AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days Festival 2018! July 6th 7th 8th!

[Chuck78]

https://www.amavintagemotorcycledays.com

JULY 21st - 24th, 2022!!!!!

EDIT - UPDATING THIS THREAD/TITLE FOR THE 2022 DATES! NEW POST BELOW!


So...
The American Motorcyclist Association every year puts on one of the two best vintage motorcycle events in the entire United States in early July in central Ohio...
One of my only mandatory, MUST-ATTEND events of the year,
AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days @ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, Ohio...

I believe this is the VJMC (Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club) show in the infield of the track:

For those of you who don't know what it is or have never attended, this is a three-day or better weekend of vintage road racing, sidecar racing, vintage hare scramble woods racing (awesome!), vintage motocross, vintage woods trials, new bike demos, builder booths, vendor booths, live music, other live entertainment like the Wall of Death motordrome show, etc... And a HUGE vintage swap meet...modern trials demos, new bike dealer demos, especially from KTM very regularly, vintage bike shows, vjmc seminars, custom builders booths, etc; and best of all, 23+ acres of swap meet and about 50 or 60 Acres of motorcycle fanatics packed into two big fields of camping areas, with all sorts of entertainment from fellow campers all weekend! Heck I used to thoroughly enjoy just going for the day, and just browsing all of the hundreds and hundreds of spectator bikes lined up in 3 rows along the 1/4 mile or so main boulevard road running from the top of the track to the infield, and browsing the swap... honestly it's such a big race track facility and massive swap meet that it is difficult to do much more than that since the swapmeet can take you one or two days to look through everything thoroughly, and the whole atmosphere is an overwhelming sense of motorcycle meetup heaven...

This is what I think they call the Lap of Legends (?), you donate $10 or so to the AMA Museum in Pickerington, OH, & you get to do parade laps of this world-class road race course during the lunch breaks! Wes Cooley led the parade laps on one of his old Suzuki/Yoshimura GS1000 race bikes 2 years ago!

This is a must-attend event for anyone within 6 or even 12 hours travel time of Central Ohio!

You can get in Thursday July 5th after noon or 3pm to get a camping pass ($20?) And stake out a primo camping spot. I highly recommend camping Thurs night thru Sunday AM to get the full experience... even if just sleeping in your car and making friends with neighbors who have campfires!


Wes Cooley, Mr. GS1000 legendary Yoshimura superbike racer, himself...

One of the best weekends of the summer... hit me up if anyone is going, especially if they have additional time to kill and want to ride a ways east for some decent twisties rides (the REAL GOOD STUFF is a few hours east/southeast, but there's entertaining riding not too far away).

hope to see you guys there!

Chuck

 

[Guest]

Going to try and ride down from Toronto this year if a few of my buddies are down to join!

 

[steve murdoch]

Great pics!
Thanks for the info, Chuck.

 

[bwringer]

Seriously pondering this one...

Do you have to join the AMA to have a good time here? In other words, aside from the admission discounts, what would you miss out on without an AMA membership?

 

[Chuck78]

Seriously pondering this one...

Do you have to join the AMA to have a good time here? In other words, aside from the admission discounts, what would you miss out on without an AMA membership?

Nothing. Other than admission discounts...
And if you just sign up for the AMA email newsletter, they will even tell you when you can purchase tickets ahead of time for a discounted rate. They go to full price once it gets within a few months of the events.

It's a pretty awesome time just hanging out there, looking at spectators' bikes, and browsing the gigantic swap meet which will take the better part of a day even if you are just glancing at every booth...

 

[storm 64]

NO, It is not necessary to have a AMA membership. There are no membership only seminars or shows. Now, I'm a member of the VJMC and I work their membership booth. In return I get free admission... It really is a fun time. It's more Japanese/European motorcycle oriented. Not much Harley/people. Plenty of hotels around if you're into that. If you like to party and have fun with all the campers, I'd recommend camping at the track. It's a fun time.

 

[Chuck78]

Going to try and ride down from Toronto this year if a few of my buddies are down to join!

AWESOME!!!
If it weren't for Lake Erie being in the way, it would be a fairly short road trip! Let me know if you come ahead of time, or wanted to take another two days off after the festival, I can take you on some killer twisty roads down near Marietta Ohio in the Wayne National Forest vicinity, really awesome Appalachian Hills. If you want to put in a seriously long day, less than 400 miles though, I can take you on about a 10-hour ride plus breaks that will hit almost all of the best of the really amazing roads that I love to ride down that way.

