You guys are great!!! Thank you POG.

[tlanders]

Dear friends,
As many of you already know, I am stepping down as your Cross Country Coordinator as of the end of this Cross Country season. I joined AHRMA in 2001 after going to Mid Ohio, the Jack Pine and the ISDT Reunion Ride in 2000 on my original 1971 steel tanker Six Day Penton. The last times I had ridden it before 2000 was at the Jack Pine Enduro and the Berkshire International Two Day Trial in 1971. It sat in my barn for 29 years.
Now as a new AHRMA member, I looked at what AHRMA had to offer and I entered regional and national MX races and the national CCs in 2001 and went back to the ISDT Reunion Ride which didn't seem to be affiliated very closely with AHRMA, but I loved the event best of all – lots of seat time, lots of neat people. After returning to the Berkshires for the 2003 Reunion Ride which was the 30th anniversary of the first International Six Day Trial in the US and Rosemary and my 30th wedding anniversary, I thought it was a shame that we only had that kind of fun event once a year. I called Dave Lamberth and asked if I could try to find a club who would be willing to host another one similar to it and he gave me the go ahead. The following spring, the Razorback Riders hosted our first two day ISDT Qualifier in Combs, Arkansas. Only around 30 riders came, but it was a great time. The next year we had over 50 riders and it has grown ever since. I think the tire changing contest and the "panty-cross" races in the late Saturday afternoons helped it grow.
In 2008 we got the idea to expand the ISDT type of events to run for three weekends or six days of riding and started the Six Day Series in 2009. In 2010 we were attracting close to 100 riders for the whole series. It was quite a challenge to ride the same bike, they were marked with lead seals at the first event, in the same class for six days and over 200 miles and complete all sections of each race. That year we ended up with only 29 riders who made it and only 4 out of 19 three man teams who tried it made it to the end. It's a great challenge on a 35 year old bike.
A funny thing happened at the 2003 Reunion Ride. At the end of the first day I was in second place behind some guy I didn't know on a Husky. At the final 5 lap motocross, I looked for his number on the line but couldn't see it. I got the hole shot but slid out in the second corner and everyone passed me. I was able to start picking off the riders until I saw his number coming up, when I caught up to and passed him on my 1973, 175cc, Jack Piner Penton, he was riding a new KTM!!! After the race he told me he had signed up to ride a Husky but it didn't start on Day 1 so he just fired up his new KTM and rode it for the entire weekend instead!!! The race referee helped make things right but it was obvious that the Reunion Ride needed some tech inspection to make things fair to the riders who were going for AHRMA national championship points. The next year at Tulsa, we had tech inspection at the reunion ride!!!
In the cross country events in the early 2000s, I noticed that a number of riders were really riding in the wrong skill level class!!! So I wrote a letter to the AHRMA board and suggested that we have a three member national cross country rider grading committee to decide on the skill levels of our riders and I would volunteer to create some sort of objective system to record lap times to give them the ammunition to make the decisions.  I guess I didn't know how things worked because I got a letter back saying "Great idea –you are the new national rider grading committee head." In my search for a way to do the lap time recording, I was fortunate to find Brian Jahelka who was scoring for the Kansas State Hare Scramble series and was thinking about creating a computer based scoring system for hare scrambles. With permission from Dave L, I commissioned Brian to create the system – we were to be the guinea pig and he gave us a very low price to write the program. Dear Dave Mungenast and AHRMA split the $1000 cost of what would initially become a $3000 to $4000 scoring program for other clubs. Armed with this information, I believe our rider grading committee has done a great job in helping our riders get into the correct skill levels and our cross country series is very fair. Also, with the addition of the equipment to use inexpensive transponders, the MotoTally scoring program allows riders to see how they are doing during the race.
We tried a couple experiments that didn't work as well as we hoped. The first was to offer novice only races. It is true that the novices hate having to pull over all the time to let faster rider go by. This stops them from developing a rhythm and can be dangerous in addition to frustrating the faster riders. The problem with the novice only races was our new rider grading committee kept moving the novices up to intermediate and we ended up with a very small number of novices!!! For the last couple years we have put all the novices in the Vintage race and this has worked out well as it has evened out the number of riders in the Vintage and PV races and kept them out of the way of the PV riders.
The second failed experiment was my attempt to make the Cross Country series truly a national series when I scheduled 2, two day weekend events in California in 2009. We had 17 riders show up for the first weekend and so I cancelled the second weekend. If Rob and Debbie Poole hadn't brought their whole family to race, sleeping in the back of their pickup and on the ground, we would have had less than 10 riders. I learned why this idea failed, they never heard of a "cross country" race in California. If I had simply called it a "desert race", I was told we would have had millions of riders show up!!!!
One thing we did that really helped increase the number of riders was putting on two day cross country only race weekends. The idea was to lure modern cross country and enduro riders, who don't motocross race, into AHRMA. It worked. It also allowed riders to get two races in for one weekend's worth of travel expense.
You'll notice that I kept saying "we" in the paragraphs above. This organization is full of the best people in the world to work and play with. Knowing that I will leave out an awful lot of folks who have been instrumental in building the Cross Country program to the place it is today, I absolutely depended upon Dave Lamberth, Tim and Polly Grow, Chicago Jerry, James Smith, Bill Ryburn, Corky and Patti Root, Lynn Burton, Tamara Lewis, Craig and Becky Hayes, Brian and Lutz Kirby, Lee and Vivian Stebleton, Dwight and Debbie Rudder, Peggy Cozort, the Reunion Ride Committee, our sponsor the Penton Owners Group, and many others to pull off the races each time. The volunteer list that I make up for each race, has places to write down 24 names, for as many functions, to make it all come together. You guys and gals are great, you never said no when I asked for help.
It has been quite a ride for the last eleven years. I turn 70 next February and feel it is time to turn over the reins to a new leader. We are very fortunate to have Lynn Burton willing to take on the responsibility as AHRMA Cross Country Coordinator and Chicago Jerry to work out the schedule and lay out many of the courses for 2012. Lynn has organized and put on many large national AMA ISDE Qualifiers and Dual Sport Rides over many decades and we are blessed to have him as our new Cross Country Coordinator.
Teddy

