Oh That Crazy Hoka Hey
What if they gave a Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge and nobody got any prize money? No, I’m not talking about last year’s questionable event, I’m talking about an awards ceremony that was held over the weekend . . . and Big Jim Durham said no one gets a cent.
I owe Dan Leffert and Alan Baumbach on this one. They were the ones who alerted me. I had pretty much ignored the Hoka Hey this year, even though they did come through a bit of Colorado. And like a lot of other people, I was only aware that Will Barclay, last year’s winner, had won again. But even Barclay doesn’t get paid this time.
What’s the reason? As it says on the Hoka Hey blog, the winners must not exceed the speed limit. Last year all they had to depend on was issuance of speeding tickets by local jurisdictions. This year they had GPS and other fancy gear that could actually track such things. And surprise, surprise, every single one of the supposed winners exceeded the speed limit at one point or another on their 11,000 or so miles of riding.
So no one get any prize money. Gosh, what do you suppose Jim Durham plans to do with all that cash?
And a bigger question than that, I wonder what the reaction is at Harley-Davidson? Harley signed on as a major sponsor this year but you really have to wonder how happy they are about this turn of events. Will they be back as a sponsor next year? I guess we’ll just wait and see.
I’ll also be extremely interested to see if even 10 riders sign up for next year’s Hoka Hey.
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Report: All finishers in 2011 Hoka Hey disqualified, no cash payments made
Biker Quote for Today
Horsepower: Because sometimes testosterone is not enough.
October 10th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
This is like inviting people over for dinner, then not serving dinner. This event deserves to die in its present form.
Can’t see H-D attaching their name to this again- it has the whiff of scam.
October 11th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Whiff? It’s stinks to high heaven! Just like last year. James Gregory Durham has been scamming people for many years and getting away with it every time. A splinter group tried to do something about it last year to no avail. I surely hope this thing fizzles and dies, but it still galls me to think of the money the Durhams have pocketed by duping a great group of people like bikers.