History of AMRA
Written by Trea Johnston
The whole idea started in late 2003 in mine and Adam’s backyard. Adam Johnston, Kevin Eckels, Ben Hutchinson, and David Vogt / Dee Vee had gone for a ride that day and we were all sitting back there talking about riding and racing over a few (ok maybe more than a few) beers. Some of the guys had just completed the Vegas to Reno race and were talking about other races like the Laughlin race. They were wishing that we had more of that kind of racing in Arizona. At the time, the only consistent option we had was Whiplash. Dave had spent a great deal of time racing in Nevada and told us about an organization called MRAN, which was a club-based organization focused more on single track/technical riding. We all thought that was cool and started brainstorming which lasted all night, and the excitement and the ideas grew into an actual reality by the next morning. The ideas got real, and it went fast!
There was SO much work involved in getting the ball rolling. Ben and Adam had put hundreds if not thousands of minutes on their phones talking to each other about this idea. This was back in the day when you had to pay for your minutes. We didn’t even have a name for it yet. I remember throwing ideas around and when we came up with Arizona Motorcycle Riders Association it was exciting…. Until I googled AMRA. I was like… oh crap guys… that stands for Arizona Midget Racing Association. I freaked out until they told me that Midget was referring to “cars.” Lol.
The momentum was moving quickly in getting the clubs formed. If I remember right, the Rockstars were the first “new club” to form, then TRS and Fast’r and eventually OCMC. Fun fact…. TRS originally stood for Tucson Roost Shooters, but we decided it probably didn’t look too good to all of the environmental peeps that we had to try and make friends with. Ha ha good call. Then we looked up and met Don Hood, the president of ATR, one of Arizona’s few established clubs at the time (another was CTR). They soon became a member of AMRA. That was a big deal for us. I remember the day that we met Don at a National Enduro event. I was all nervous because hell… it was Don Hood!
Amazing people started stepping up right away to help and we started traveling the state having meetings and writing the rule book. Adam had called the President of MRAN and asked him if we could “steal” their rule book and edit it to fit what we were doing. They were all for it and had lots of positive feedback. They were very instrumental in our ability to get things moving so quickly. There were endless conversations with the AMA and trying to understand what was required of us. People like Todd Davis, David Gronlund, Matt Scoutten, Kara Gryskiewicz Hutchinson, Todd Johnson, and so many others were instrumental in getting this fun and exciting idea to become an actual reality.
The first board members were Adam Johnston as the President, David Gronlund as VP and Sponsorship Coordinator, Trea Johnston as Treasurer, Kara Hutchinson was the Secretary/Media Officer, Ben Hutchinson was Points and Scoring, Tom Hutchinson as Head Referee and Matt Scoutten helped as Graphic Artist Officer. We were a hell of a team! We had some interesting and sometimes heated meetings with clubs but because we all had a common love for motorcycles and racing, it always worked out.
I know scoring today is a sore subject… but guys, if you were a part of the beginning, you have no idea how good we’ve got it today. Transponder scoring was fairly new in the early 2000’s and money was a huge obstacle for us. We knew we had to have it, and the search was on for a system. When we narrowed it down, we had to come up with the money, and in July of 2004, we hosted a golf tournament with the help and hard work of Todd Johnson to raise the startup money needed. Destry Abbott was a big supporter of ours, and he came with a ton of swag for the raffles. Mind you, it was July and the tournament was on a course in Casa Grande. It was a scramble tournament with 4-man teams, and it was hotter than hell! But everyone had a blast, it was fully booked, and we raised $5,000! I’ll never forget when I found out that Thomas Hutchinson, Ben’s dad, had donated $1,000 of his own funds to the help the cause. That was so damn cool! Altogether, that provided us with enough funds to purchase the scoring system, some laptops, a trailer, and allowed us to loan each club $2,000 so they could have the capital to do their first race.
Now back to the scoring system. Oh good Lord that system was a disaster. I remember going over to Ben’s Mom and Stepdad’s house to try and figure out how the system worked. We were running mock races in the back yard, running around the trees and stuff like lunatics… It was pretty funny, but very clunky. It was all we had, and we had to make it work.
