Bob Ross couldn’t have done it any better. Here in a single scene was just about every hallmark of his timeless landscape paintings.
A massive stone archway laid down like pebbles with a paintbrush, the well-weathered barn he’d scrape with a straight edge and two towering ridge lines tapped out in full bloom all under a phthalo blue sky. Beautiful as the backdrop is, ol’ Bob never included any switchbacks or single track into that happy little world of his.
Irish Valley Motocross Park (IVMX), squeezed between the mountains that once fired coal country to life, completes the canvas. The “national” billing of the 2024 Bridgestone Tires AHRMA Vintage Motocross and Cross County Series rounds at IVMX on April 27 and 28 airdropped some road warriors among local long-timers. It might be all kumbaya at night breaking bread over the campfire, but it’s back to bar-banging come morning. To say there weren’t any flared tempers after the checkers – two racers straddled on and shouting over still-running machines – would just be a lie.
“I don’t get a thrill out of roller coasters any more,” AHRMA Executive Director Daniel May, done racing for the day, said of the high risk, high reward hobby. Those who came to collect ensured the gap between competition and camaraderie was feeler gauge-thin. You can’t win practice, but you can damn sure go win a championship… so let’s get to it.
Spring Cleaning
Northumberland County’s IVMX, three hours from Philadelphia and four from Pittsburgh, has been in operation for 20 years and hosting AHRMA events for 14 of them. The two-dayer was an early season event for national motocross and cross country disciplines, the Northeast’s season opener and Mid-Atlantic’s second race. What’s more, it was first AHRMA national IVMX has ever hosted – and owner Tim Krebs made sure his site was going to shine.
“Every arrow you see, every ribbon, tape and stake in the ground,” Krebs began, was a labor of love by the grounds crew that began back in March and IVMX rose to the occasion. “We wanted to spruce the place up,” he said after Sunday’s riders meeting, adding that course adjustments, painting, grass cutting, all-around cleaning then hanging pennant flags and banners were all on the to-do list.
The fruits of their labor showed, and it’s a top-tier compliment when people call this course a “mini-Unadilla.” Nowhere is the comparison more apt than Irish Valley’s dead ringer “Screw U” 180-degree down/upturn. Some combination of clutch, low gear and standing on the rear brake was about the best some (okay, fine… me) could muster to grind down this wall without overshooting and ending up in the woods. Krebs, a Boeing 777 captain for United Airlines, joked that “we’ve all got to go to work tomorrow” so don’t overcook it. I’ll keep that in mind for when the Northeast region returns to IVMX in August.
Home on the Range
The Irish Valley extravaganza kicked off with Friday practice, giving early arrivals access to their 1.3-mile circuit. Far-flung license plates filled up the prime parking spots denoting who arrived early in their home on wheels with a head full of steam: Connecticut, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee. Saturday’s weather had all the trappings of a raw fall day, full of coats, umbrellas, ominous clouds and evening campfires out of necessity – not ambiance.
The water trucks got a break, but Sunday brought back summer in spades. The track went from firm berms to Depression-era dust bowls that immediately obscured the racer letting them loose. Jamie Reitz, the traditional NE/MA weekend bullhorn emcee, kept the rest of us Okies roughing it out in the hinterlands informed of which races were headed to the gate. Absolutely blistering rubber band starts on the MX track and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it first kick departures for cross country were the norm; not all who wander are lost, but hesitate here and you already have.
“I’d rather do than watch,” emphasized Paul Elledge, who helms branding and merchandising for AHRMA. Proving that point, he and Executive Director May made an 11-hour trek from Illinois to the Paxinos, Pa. facility to trade their usual asphalt-stomping and get some recently-acquired cross country bikes dirty.
I’d rather do than watch, too, but tailgating Philadelphia’s first Supercross in 44 years – which just so happened to be on this very same Saturday – also sounded pretty appealing. At the very least, it would have been easier than waking up at the witching hour. “Supercross is like Taylor Swift. AHRMA is more Black Sabbath,” Elledge offered of the squeaky-clean stadium scenario versus us roughing it in a field for three days. There were, of course, plenty of conversations in passing throughout the weekend of Supercross winners past and present, race spoilers and acknowledgments of what the Legends & Heroes of Motocross tour has brought to these events.
“This checks all the boxes,” May said when asked about national-caliber events on his organization’s schedule and overall impressions of the IVMX production. A casual conversation over a communal dinner was part and parcel of what a multi-day event like this is all about. If the whole two-stroke thing doesn’t pan out, we could always form the American Historic Camping Association because these crowds really know how to take a great day and turn it into a memorable – or not – night. A bite of BBQ here, a swig of tequila there. Top it all off with sleeping quarters fit for a dog and you, too, will be reaching for an electrolyte packet come morning.