July 4th ("Independence Day" for those of us south of the Canadian border) is the day before I pack up and head out to stake out a Thursday camp spot and check out the swap meet the day everyone is just setting up. National holiday, day off work, so I may wrangle some people together for a good ride down south...or I may save my energy for the weekend at Vintage Days...

 

[Chuck78]

A well produced video of some swap meet highlights from a custom-builder's perspective:
https://youtu.be/V11N8dIUpm8


Here's a decent video ride-through compilation of the event, note: the campground area unsanctioned "barrel racing" shown here is what I would call tame daytime practice runs before the after 5 p.m. crowd gets there!
https://youtu.be/QHZNvUm14G0

Lots of other videos of all sorts of different prespective of the weekend...


Here's the road race track:
(Camping is the two fields on the left, vintage MX area is next field at bottom left just out of the picture, swap meet is the fields on the right over to the red barn. Official displays and booths of custom builders, VJMC bike show, trials demos, Wall of Death Motor drome vintage thrill show, paddock, etc ate all above that at the far end of the track beyond the swap meet fields an into the "infield" portion of the road race course)

Lunchtime parade laps:

2 years ago, Wes Cooley was the Grand Marshall and legendary guest of honor... last year Jeff Fredette the famous Kawasaki KDX (& 1st few years on Suzuki PE250 Enduros!) Enduro racer was present, racing, signing autographs, etc...

Sidecar racing is always one of the must-see road race events...

 

[Chuck78]

If you like to party and have fun with all the campers, I'd recommend camping at the track. It's a fun time. ��

Yes... camping there in a massive filled with thousands of other vintage bike fanatics is like a whole different world than just visiting the event during the day time on Friday or Saturday - which is also amazing, but what's better than that? Doubling or tripling the awesome weekend experience by camping there!!!! Bringing a dirt bike makes it even more amazing, since you're camping in the dirt & there are unsanctioned after-hours no-rules races around trash barrels in between the 2 main camping fields! Some seriously amazing antics!

Anyone looking for entertainment, or any youngsters or party animals looking to have a wild time, look no further... Just go to "Vintage Daze" and hang out after hours at the fence row between the first and second camping fields, AKA "Ripper's Row!"



This article does a pretty good job of summarizing it, 4 of our crew are in a bunch of those photos & you can see our front row (to the barell races) campsite!
http://www.chinonthetank.com/2015/07/mid-ohio-2015-photos/

Campground after 5pm:
((having a vintage dirt bike while camping here is definitely a huge bonus!))

Then...once it's too dark to race around barrels, there's the corner party from the Louisville dudes Old Kentucky Kickdown I think they are called... they do some cool vintage bike events in Louisville Kentucky, and host a campground "Corner Party" and burnout "contest" until at least midnight every year! It's a good nightcap for a vintage bike festival while camping in a field full of vintage bike fanatics...

 

[Jedz123]

This is noted in my calendar. I get weekends off anyway so I will likely blast out and camp for a night or two then blast back Sunday morning.

 

[Chuck78]

My favorite motorcycle series/host Jamie Robinson (famous Isle of Man TT etc racer) put out a GREAT 27 minute video on AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in 2017... I somehow just now spotted it (it's that point of the winter where I start longing to ride even worse, and start watching all kinds of cool videos of riding!)... it's no surprise I never spotted Jamie at the event, it's just jam packed full of bike fanatics everywhere...

Here it is... first 45% is a mission of buying a vintage MX in the swap and racing it the next day... I almost thought he was going to buy an old RM 250 or other Suzuki!

At about 16:45 is the after hours Campground Barrel races highlighted for just a short minute or less, again, our campsite is spotted in the back! Rippers row, we all call it! The two rows of camping directly adjacent to the unofficial / illegitimate / no rules barrel racing part of the campground...

Some clips of road racing and running into an old racer buddy in the paddock is the last third of the video
Nice fly over shot with a drone to give you some ideas of the road racing course, swap meet size, and Campground size. The main camping fields are on the outside of the track, the swap meet is on the inside of the L-shaped track, but still on the outside, but in the crotch of the L.

There is additional camping at the far end of the track, in the quiet Zone... and some other camping on the road directly next to the long straight of the track adjacent to the big fields of camping

https://youtu.be/fQmxfqUtM_U

 

[Jedz123]

I'm booked with a friend... I'll he there. On the B-12.

 

[Chuck78]

Well... the time is almost here once again, wow did June ever fly by sooooo fast!!!

