. Everyone from age 18 to 80 rides in this club and they all ride with the same passion and enthusiasm. The club is so passionate that a few members and the club paid for Jiri Starec and Jasroslav Falta to come and have a ride at Wandering and then again at Narrogin. There are no trophy hunters getting their ambition mixed up with their ability, so the racing, though spirited, is not a do-or-die affair. We all (most of us that is) have to go to work the next day. The Nationals is where the riders go to get their competition thrills and from past history, riders from WA have always supported the Nationals with the same passion werever they may be in Oz.
The original committee of the VMXWA club established early in clubs life that the only threat to the pre '75 club was to introduce the later classes. This was written into the club constitution and they were spot on. Quite simply, the later model bikes are just plain easier to ride and given a choice we all like things to be easy. The older bikes will then be simply left in the shed. The club is then committed to the never ending treadmill of updating eras - that of including more and more modern machines (as they are already 20 years old type logic!). You've missed the point if you think like that.
Perhaps the issue is that on the East coast there are not enough Vintage only clubs? Are the events mainly run by promoting clubs? I this is the case then there emphasis is on maximising numbers - therefore including as many eras in this VMX scene is the motivation. Was there not a club being formed in NSW just for pre '75? The tyranny of distance to tracks (and the availability of tracks) may be an influence as to why this single era club concept is too hard to get off the ground?
Another issue is that of the MA Classic MX commission getting hold of the idea and putting pre '90 into the GCR's. Then any club that wanted to run a Classic Motocross Nationals would have to run all classes of Classic Motocross - from pre' 60 through to pre '90. All on the one track?! Even now anyone wanting to run the Nationals "shall" run all classes as per GCR's. I've always thought that the Nationals should be split up into pre '75 and post '75 - but that is another topic for discussion.
There were several mentions of the VMXWA club in this post, hence my interest. I don't think that they have all the answers to the question of running a successful pre '75 club, but I think they are running pretty well at the moment - in 2010 it will the clubs 15th anniversary. The question was also asked "where will they be in 10 years time"? I reckon in 10 years time the VMXWA club will be doing exactly what it is doing now, having fun on old bikes - pre '75 with 7" and 4" of travel (unless some bright spark wants to start to include pre '85 bikes).
And, if this site is still going, I reckon there'll be an ongoing debate about including 2000 model bikes in this "Vintage' Motocross sport ...."because that's what I relate to" or "I can't get a piston for my 92 YZ450". Sorry for the length of this post. Good luck.
