Once more unto the breach: Redemption at Vintage Motorcycle Days 2023

A raging choral cacophony of man and machine, with tens of thousands joined at the grip and screaming in unison.

Despite that massive bond, the American Motorcyclist Association’s Vintage Motorcycle Days experience is so deeply individualized that no two attendees survive to tell the same hard-earned tales from Lexington, Ohio.

So it went at the 31^st edition of VMD held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for four days in late July 2023. This annual event continues to deliver, offering what might be the final bastion of burnouts, beer bongs and asbestos-laden brake pads. Having documented my first Mid-Ohio trek here, the third time was indisputably the charm.

*Attention in the paddock. The eye candy in the road racing section of Vintage Motorcycle Days is largely flawless.*

“It’s otherworldly,” AMA President Rob Dingman told me Thursday morning when asked for his take on all things to come. While cruising the swap meet, he added that there’s truly something here for everyone – and he ain’t kidding.

We’ll start with the swap meet, where title-less rolling carcasses are carted off to fates unknown. There’s plenty of clean options to be had, too, depending on your needs, budget and self-control. Our friend made a cool four-figure sale and got to watch his nut-and-bolt re-build raced during Saturday’s motocross competition.
For 10 whole bucks, the Lap for History led by event Grand Marshal Steve Wise, was hard to beat. “I won this race 40 years ago,” Wise told the assembled about his 1983 AMA Superbike Championship Series win at Mid-Ohio. A few trips around the 2.4-mile circuit on a punched-out 70cc Tomos Targa LX, dicing with a fellow Slovanian moped fan and red-lining the motor past 40mph through sweeping downhill apexes, was worth every cent. “I’ve rode every bike I own on this course,” my new friend from Kentucky said. “They’ll probably take my picture this time on a friggin’ moped.” The Gyro Island gang would like to have a word.
The sheer size of the event, diverse attractions and massive attendance levels (the AMA pegged last year’s north of 40,000 and the largest yet at that time) means there’s almost always something new to see. You could do it on a day pass, but barely.

Wide open on the loud handle and chin on the tank for full aerodynamic advantage, the Tomos Targa plays catch-up with another Slovanian moped during the Lap for History at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The Best-Laid Plans

With a real need to make up for last year’s technical and meteorological difficulties, another 1,000 miles and 20 hours of driving are now in the books. Four motos, four magazines and four stickers are all I came away with – and one could hardly ask for anything more. Hell, there was even a double rainbow Thursday night if I really needed a good luck omen.

By day, we meet people like Jackie Mitchell of the Back on Track charity. The non-profit organization provides injured racers with financial assistance and has distributed well over $1 million in benevolence, Mitchell said. Their spread at VMD included heaps of rare apparel that had been donated and/or signed by the likes of Wayne Rainey, a founding member of Back on Track.

Rainey began his motorcycling career as a dirt tracker, famously moving to road circuits before suffering a tragic and life-changing injury during the 1993 Italian Grand Prix’s 500cc race. MotoAmerica earlier this year named Back on Track as a preferred charity and the mission has since expanded from flat track to also assisting injured road racers. “Wayne and his partners did not have anything like this to support the road race guys,” Mitchell said.

*Eventually, you get to a point where nothing at Mid-Ohio really surprises you. This wasn’t one of those instances.*

VMD, where it’s always the 4^th of July

The this-couldn’t-possibly-exist-anywhere-else Ripper’s Row traditions lived on, even if the barrel racing loop was shut down. Thing is, social media banter about the madness seemed more frequent and constructive than in years past. Commentary ranged from “get off my lawn” to “lighten up, bro” so we’ll let you decide where to spend sunburnt days and fireworks-laden nights.

You can’t help but marvel at the insanity of it all, but how long until someone gets smoked at an intersection? Check the fine print because there must be a guardian angel with every gate fee. As your humble and impartial scribe, it’s personally a little too Woodstock ‘99 at times, but I’m not exactly known for having fun so take it all with a grain of salt before the whole place is turned into a pillar of it.

*Thunder Valley, the hare scramble free-for-all and some light drag racing replaced the traditional circle pit barrel racing before the weekend was out.*

Of racing and redemption

Saturday was race day and 12 of those 24 hours were spent fully immersed in a motocross mindset. The ‘74 Maico ran brilliantly, finishing in the top quarter of the 26-strong pre-75 250 B/C field with a solidly novice pilot at the controls. The established strengths of the bike (riding on rails and wedging itself underneath a few competitors) makes it a great vintage mount and more than made up for last year’s dud of a day.

While killing time with fellow racers from as far away as Florida, we all seemed to agree that just getting to the gate is the hard part: Spark plugs blown out of heads, mystery electrical faults in the pits, weather-induced carburation woes, a crank seal that clearly gave up the ghost on the line and swallowed the owner up in a fog of transmission fluid. Once that board turns sideways though, the long road here – with its trials, tribulations, rain delays and price tags – disappears in the dust.

*A Maico man stands proud on the rear wheel during Saturday’s vintage motocross competition at Mid-Ohio.*

‘Heartland’

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, or close the wall up with our dead. So said King Henry V, as per William Shakespeare. In other words: a rallying cry for one last try, and it rings true whether you finally pushed someone for position on-track, hoisted a friend on your shoulders for hot dog piñatas or crammed an impulsive buy into the family car.

You meet the nicest people at VMD. It says so on the giant billboard at the entrance. What’s more, we’re a bunch of over-bored round pegs in a sea of square (literally and figuratively) holes. Anyone who can spend nearly a week sleeping in a field, looking for a decent bathroom and figuring out if they’ve got enough cash and beer to stretch to the end – all the while riding an antiquated two-wheeled torture device that drinks gasoline, breathes fire and leaks horsepower – is just… different.

Dave Russell, who founded The Vintage Motor Company and publishes insightful looks into topics on motorcycling past alongside his artwork for classic T-shirt designs, was one of the hundreds of swap meet sellers enjoying the full-swing Friday afternoon atmosphere.

“It’s a big treasure hunt and it’s in a beautiful part of the country,” he said when asked about the allure of attending. “It’s the definition of the heartland.”