Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1366987
12 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Round One: AHRMA Mid-Atlantic Cross Country Round One: AHRMA Mid-Atlantic Cross Country Rocket Raceway Rocket Raceway By Joshua Schucker By Joshua Schucker Photos By Jason Barr & Becky Schreckengost Photos By Jason Barr & Becky Schreckengost As with most off-seasons, as round one's circled date on the calendar begins approaching, excite- ment and an cipa on build exponen ally. Howev- er, this par cular off-season may have provided far greater an cipa on than those in recent memory. Several factors are in play here to create hype for 2021. First, despite early interreference from the COVID pandemic, the 2020 season turned out to be a remarkably complete and compe ve sea- son, with some exci ng new venues and con nued growth. So, it is always exci ng to build off a suc- cessful season, but in this case, it is also hearten- ing to know that we're con nuing to put distance between ourselves and the uncertainty surrounding the early part of 2020. Secondly, the Mid-Atlan- c region has some revolu onary new rules and procedures in place for 2021! Always looking to improve the experience for racers and spectators alike, Dave Kutskel and the Mid-Atlan c leadership team took a hard look at the recent series' events in an effort to uncover success, failure and opportu- nity. Several major changes were implemented that should increase the compe veness, intrigue and opportunity to race at each of the scheduled 10 events for this year. The changes for 2021 are as follows: • Introduction of a new "AA" class for the fastest fast guys to complete for the "over- all" championship. These riders are not divided into age or displacement classifi- cation and always start on the first row of each race. Bike selection is per the indi- vidual race eligibility (i.e. AA Post Vintage class may include PV and Historic, etc.). • Novice and women riders will no longer only start in the morning race, but rather will be placed into the appropriate race associated with their bike's eligibility. • Due to the increased popularity of 1980s and 1990s disc brake equipped machines, a third race is added to each event that in- cludes the Pre-Modern (single front disc), Early Modern (dual disc to 1994), Pre-2K (dual discs to 1999) classes. • The sight lap is eliminated due to time constraints of the three race format.