Quinn Wentzel and Jim Gawne recognized for their off-road racing prowess during the AMA Vintage Grand Championship in Lexington, Ohio
PICKERINGTON, Ohio (July 27, 2023) — As competition raged across all three days of the 2023 Permco AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days presented by Royal Enfield, which ran July 21-23 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, a pair of riders set themselves apart from the rest by claiming AMA Vintage Grand Champion and AMA Vintage Senior Grand Champion honors.
Quinn Wentzel of Canfield, Ohio, captured his elusive fifth AMA Vintage Grand Championship and was joined on the podium by AMA Senior Vintage Grand Champion Jim Gawne, who hails from Oxford, Mich.
The Grand Champions are decided based on competition in the AMA Vintage Grand Championship, which runs in conjunction with AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days. The AMA Vintage Grand Champion and AMA Vintage Senior Grand Champion are determined by the cumulative points earned across the AMA Vintage Grand Championship’s three off-road events: hare scrambles, trials and motocross.
Having previously claimed AMA Vintage Grand Championships in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018, Wentzel was determined to return to the podium in 2023 while riding aboard his Can-Am 175cc — which he built from the ground up during the last year — for hare scrambles and trials and his Penton 400cc during motocross events.
“For me, it’s just trying to get through the whole weekend,” Wentzel said. “In past years, we’ve had some bad luck in the hare scramble or motocross. So, it was good to get through each event with good finishes.”
Gawne, also a previous AMA Senior Vintage Grand Champion having claimed the honor in 2017, was aided to his second title by a first-place finish in the hare scrambles Super Senior (50+) A division on July 21, which set the tone for his strong weekend of racing.
“I come in knowing that I’m not good at all three, so I focus my practice on hare scrambles and trials,” Gawne said. “I have a trials background and I’ve been riding trials since I was 10, so that’s my strong point. So, I was focusing on hare scrambles, trying to win that, and I did this year. So that made me feel good coming into Saturday motocross and Sunday trials.”
For more information about the AMA Vintage Grand Championship and AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, visit https://www.vintagemotorcycledays.com/page/racing/.
To ensure you stay up to date on the 2024 event, sign up for the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days newsletter, follow the official event Facebook page, follow the AMA VMD Instagram page and stay tuned to https://www.vintagemotorcycledays.com/.