BLIIII: Atlanta CheckpointAugust 13 2006 at 3:39 PM |
Adam Wolkoff | |
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| To many
observers, putting down miles is the hallmark of the long distance
motorcycle rider. Among BLIIII competitors, IBA mileage awards are so
common as to be hardly worthy of mention. Nearly every motorcycle in the
field sports the Ironbutt Association’s “World’s Toughest Riders”
licence plate frame earned by riding a documented minimum 1000 miles in 24
hours. Many riders have documented even longer days in the saddle, and
there are a significant number of riders who have run “11 days, 11,000
miles” in the famed Ironbutt Rally. So cranking out the miles must be
the key to ButtLite IIII, right? Wrong. Today in Atlanta, many riders found out what we have known all along: your miles don’t mean squat if you can’t get your paperwork right at the scoring table. All the miles you rode—and all the bonus points you collected along the way—can be lost through careless record keeping or by rushing to the scoring table. TeamStrange rally rules require that every bonus be claimed by completing the appropriate part of the answer sheet. Once a rider sits down at the scoring table, his answer sheet is considered submitted for scoring, and no additions, changes or corrections can be made to it. Even one incorrect answer or unclaimed bonus could lead to disastrous consequences. Let me illustrate by way of example. David Derrick and John Tomasovitch rode together to Tombstone and ended up tied for first in the standings at the end of Leg 1. The partnership continued on Leg 2, and when we arrived at BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta this morning at 0400, both Derrick and Tomasovitch were hard at work scoring their route sheets. My suspicion that they had put together an amazing run was confirmed as I began to score Tomosovitch, at least until I got to the Kafka bonus on his answer sheet. The bonus in question was at Kafka Inc. and was described in Eddie’s last chalk talk. Riders had to visit Kafka’s shop, purchase a cool-tye and have their bike pinstriped by the master himself. Tomasovitch had obviously done these things. He was wearing his cool-tye, and I had personally observed the custom BLIIII pinstripe job on his bike outside. Sadly for John, though, these things were not enough to earn him the points for the biggest bonus on the leg. You see, though Tomasovitch had done what we had asked, he failed to answer a simple question on his answer sheet asking if his bike had in fact been pinstriped. As I circled the blank spot on the form, Tomasovitch’s face fell. He knew that in order to get the points for a bonus, it must be claimed by completely filling out the answer sheet. This minor proofreading error took him from first to fifth place. Ouch. For one rider it went even worse. Leaving Tombstone, Mike Hutsal was in the top 10 and had been marked as a rider likely to finish among the highest scoring riders. He too had run a very strong leg and was full of confidence as he sat down in front of me at the scoring table. “Show me your receipts and photos,” I said. Hutsal shuffled through his paperwork for a moment, then shot up out of his chair. “They’re over with the rest of my stuff,” he said, “I’ll go get them.” When I reminded Mike that he had already submitted himself for scoring by sitting at the table, he didn’t believe me. “We were just chatting. Scoring hadn’t started. I’ll be right back.” Moments later, Hutsal again sat down, this time in front of a different scorer with his now worthless paperwork. “We’ve already seen you,” Eddie and I said nearly at once. Hutsal left the table with no points to share for his massive effort on the leg, a victim of a simple, all too avoidable mental error. The carnage continued. Rider after rider failed to claim bonuses. In the end, no more than 10% of the field escaped the scorers’ red pens. Mercifully, there were exceptions. Alexander Schmitt completed a challenging run and turned in an error free answer sheet. “I made a big mistake on another rally,” he explained, “and now I’m very meticulous about my paperwork.” Rick Miller ran his typically well-planned route, and he too lost no points to scoring errors. Before the results were posted, Miller hoped out loud that he wouldn’t be in the top ten. We had to disappoint him, though, when the scoring program told us he was sitting pretty in sixth place. Schmitt’s attention to detail paid off in a fourth place finish on leg two. Both riders' composure and route planning skills leave them in good position for a run at the top in the final leg. The contrast between Tomasovitch and Hutsal’s errors and Schmitt and Miller’s avoidance of same perfectly proves the point that mere miles will not put anyone into the BLIIII winner’s circle. To do well on this event, a rider will have to read, think