‘Worth Every Penny’
MX course conditions were befitting of a national with a coast-to-coast tour of terrain: loose sand loaded up with wood chips for substance, uncertain off-cambers, pure power sections, treacherous downhills, screaming rocky uphills, a trio of man-made tabletops and a green flag telling you to go rip up god’s country two more times.
“It’s worth every penny,” racer Peter Marcin said of the adrenaline at the first turn and the subsequent arm pump on the last lap. His spirits were not the least diminished after a soft seizure on his Husqvarna 450 CR prematurely ended his first moto. “No metal no the plug. The rings didn’t melt, so…” Marcin chuckled in that gallows humor kind of a way only a vintage racer can while prepping a 50-year-old time machine sat on a wooden crate.
‘Supercross is like Taylor Swift. AHRMA is more Black Sabbath’
Saturday’s cross country competition kicked off the weekend and took Post Vintage racers through a 4.4-mile loop with a little bit of everything – woods, fields, a high-speed run-up and back to the scoring tables. But make no mistake: This is the land of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic XC, and that meant two-plus miles of weaving through trees while navigating loose rocks and climbing and descending hills that often began or ended with 90-degree direction changes.
“Don’t stall. Don’t fall,” were the sage words of advice iron man and cross country competitor Joe Zito received at his first race at IVMX. Besides tuning his Kawasaki and Triumph woods weapons, Zito spent the off-season training on stationary bicycles in his “pain cave” and came out the other side ready to do battle. “At no part of any enduro are you going as hard as you can for an hour straight,” he said when asked about modern-versus-vintage racing while still decompressing from the cross country event he just took the top spot for. Moreover, Zito hardly looked winded after four laps and commented that “training really is worth it.”
The trails came to life again late Saturday afternoon over in the disc brake-friendly land of KDXs, RMXs and XRs. On the first “AA” row was Chris Kalhauge, chomping at the bit to rip his 1998 RM250 around the course. “Anything I can enter to race these old bikes, I’ll do it,” the Hunterdon County, New Jersey racer said. He then went on the ride of his life, getting the bike sideways while tearing down a straight then putting ‘er back in line just in time for some spectators.
Sunday’s opening ceremonies brought out the vintage XC machinery, full of short-travel Can-Ams, four-stroke Hondas and mean-sounding Maicos. One Husky owner didn’t even bother kicking for the dead engine start and took a rolling bump from friends instead. Your humble Hodaka-mounted scribe fit right in, trying to grasp the “up-stomp-stomp” shift pattern and scary bottom end noises this borrowed bike made in neutral.
A Thousand Words
Point a camera’s viewfinder in any direction at IVMX and you’ll see young pit bike pilots on a miniature MX track, entire generations of racers and wrenches, onlookers who once had the bike you’re trying to remember the starting routine for and just about anyone else with a passing interest in loud and fast things. “You can reinvent yourself,” Elledge, the AHRMA marketing man, said of reasons to join this collage of characters.
Pushing a stroller through the pits and wearing a “Moto Life, Moto Wife” shirt, Lauren Mitchell from Fishkill, New York had a whole army of future power sports enthusiasts with her. “The kids love it,” she said when asked about the children and step-children in tow. There was Maureen, who just turned 1 but had already been to Unadilla at two months old; Nick, 10, clad in a Unadilla t-shirt; Chris, 7, who has a KTM SX50 at home and Julia, 7. Mitchell said her fiance has been glued to the hobby since his first race in 2022 and “I’ve been coming to support my dad for 11, 12 years now,” adding that the clan will average out about five AHRMA races per year.
‘The culture and the people doing it are just so much more welcoming.’
Race weekend was also birthday weekend for Tim Tredanari, 34 years old and back for his fourth season of vintage motocross. “The people want to be here,” he said of the old school atmosphere as we wandered the pits catching up with folks you only see a few times a year. “You want to have fun, but have to go to work on Monday,” he added of the thrill-seeking sensibilities that keep bringing him back.
Time always seems to fly when you least want it to. Some might call this whole racing thing quaint in an era of immediate gratification and planned obsolescence, but “the culture and the people doing it are just so much more welcoming,” Tredanari said. If Bob Ross set the stage, it’s these Norman Rockwell vignettes of Americana that fill the frame. You can’t stop time, but you can slow it down to paint a big picture… even if it takes two thousand words.
Greg Adomaitis 