[Mick Milakovic]

Thank you Teddy and Rosemary, your energy and dedication are an inspiration to us all.  Keep it between the ditches!

Mick

[derek martin]

Teddy,
    Big project - well managed - nicely done.
                              Thanks and regards,
                                       Derek Martin

[Jeff D]

Thanks Teddy (and Rosemary!)
You left some big shoes to fill...no wonder both Lynn and ChiJerry had to take the reins from you.  The AHRMA cross country series and the ISDT Reunion Ride in particular have reaped many benefits from your tireless dedication.  Sad to see you step down, but hey...you've earned the right to ride without all the headaches for a change!  Great job in every way, Teddy!

Jeff DeBell

[wfopete]

Teddy, as said before you have done a great job!

Now you can come to the races without holding down 2-3 other jobs in the weekend and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Looking forward to seeing you in 2012!

Pete Petrick
175 Jackpiner
Slow but Good

[Paul Danik]

Teddy,

    I will never forget how excited you and Rosemary were at the Penton featured marque display at Mid-Ohio in 2000 as you told us your Penton story, and what a great story it is.

    My hat is off to both you and Rosemary for all that you have done.  

Paul  

[ALB]

Teddy,

You have done a wonderful job of organizing and running the AHRMA Cross Country events. It is because of feedback from our members that participate in your events that convinced the POG board of trustees to sponsor this event and continue to do so for the 2012 season.

I don't know how you managed to run things this past year with your struggling to recover from that illness. You must be Superman! Your enthusiasm has helped to keep the vintage sport alive, and I know that you deserve some time off to build your health back up to where it needs to be. Thank you for all that you have done!

Alan Buehner