2010 Iron Butt 5000 Rally, Day 1 Monday, August 16, 2010
Leg 1 Begins During a walk through the impound area before the start, I asked most of the riders where they were headed. Most said they were heading north into Wyoming and Montana. None declared that they are heading for any of the far-flung bonuses that require a Bun Burner Gold pace for the entire 38 hours of Leg 1. The IQ distribution curve for this group may be shifted more towards triple digits.
The Impound Area About an Hour Before the Start
Among the motorcycles queued up for the start, were 23 Hondas, 19 BMWs, 13 Yamahas, 3 Suzukis, 3 Harleys, 1 Buell, 1 Victory, and 1 Triumph. The oldest bikes were Jeremy Lovealls 1977 BMW R75/7 and Scott Thorntons 1978 Yamaha XS1100. At the other end of the spectrum, Iron Butt Rally veteran Art Garvin is riding a 2010 model Gold Wing which already has over 20,000 miles on the clock. We have as much variation in riders as we do in motorcycles. The youngest rider is 23 year old Brian Bray who is riding a Suzuki SV650S. Brians application for the IB5000 indicates that he has never previously competed in a rally.
The oldest rider in the rally is 66 year old Buford (B.B.) Neely (who looks in damn good shape for 66). Neely, a veteran of the IBR and numerous other rallies, is riding a BMW R1200RT. A list of all of the riders and motorcycles appears below.
Rider No. 47 First Name Dave Darrin Brian Brant Aaron Mike Perry Bryan Jerome Doug John Connie Robert John Jim Jack/Marlene Shane Michael Bob Jim Jeremy Kurt Derek Neil Wayne Greg/Pat Kirsten Scott Peter Chris Michael Mike Dave/Melanie Tony Kenny Bobby Betsy Karl Brian George Dan Nels Art Patrick Allen Last Name Hembroff Hicks Bray Monteelall Konecky Allen Karsten Neagle Byrd Barrett Stamps Gabrick Wilensky Tubb Abbott Backer Mead Mehaffy Rippy Weaver Loveall Dix Dickson Hejny Boyter Blewett Talken-Spaulding Thornton Delean Carr Relph Jackman Legnosky/MacInnis Hudson Seay Fox Young Snell Johnson Barker Legg Gebben Reitsma Hochberg Wilson MC Year 1999 Make Yamaha HD Suzuki Yamaha HD BMW Yamaha Honda Yamaha Yamaha BMW Victory Suzuki Honda Triumph Honda Honda Yamaha BMW BMW BMW Kawasaki Yamaha Honda BMW Honda BMW Yamaha Yamaha Buell Honda Honda Honda Honda BMW BMW HD BMW BMW Honda Honda BMW Honda BMW BMW Model FJR 1300 Electra Glide Ultra SV650S FJR1300A XR1200 R1200GS FJR1300 ST1300 Majesty 400 FJR1300 R1200RT Vision DL1000 Gold Wing Trophy Gold Wing Gold Wing FJR1300 R1200RT R1150RT R75/7 Concours FJR 1300 Gold Wing R1200RT Gold Wing R1200RT XS1100 FJR 1300 Ulysses Gold Wing Gold Wing Gold Wing ST1300A R1150GS R1200RT Ulra Classic R1200GS K1200 LT Goldwing ST1100 K1200GT ST1100A R1150GS R1100RT
Cameron Robert Cathy Joel Greg Kevin Buford Andy Peter Peter Don Dennis Mike Art Michael Chris Jim/Donna Jim Joe John Corey
Sanders Bolger Davies Rappoport Rice Lechner Neely Kirby Behm Murray Catterton Powell Senty Garvin Boge Sakala Phillips Winterer Zulaski Coons Nuehring
Honda Kawasaki Honda Yamaha Honda Honda BMW Honda Yamaha Yamaha BMW Honda BMW Honda Honda BMW Honda Suzuki Honda BMW Yamaha
ST1300 Concours 1400 Gold Wing FJR1300 Gold Wing ST1300A R1200RT ST1300A FJR1300 FJR1300 R1200GSA Gold Wing R1150RT Gold Wing ST1300 R1200RT Gold Wing DL650 ST1300ABS R1100RSL FJR1300A
Dale Wilson Gives Last Minute Instructions Regarding the Start
The IQ distribution curve for the IBR staff was called into question by one of the photos taken just minutes after the 8:00 a.m. start. Bill Shaw literally risked his life to get this shot. It may not be obvious from the photo, but our fearless photographer is standing in between the 2-lane on ramp and the multiple lanes of traffic speeding by just to the right of the photo. How did he get there? No problem; he climbed over the wall separating the freeway from the parking lot of the Marriot Denver Tech Center and dodged traffic as he ran across to the Jersey Wall separating the on-ramp from the freeway.

