Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge Launches, With a Few Mishaps
OK. I mentioned way back in February that the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge was coming up this month and the start was yesterday. This a 7,000-mile race from Key West, FL, to Homer, AK, with a winner-take-all prize of $500,000 in Alaskan gold.
The only bikes allowed in this race are Harley-Davidson air-cooled V-twins. The entry fee is $1,000, so the organizers needed at least 500 riders just to pay the winner’s prize. Apparently they got about 750 takers.
I’m going to be following Robert Peterson, of Quebec City, in this race on my Examiner.com page. That arrangement came out of Robert contacting me to inquire about problems riding over Rabbit Ears Pass with a bike tuned to sea level or thereabouts. It creates some issues for me because Bob’s Facebook page on the race is in French. Presumably he’s French Canadian. But I have a cell phone number where I can reach his support team–and hopefully him, at least on occasion–and everyone on the other end of the line speaks English.
So the race got off to a difficult start yesterday, at least for a few riders. It’s hard to get it clear from the news reports but at least four, and maybe five, bikes crashed at approximately the same place around Immokalee, FL. It would appear there was some sort of hazard at that spot, else why would so many bikes crash in multiple crashes in just one spot? Who knows. But Bob wasn’t one of them.
An interesting thing about this event is the skepticism. The idea of awarding a $500,000 purse to the winner does sound extreme. One person commenting on my first Examiner story had this to say:
It’s interesting that by the rules, no prize need be awarded now. According to the rules they do not need to pay the winner if ANYONE gets in an accident or gets a ticket. There have already been several accidents as of this afternoon so it is entirely possible the riders will continue on for naught. Another disturbing point is that one of the “charities” targeted for funds is the Red Cloud Foundation whose relationship to Hoka Hey co-founder Big Jim “Chief” Red Cloud is unclear.
And I read in a H-D forum a comment by one guy who said he’ll believe it all when the money actually is given to the winner. I guess we’ll see.
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Quebec City’s Robert Peterson sole(?) Canadian in Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge
Biker Quote for Today
Harley-Davidson® motorcycles: Impeding the normal flow of traffic for over 100 years.
June 21st, 2010 at 4:41 pm
But my question is, why would the discovery channel want to get involved with a race that was tainted?
Don’t you think their company would be smart enough to make sure the race is legit?
June 21st, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Ashley, I suspect you are correct. I was passing along the information that some people are suspicious. But if at the end an announcement is made that no one will be awarded the $500,000 I think we can expect to see all hell break loose.
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:54 am
The $500K was to be awarded if there was a full slate…which there wasn’t (Jim Redcloud verbally attacked a woman in the mandatory meeting in Key West for insisting on a number) and if the winner got to Alaska within 14 days and it appears (to the riders) that the route was designed to make them fail. No winner within 14 days, no $$ out.
Jim Redcloud has to sleep at night. He has to live with the choices he makes and if this thing does turn out to be a scam, then he has to answer for that. My husband is riding and having the time of his life! (aside from the bad directions they were given) HOKA HEY Jim Redcloud, I am praying for you!