and ride. Whoever can best combine these three sometimes-disparate skills in the most consistent fashion will truly deserve to be your winner. Some bonus answers presented unanticipated moments of humor. Longtime fans of the event may recall riders on BL II being sent to Hot Coffee, Missouri to purchase a special commemorative mug from the general merchandise store there. Imagine our surprise when six years and two events later, riders began showing up in Atlanta toting ButtLite II Hot Coffee Mugs. The resulting nostalgia slightly melted the Rallymasters hearts, and persuaded us to allow the riders to keep the mugs they purchased. Those riders who arrived after the mugs finally sold out had to be satisfied with more mundane purchases, which included cans of purported “sun dried” road kill. We kept those cans, and plan on putting it out on the bar with some crackers back in Niobrara. There were also a few mishaps reported. A careless driver backed into Jim Winterer’s Suzuki in a donut shop parking lot. With this bad luck out of the way, Jim finds himself in lucky 13th place. His many fans on the discussion board are predicting good things to come, and we can’t disagree. Jim’s bike may be a bit broken but it’s modern, and riders in the know have always feared Jim Winterer on a modern bike. Tom Skemp decided to take some revenge on Bambi by running over a deer carcass on the side of the road. The strips of pemmican hanging from his bike were not enough to frighten the flock of turkeys he next encountered. “One ran left, one ran left, and the other went straight up in the air—after I hit it,” he reported. Eric Jewell nearly put himself out of the rally. At 0318, Jewell (who won the first ButtLite rally) called the rally phone to report he not going to make the checkpoint. “I’m 90 miles north of Mobile and I’ll never make it in time, so I’m just going to get a room and get some sleep.” We considered this report with some confusion, since it appeared to our rudimentary route planning skills that Eric’s ride to the checkpoint was certainly doable. Jewell’s fellow riders reacted to the news with poorly concealed glee. Their elation did not last. With just ten minutes to spare, Eric pulled into the checkpoint. Even with the 1100-point penalty he took for his late arrival, Eric finds himself beginning Leg 3 in eighth place, right behind Tom Loftus, recently un-retired from rallying (again). And what about the leg to come? It’s a bear. Instead of multiple route sheets, Eddie hit the riders with the dreaded Minnesota 1000-style Bonus Listing of Mirth, a hideously complicated jumble of some 50-odd-bonus stretching from The Varsity in Atlanta to the Bonneville Salt Flats. To score points for the latter, rider will need locate noted animal psychologist Bob Waitz in the pits out on the flats. Of course, to claim this bonus, riders will have to make it to Utah and back to Niobrara before 2:00 PM on Tuesday. If done perfectly and without incident, this run could mean big points. As is typically the case in such situations, the failure to do so will have certain consequences. David Derrick is clearly the rider to beat, as he holds a 1,635 point lead over Peter Behm in second place. Derrick’s challenge will be to devise a route that is conservative enough to insure a finish while at the same time preserving his substantial but not insurmountable lead. For Behm to win the rally, he will need to put together an efficient, high scoring route and avoid silly mistakes and unanticipated mishaps. The rumor mill disgorged that Behm was considering a run at Bonneville, as was Tomasovitch. The decision to head west could have significant implications for the rest of the field. And let’s not forget John Coons, who has just one more leg to prove he can parlay his success in the 24-hour rallies to a multi-day format. The remainder of the top ten—we’re talking seasoned riders and unfamiliar names alike—could easily find themselves on the podium with a good, smart ride. This won’t be easy. We’re late in the event, a time when even the best riders face a “dark night of the soul.” After days and nights of rallying, the most basic human instinct is to seek relief in Niobrara, with as few interruptions as possible between here and there. Early in the rally, riders would travel hundreds of miles out of the way for 50 points. At this point, many riders will find themselves hard pressed to travel 5 miles out of the way for 5,000 points. The riders that can resist the urge to just head for the barn will see themselves jump significantly in the standings. And so there it sits until Tuesday. Barring random snippets of questionable intel, none of the questions raised by the foregoing will be answered until then. Until that time, speculate at will. Anything can happen. ASW 13 August 2006 |
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