Heading North on Interstate 25 Minutes after 8:00 a.m.
Leg 1 Bonus Options As shown in the figure below, there are 50 different bonus locations available on Leg 1 that are spread all over the western U.S. As far as we know, no one is headed for the Pacific Coast. Certainly, nobody is headed for the three bonuses in the Pacific Northwest that were used as an example of what NOT to do during the banquet last night. Its a bit of a surprise that no one appears to be headed to Gerlach. A few riders are headed toward the southwest to pickup bonuses at 4-corners and the Grand Canyon. However, as noted above, most of the riders are headed toward Wyoming and Montana.

Leg 1 Bonus Locations

The five bonuses shown in Wyoming are Devils Tower National Monument, Hells HalfAcre, Afton, Ames Monument, and Thermopolis. Each of these has been popular choices. The three bonuses clustered together in southern Montana are also popular choices, they are Absarokee, Cooke City, and Red Lodge. Perhaps the most popular of the three is Cooke City, which is a classic Eddie James style bonus.
************************************************ Cooke City, MT 544 points Available Noon --10pm--or so, maybe Miners Saloon 208 Main Street/US-212 N45 01.177 W109 56.019 What do you get when you feed an attorney Viagra? You get a taller attorney!! Take a photo of the 4 tall wood statue inside of the Miners Saloon on Main Street Date:______Time: ________ Odometer: ___________ Code: VIA Approved: _____ ************************************************
Kevin Lechner has put together a very nice looking route plan based around several of the Wyoming and Montana bonuses described above. He first heads to the Ames Memorial in southeast Wyoming and then for Thermopolis, Wyoming. From Thermopolis, he will aim for the three bonuses in southern Montana. He then plans to head back to Afton, Wyoming, on the western edge of the state. This requires a ride through Yellowstone Park but it wont be during the peak time for tourists. From Afton, he will shoot for the soap box bonus in Salt Lake City. The whole route is just under 1,700 miles, which would normally be a piece of cake for an experienced rider like Kevin, but it could be slow going dodging the bison while riding through Yellowstone. If things go well, he will be coming into the checkpoint with over 3,000 points. Not surprisingly, Chris Sakala is biting off a more challenging ride. He is headed for the two bonuses closest to the Canadian border in northern Montana. They are the Chewing Bones Campground in St. Mary and the Polebridge Mercantile on western side of Glacier National Park. It is a daylight hours bonus and, as shown below, requires travelling over some unpaved roads. ************************************************ Polebridge, MT 1110 points Available Daylight hours Polebridge Mercantile 265 Polebridge Loop N48 45.894 W114 17.087 Take a photo of the Polebridge Mercantile. Roads leading to Polebridge are unpaved; Eddie loved riding in the dirt. Date:______Time: _________ Odometer: ___________ Code: POL Approved: _____ ************************************************

The combination of Polebridge and St. Mary is 2,010 points. There are numerous opportunities for other bonuses along the way, making a 3,500 point Leg 1 ride possible. One potential route based on Polebridge and St. Mary is about 2,100 miles. It looks doable for several of our top riders assuming they dont experience significant delays -6-
getting in and out of the Park on Tuesday morning. Depending on the side trips planned, there is even time for four hours of sleep before getting the daylight only bonus in the park.
Tomorrows Report Riders will begin arriving at Checkpoint 1 tomorrow evening. Because the checkpoint doesnt close until midnight, the scoring process wont be completed until early Wednesday morning. IBR staff will be burning the midnight oil to make sure that I can have a report containing the Leg 1 results ready to post at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, the same time that the riders will get the results for Leg 1.
Tom Austin August 16, 2010 Copyright 2010, Iron Butt Rally, Inc., Chicago, IL