Some inspiration from the 1993 Iron Butt Rally
1993 Iron Butt Rally results
"Once in a Blue Moon"
September 11, 1993
After 11 endless days riding around the perimeter of the United States, competitors returned to Mansfield, Texas on Saturday, September 11, 1993 to complete the sixth running of the Iron Butt Rally. Riders left Touring Specialities in Mansfield headed for checkpoints in Pomona, California; Spokane, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; Gorham (Portland), Maine; and Daytona Beach, Florida before returning to Texas. To boost their standings and earn a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze medal, riders had the option of visiting bonus destinations.
The 1993 Iron Butt Rally started on the eve of a rare "Blue Moon" and some riders quipped that the opening bonus --- a visit to Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas --- was a sure sign of what was to follow during the grueling event. The ending bonus was a visit to the "Broken Butt Saloon." In between riders could visit countless locations around the United States, including such scenic locations as Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon N.P., Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Yellowstone N.P., Badlands N.P., Pike's Peak (Colorado), Niagara Falls, Mt. Washington (New Hampshire), and the Smokey Mountains. Some of the more bizarre bonuses included The Elvis is Still Alive Museum, caressing a Melaleuca Tree, the City Hall Grill in Selma, Texas to find out how much a discount customers get when they stop in with a traffic ticket, the famous Cadillac Ranch, an underground Titan Missile Silo, a one-mile long earthquake fault, "The future birthplace of Enterprise Captain James Kirk" (from the Star Trek TV show), the world's only radioactive waste dump that's open to the public, the "Oldest Producing Oil Well in the World," and the World's Longest Continuous Bridge.
This year's rally set several records. At 69 years old, Garve Nelson (San Leandro, California) became the oldest finisher of the Iron Butt Rally, breaking his own record from the 1991 rally when he was 67, on a 1990 Honda Pacific Coast. Riding a very-tiny looking Honda CBR600F2, Don Dingbaum (Salt Lake City, Utah) earned the honors of being the smallest displacement (and possibly the "smallest" size) motorcycle to complete the Iron Butt. Riding a Kawasaki KLR650, Doug Packard (Horseheads, New York) is the first rider to finish the Iron Butt on a single cylinder motorcycle. Ardys Kellerman (Providence, Rhode Island) is only the third woman to finish this grueling event.
British Invasion!
Steve Attwood, a management consultant from Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England, shipped his 1983 Moto Guzzi MK III LeMans to the United States to compete in the Iron Butt. While the rest of the field of 41 riders came equipped with radar detectors and laptop computers (for navigation), Steve showed up with a set of simple AAA maps and an iron will to finish.
Eleven days and 12,458 miles later, Attwood won the Iron Butt Rally by a decisive 1,751 points (only 6 points separated the top three in 1991)! Steve overcame enormous odds to win the rally. Besides the handicap of locating remote bonuses (imagine finding places like Lee's Ferry, Arizona or Kelso, California in Europe on a rally of this type), Attwood had to deal with flat tires (the '83 Guzzi uses tube- type tires which require time-consuming wheel removal to repair) and had to replace wheel bearings in Florida. On the last day of the rally, with just 150 miles to go, the LeMans refused to start. Attwood traced the problem to a broken ignition coil and with just three hours remaining before being time-barred and eliminated from the rally, Attwood pulled out a spark plug and rode the final leg on one cylinder. With just 29 minutes remaining, he limped into the final checkpoint in Mansfield, Texas with the Moto Guzzi sounding like a large air-compressor rolling down the road.
Great Britain has thrown done the gauntlet to the American Long Distance Endurance Riding Community. Is the U.S. up to returning the Iron Butt crown to the States in 1995? Only time will tell!
Fast forward to 1995 and bad luck reared its ugly head. Steve hit a deer on day 3 and was uninjured but did not finish the rally.