We hosted our very first race on November 6th, 2004, at Sycamore, hosted by the Rockstars. It was on Forest Service Land and David Gronlund headed up the permit process. He and Adam met with them and convinced them to let us race there. The Ranger got in a lot of trouble for that too by the way. The Forest Service was very leery about it but gave us a shot. I remember that ranger walking the starting line looking at every single motorcycle, looking at spark arrestors and whatever else he could find. I remember holding my breath I was so nervous. The race was a huge success and the feedback we got was nothing short of exhilarating. People were so excited that this was actually happening in Arizona. Adam reminded me today of all of the negative feedback we were getting prior to that race. People were telling us that this would never work. It only motivated him more to make it happen. I’d like to send a big shout out to all of those haters. You people certainly make the world go around! Lol
People like Todd Johnson, Kara Hutchinson, Matt Scoutten, Todd Davis, and others put in so much time and effort to help us promote the race and the organization, and they did a tremendous job. Matt designed our logo that we still use today, and produced all of the great event flyers. Matt Lerche helped set up the first website, Kara maintained the website, and was a picture-taking fool. She was our first official media and track photographer and was featured in many great magazines like Dirt Rider and Cycle News. K-Rock Photos helped put us on the map, especially on a national scale.
I love that AMRA was never about making money, it was about the love of a sport that we wanted to improve on in the State that we loved. AMRA was and always will be a nonprofit, club-based, volunteer-run organization that promotes what we all love… motorcycles and racing. The side effect of this crazy idea was all of the people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know. There is truly something special about desert racers, we’re a rare breed.
I can’t tell you how much time and effort it took to make it happen by so many wonderfully crazy people, it was tough. But let me tell you… to stand back now and look at how far it has come is absolutely mind-blowing. I and all of the “originals” are so proud, and I guarantee we would do it all over again in an absolute heartbeat.
Please continue the legacy by joining a club and volunteering your time for your club’s race. It’s such a great way to meet people and establish riding partners. The friends you will make will be your friends for life. Since our time, there have been a ton of people who have taken it to the next level and the clubs are what make it what it is. The most thankless job is a volunteer job and the AMRA board is a very tough place to volunteer. Thank you to the current and past volunteers for taking our backyard idea and continuing to build and improve on it. You guys are truly awesome and we are very proud of you all.
David Gronlund:
It was some of the best times of my life and some of the most stressful and frustrating times of my life. We were all working for the same goals, so it made the not-so-fun times bearable. Things people need to remember when they want to lash out about something is that this organization was formed and run by motorcycle-loving volunteers, and still is. No one has ever or will ever make a dime. It’s not about fame and fortune or even a mere profit, it’s about the love of the sport. We put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of personal time those first years to get it going, on top of family, life, and our real jobs. I wouldn’t change a thing!!!! (Well maybe except the open class rule but I’ll never win that one..haha..JK!)
Adam Johnston:
I’ve been thinking about Trea’s post and everyone’s responses all day. I tell ya, trying to get a bunch of type A personality dirt bikers to all go the same direction is like herding FN cats!! But like David Gronlund said earlier, It was some of the best times of my life and some of the most frustrating. I thought of so many stories and what we went through. One that comes to mind of how determined we were to make this work was, Ben and I went to meet with one of the “New” clubs to discuss AMRA loaning them $2K AND running registrations and do scoring for them. The club made us sit outside of their meeting for an HOUR before they let us in their “private “meeting. Ben and I contemplated walking out several times, but we wanted this to work as a club-based series, so we stayed and worked it out.
But honestly, we got the ball rolling and yeah, it was a ton of work. But the people that came after us are the reason AMRA is where it is today. People like Dan Hayakawa, Vance Kennedy, Geoff Brownell, just to name a few, off the top of my head, is a huge reason for AMRA’s success. I rode the mile marker race a few weeks ago (2019) and ran into Dean Adams and he said “great to see you Adam! Look what you did!” I thought to myself... shit... this isn’t my fault! You guys did this! LOL! I had a vision and so many people shared in that vision. But honestly, I never thought it would be where it is 14!!! Years later!! Awesome job guys! You all have built an amazing organization!! I have had several people tell me over the years the AMRA changed their life. That’s pretty impactful.
Kara Gryskiewicz Hutchinson:
The picture that started it all... Film camera, manual focus and manual zoom lens!