ExNotes Hasty Conclusions: The 2024 AHRMA at Laguna Seca

By Joe Gresh

Rookie mistake: leaving your chair outside at night. The dew is heavy at Laguna Seca and my campsite is shaded from the early morning sun.

I love the pipes on this Turnip. Not likely to drag in corners!

I’ll walk around the pits instead. No food trucks yet and the Bear + Flag doesn’t open very early. Luckily I brought along some Cafe Bustello instant.

Tech inspection. The lines were long which is a good thing for AHRMA (America Historic Racing Motorcycle Association).

Triple tracker wandered into pavement world.

175 Bridgestone twin. The terror of the track back in the day. Hondas didn’t even try.

VP race fuel on site. Only a few bucks more that the 86/corn squeezed crap you buy on the street.

Mono framed side car. Very thin aluminum. I’m shocked it doesn’t crack.

Heavy side car contingent at this year’s races.

The crowd in the pit area seems to be as large as it was last year with even more Honda 160-175 twins. These things are like cockroaches while the actual bikes that raced in the 1960’s/1970’s are thin on the ground. I guess those Hondas survived because no one raced them.

Even if you don’t care for motorcycles Laguna Seca is a great place to camp. I have Site 110. The trees have grown a bit and I’m worried about ground squirrels breaking into my tent and stealing my food.

There are lots on fairly modern bikes, too. At least they are modern to me; they are probably 25 years old.

I made the mistake riding into Monterey. Lots of traffic. The only restaurant open was a McDonald’s. An older lady was buying a single cigarette from a guy who was out by the parking lot. I could see the bay from McDonald’s. Inside, there was no one to take your order. Electronic kiosks were set up and you entered your order then paid at the kiosk. There were about 5 people waiting, glancing down at the bits of paper the kiosk spit out. No one was getting food. McDonald’s food is not good enough to go through the hassle, so I left.

Heading back towards the track on Highway 68 the traffic came to a halt. It took me about an hour to go 4 miles. My old Yamaha 360 did not care for this kind of treatment. Forget going anywhere from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. In the evening I sat and watched the long line of motor homes making their way to the paddock. It was fun…to me.

Today is race school and practice. Tomorrow (Saturday) the racing starts in earnest.

Sent from my iPhone

That BSA at the top of this blog was not racing. I included it for Hack.

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6 thoughts on “ExNotes Hasty Conclusions: The 2024 AHRMA at Laguna Seca”

Enjoy! Looks like a great event 💯

Love this type of racing! I usually go the Birmingham for the big race in October. It is way cool to see all bikes many of use grew up with and loved still around and racing. Joe come out to Bonneville and take a look this year. Bonneville runs the last week in August come on out. I know at least 3 old guys with vintage classic sidecars will be racing this year! El Trace Locos…

Thank you Joe !
Nice report .
I agree on bikes that to me at least, are new .
As to McD I do like egg McMuffin . The That’s about it.
Enjoy the weekend !!!

Thanks for taking us along to the track Joe. I do miss going to Laconia NH for the races since moving south. One disagreement though: the Tiger and I go for breakfast at McDonald’s at least once a week – especially since they brought back the bacon/egg/cheese bagel. And they have great iced coffee for $2.

Great story and great photos, Joe.

Looking over the comments, I’m surprised at how many pertain to McDonalds and how things have changed there (for the worse, in my opinion). Might be a topic for a future blog.

Thanks for keeping us entertained.