2012
Minnesota 1000
June 15 - 17, 2012
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are afoot in
2012, and TeamStrange is pleased to announce a new location for this
year’s Minnesota 1000.
St. Paul Harley-Davidson has generously offered to host our event,
June 15-17. As always, Friday night starts off with the Liar’s Banquet,
your opportunity to meet and greet your fellow riders and enjoy a fine
BBQ meal. A riders meeting will be held promptly thereafter and
following that, the rally pack and rally flags with all
bonus location information (including a thumb drive with GPS
coordinates) will be distributed. Another change this year: Riders who
wish to avail themselves of a 36 hour option will then be permitted to
depart.
Those riders who choose to take up the 36 hour challenge
will be competing with the rest of the 24 hour field. What does this
mean? All riders who choose to depart on Friday night will be
required to first obtain one specific bonus location (the rest bonus
excepted), and only after that are free to pursue any and all other
desired bonus locations on the route sheet. This mandatory first stop
for the 36 hour challenge is not so far away nor is it worth nearly
enough points by itself to constitute a winning or trophy earning ride.
What the 36 hour option offers is the opportunity for experienced or
expert riders to stretch their legs a bit further and also to gain
access to a few other high point-value bonuses that the 24 hour riders
will not be able to reach.
24 hour rally riders will have some
advantages beyond a shorter rally. There will be some high point-value
bonuses that will be impossible to obtain for those who choose the 36
hour option, due to location and/or time restrictions. A 36 hour rider
can expect to ride near or even right past bonuses that will be
unavailable to them until after they pick up the mandatory first bonus.
It could be possible for a well-planned and executed 24 hour ride to
result in a higher final point value than that obtained on a 36 hour
ride, with less territory to cover but more stops required - and
slightly less margin for error. Thus the choice: Do I wish to ride more
miles and pick up fewer (though bigger in value) bonuses? Or, do I stick
with the traditional 24 hour format?
Riders will be competing for
top five trophies in three new for this year classes: Expert,
Experienced and Rookie. The “rookie” class will be for those riders who
have never ridden in a 24 hour rally before, and this group of riders
is/will be strongly discouraged from taking up the 36 hour option.
“Experienced” riders will be those who have never previously qualified
for TeamStrange’s “expert” class. Expert class riders (you know who
you are) and experienced class
riders may choose either the 24
or 36 hour format, and the trophy for 1st place overall will be awarded
to the rider who achieves the highest point total from amongst all three
classes.
We’ll be offering breakfast at the finish on Sunday
morning and of course the traditional rally swag - a fine rally shirt
(in short or long sleeve), rally decals and a rally coffee mug. For
riders looking for lodging nearest to the rally site,
this place is
directly across the freeway from St. Paul H-D. The exact start time for
the banquet and rally will be announced later, but expect it to be very
similar (banquet at 6 p.m. Friday, riders meeting around 7 p.m.) to the
last several rallies; we’ll update the web site and riders as soon as
the details are finalized. The field will be limited to 85
riders so do not delay too long before entering.
Is it
June yet?