Today, another chapter was written regarding the AMA / Derek “Nobby” Clark inauguration debacle and controversy, as the American Motorcyclist Association announced that it would have all voting members for the Hall of Fame cast votes on a supplemental ballot concerning the induction of Nobby Clark into the organization.
Allowing the entire voting-membership to decided on Mr. Clark’s appointment to the Hall of Fame, the move will not impact other candidates for the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame (AMHF), and comes in response to the organization’s finding that Clark had been inappropriately added to the original Hall of Fame voting ballot.
For those who don’t keep track of the AMA’s general failings as an organization, this latest endeavor involves famed mechanic Nobby Clark (references from Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, and Kenny Roberts Sr.), who was inducted in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame earlier this year, only to find his appointment had been rescinded once it had become clear that the AMHF’s nomination process had deviated from protocol.
Upon hearing of Nobby’s removal from the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, stalwarts of American motorcycling’s old guard, including Kenny Roberts Sr., announced that they wished to be removed from the organization, in a move of solidarity with Clark.
Hoping to end this PR disaster, the AMA and AMHF have announced that Clark will get his chance to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, putting together a supplemental ballot for the race-tuner that all voting-members will get to vote on for this Hall of Fame class.
The move by the AMA and the AMHF restores at least some of the faith in the democratic system at the organizations, though it does little to belay the idea that the good old boys network in the AMA is not still alive and well today. True to bureaucracy, the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame will setup a task force to assess the nomination process at the Hall of Fame, with the hope of creating stricter criteria for the group’s methodology in selecting Hall of Fame nominees, as well as checks and balances for its inner workings.
Source: AMA
Flying the flag upside down is a nice touch. : )
what a bunch of tossers.
wonder if all the racers who asked to have their names removed from the AMAHF will still want to keep their names out after this back-peddleing. major props to those who did, and i hope they decide to stay out to send the message.
bunch of self important old men…
I’ve been an AMA member for almost 15 years. I sent both the AMA & AMA-Hall of Fame a letter telling them I will not be renewing my membership. The AMA president only recently started to ride a motorcycle…so how can he know what’s “best” for motorcyclists? I’ve had enough of them. They can keep the AMA & HOF..I’m out!
Dean Adams (a HOF voting member, my former editor and all-around good-guy) had a great 1st-hand article on his superbikeplanet.com site that related the events that occurred. It’s an interesting read and an informative site, for those unfamiliar with it.
The issue really had nothing to do with Mr. Clark’s fitness for being enshrined and everything to do with smoke-filled rooms, back-door nominations and excluding both eligible voters and potential recipients of the honor. The HOF honorees who withdrew were being reactionary.
As opposed to my relating his version of events, read about it yourself from the perspective of someone who was directly involved.
Irksome: Why did Adams feel it necessary to air out the dirty laundry in his “interview”
with RRW? I call BS. Adams’ guy, Renfrow, didn’t get in, so he blew the whistle on the
entire HOF program. He’s owes all the “depends wearing” guys and the motorcycle long
community an apology.
Mr. Pilgrim: I didn’t read the RRW interview (and any interview is usually edited, sometimes for content and sometimes for length) but my reading of Adams’ own reporting on the issue left me with no impression of sour grapes regarding Renfrew, who Adams was quite clear about endorsing.
My recollection was of a description of events which included Mr. Clark not even being among those originally nominated this year (while Renfrew was, hence perhaps, Dean’s ire) and of two of the voting members (one of whom was Mr. Adams) being excluded from the process which saw Knobby voted in.
While Clark’s enshrinement may or may not have excluded Randy, the issue at hand isn’t Renfrew’s exclusion, it’s the process by which Clark was 1) nominated, and 2) voted in.
And bear in mind, recollection and I aren’t always on speaking terms… My suggestion would be to find Dean’s original story, un-Ulrich-ed.
Nice Vonnegut reference too, btw.
I met Nobby later last year at the AMA Nationals at Road Atlanta. What a stand up awesome, very wise gentleman, you can tell he is just one of those guys that has a serious history in motorcycling.