I'll be leaving in 5 days to get a prime camp spot at the split (fence row / woods jutting out) between the 1st & 2nd camping fields next to where the after hours campground entertainment happens (barrel "races")...
I'll probably have an old ratty white 1962 GMC panel truck, pulling a 5x8 trailer, black 77 GS750, green/white 99 Kawasaki KDX220, maybe bring the red '74 Rickman 250 MX...

Stop by and say hi if you can spot me!
5'10" 150lbs brown scraggly hair, sideburns, probly wearing a Suzuki trucker hat...

If anyone wants to set up camp next to me on Thursday, look me up! I'm trying to reserve 2 campsites but all my buds are coming Fri & Sat AM, the prime spots at the edges of the campground fill up fast Thursday afternoon... jts a bit of a party zone, but not too wild like the corner party in the back...
which reminds me, I need a splitting axe to chop up some firewood!

 

[Chuck78]

F#@? YEAH I'M AT VINTAGE DAYS!!!!!!

WHERE ARE YOU?!?!


Stormin' Norm????

 

[Jedz123]

Work retracted my time off... Wasted money on tickets, ugh:

 

[Chuck78]

FYI THIS AWESOME ANNUAL EVENT IS TAKING PLACE FRIDAY JULY 5th - SUNDAY JULY 7th, 2019!!!
It is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Honda CB750 and another notable anniversary, the 60th year of Honda being in the USA. Honda is the sponsor this year. Another famous racer was just announced as the Grand Marshal, AMA Hall of Famer and one of the winningest racers in history, Factory Honda racer Bubba Shobert

I will be arriving midday July 4th, I could care less about the holiday in relation to this festival, I always get there early to get a prime camping spot for our usual crewcof 6-12 friends, & to get to browse the swap meet before it gets picked through! 23 or maybe even now 26 acres of swap meet, it's been getting bigger every year again for several years!

This is one of the two biggest vintage motorcycle events in the entire United States, and it is well worth traveling a day or more to get to this.
Barber Motorsports Park & Museum in Alabama is the other one, first weekend of October, it is the more formal of the two with a racetrack purposefully designed to be the best at candy for motorcycles specifically, but Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course race track is really good as well, swap meet is bigger, campground is a lot more "entertaining!"

Bring any dirt bikes or pit bikes if you have them, they will definitely get put to good use! They do great Vintage Motocross and Vintage Hare Scrambles here also, and there are some really fun woods to ride in with some great ravines, after hours at least, as Friday and Saturday daytime they are doing Hare scramble and vintage trials in the woods. I think the Hare scramble is mostly just Friday? It's a riot! I hope to enter a '77 Suzuki PE250 this year or next, Unfortunately shattering my kneecap and having to have surgery and plates & pins & screws (just now) put a big damper on that for this season...

 

[Chuck78]

7 days til AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2019!!!!
Anybody else attending?

 

[storm 64]

Chuck, I plan on making it to the event on my way home from vacation. My buddies are already going to be there, we'll be camped back in the corner aria ... I'll find you

 

[Chuck78]

Norm!!!!

I was curious who was replying to this thread when I got the email alert, I would not have guessed it was you, being all the way on the other side of the country now! Wow, iron butt return trip, enjoy it while you're out west! I guess that's one thing that a massive sport touring bike is REALLY good for, comfortable long hauls through the great plains especially! The most tediuos rudes to endure in the U.S.! 100 miles or double or triple that, with a zero curves in the road, not even a few degrees! My ultra sticky sporty tires would not last on roads like that!







I should be up there July 4th early morning trying to get a good campsite or to reserve for my associates and I...
Right at the fence row between the first and second camping fields, my usual spot around where the peninsula of trees sticks out from the woods.
Probably driving the old rat rod '62 GMC work truck again, + trailer, easy to spot! Phine doesnt work well there, but I'll find ya & say hello!
I grew a beard while laid up recovering from knee surgery, FYI...

 

[storm 64]

I just got home from the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days. What a fun time, however it got a little muddy after the rain showers, but that made it all the more fun! Chuck, I stopped by your camp you were out and about. I chatted with your buddies for a bit, I told them to tell you GS Norm stopped by... It was Honda's 60th anniversary or something like that, so if you're into Hondas it was a Honda mecca. If you're not a Honda fan, is was try to spot the other brand. The VJMC tent was no different, filled with Hondas. Here's a picture of some after hours festivities, I'm sure Chuck will come along with some better pics.