What the Future Holds

Motorcycling is a passion for moving through the world in a way that most people only dream of.  And, whether they give it conscious thought or not, people who ride share this bond as brothers and sisters; and to be a Hoka Hey Challenger is to share this bond on a whole new level.

Hoka Hey Challengers are Warriors.  The Challenges have not been easy (we never meant for them to be).   They have always been intended to pit the riders against their worst fears and their bikes against the road.  For some the challenge is in reading the driving directions; for others it is in the endurance and, for the rest, it is in executing the technical aspects of the route as expertly as possible.  Everyone gets something different from the Challenge and it isn’t up to us to tell them what that is.  It is up to us to recognize their accomplishment…

• We started out from Las Vegas with 91 riders.  
•  88 participants were in contention for prizes. 
•  68 made it to the finish line.  
•  31 completed the ride within the 14 hour window and are eligible for an equal split of the $44,000 purse.  These riders are:

 

Rider #	First Name	Last Name	Date	Time
5	Karl	Netherland	August 12	1831
50	Robert	Crawford	August 12	1831
67	Michael	Conner	August 12	1857
139	Alex	Hood	August 12	1831
164	Gary	Trumper	August 12	1835
168	Jeff	Kohn	August 13	2020
190	Chris	Drake	August 12	1930
264	Terry	Meyer	August 12	1835
290	Walter	Ledig	August 12	2018
341	Robert	Carlo	August 12	1831
373	Terry	Smith	August 12	1929
375	Brian	McDonnell	August 12	1831
600	Shaun	VanBeber	August 12	1831
601	Michael	Fox	August 12	1831
650	Jane	Bixby	August 13	0107
652	Schatzi	Brown	August 13	0107
653	Ron	Warren	August 13	0003
654	James	Howatson	August 12	1831
665	Daniel	Dowell	August 12	1831
670	Tim	Menzie	August 13	0453
691	Newton	Pereira	August 13	0003
706	Thomas	Hunter	August 13	0716
708	Darrin	Knode	August 12	1831
725	Richard	Griffith	August 12	2018
731	Dominick	Zappola JR	August 12	1831
736	Billy	Fultz	August 12	1835
739	Frank	Zygela	August 12	2018
742	David	Sanders	August 12	0108
750	George	Jackman	August 12	1831
752	Mathew	Klebe	August 13	0817
754	Daniel	Thibodeaux	August 12	2018

• Validations are still ongoing but the presumed Finishers (riders who rode the route according to the driving directions and stopped at all checkpoints) are:

Rider #	First Name	Last Name	Date	Time
85	Chuck	Marble	August 14	2339
91	David	Lutes	August 13	1200
207	Milton	Vincent	August 13	1338
323	Dale	Martin	August 14	1638
342	William	Reynolds	August 14	1638
383	Junie	Rose	August 14	2339
605	Mark E	James	August 13	1430
610	Dave	DuBord	August 13	1308
636	Stanley	Hoover	August 13	1850
646	Thomas	Schmidt	August 16	1222
655	Robert	Scott	August 12	2018
664	Elvin	Angel	August 15	0830
685	Wendy	Battles	August 14	1637
707	Thomas	Paff	August 14	0551
709	Bradley	Mathews	August 15	0646
712	David	Neef	August 15	0646
713	Robert	Nichols	August 14	1638
714	John	Parrish	August 14	0330
715	Dennis	Elings	August 15	0830
719	Agabail	Van Vlerah	August 16	1521
720	James	Van Vlerah	August 16	1521
722	Bret	Walters	August 13	0959
724	Arthur	Pond	August 14	0551
732	Daniel	Certa	August 19	0305
733	William	Buskell	August 15	1604
734	Philip	Meintel	August 15	1604
735	John	Levins	August 15	1604
743	Christopher	Cowden	August 16	1521
746	Carl	Hubbard	August 13	1308
747	Robert	Kumpe	August 13	1308
751	David	Elizondo	August 14	1638
753	DANE	AXEN	August 13	1524

 

• The rest of the riders who participated this year include:

 

Rider #	First Name	Last Name
8	Daniel	Buis
9	Roger	Buis
116	Jim	Herold
718	Mac	McArthur
467	Jim	Red Cloud
83	Lee	Smith
92	David	Mauser
186	Greg	Shafer
319	Marion	Ezell
348	Mark	Hodge
618	Kenneth	Aston
648	George	Liebel
649	KC	Withers
717	Jeffrey	Ausnow
680	Frank	Trevino
721	Joshua	Brace
723	Marty	Kostawich
726	James	Peterson
727	Donald	Trimble
729	Dennis	Elsasser
730	Kelly	Quinn
737	John	Anderson
738	Bob	Terrell
740	Tommy	Collins
741	John	Lyles
744	James (Jim)	Carlson
745	Michael	Pulkkinen
749	Wayne	Fields

• The oldest of our riders was #706, Tom Hunter, who is 70 years of age. 
• Our only couple riding 2 up arrived in the window and, from what I’m told, Kelley deserves as much recognition for keeping Matt within the boundaries of the rules as Matt does for driving the distance with the burden of a passenger on the bike.
• We had 6 women start in Las Vegas.  One went down to avoid hitting a deer in Colorado but the other 5 made it to the finish line and, two are in the money!
• We had 6 riders hit deer along the way.
• Our last rider, #732, Dan Certa, arrived at the finish line at 3:05am on the 19^th after 13 days 18 hours on the road.  Dan deserves a special nod for not giving up when an old neck injury caused him to sit for 3 days in St. Louis.

• Our prayers go out to rider #726 who is in ICU as a result of injuries sustained when he wrecked in Arkansas.

These are some of those amazing people that you hear about who are willing to fight not only their own battles but are also willing to fight for others.  The Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge is trying to bring attention and change to the Native People on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and other very poor and destitute reservations throughout the U.S. Participants ride not only for the Challenge of the ride itself but for those people who have to face adversity and struggle every single day of their lives without the luxury of running water in their homes… 90% unemployment… the highest teen suicide rate in the nation… sheer hopelessness. 

In the way of the Lakota people, the number four is a sacred number and represents the end of the dream - and of our involvement in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge.  After the feature length documentary gets televised and after 2013 event, we (Jim & Beth) hope to find other caring people to take over control of the Challenge with fresh ideas and aspirations for change.  We have done what we can to promote awareness for the Lakota people and believe that under new management the event can flourish and benefit other Indian Nations as well.

We want to thank everyone that has stepped up and offered help support and ride in the Hoka Hey Challenge and a special thank you goes out to Willie & Sally Parry of Wolf’s Run for making the 2012 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge a truly amazing event!  The End of the Road party was phenomenal with plenty of food, a bon fire; fireworks and 3 bands: Turbulence, Gun Runners and Pale Face (all of who donated their time for the cause)!!  

Wolf’s Run is located in the heart of Seneca Nation territory and has been owned and operated for 24 years by Willie and Sally, who are members of the Seneca Nation.  Willie and Sally recognize that the Hoka Hey Challenge is intended to bring awareness to the poverty on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota and believe that by hosting the event, they are helping to unite the nations together.  The Parrys understand that there is a lot more work to do in this capacity and, in order to help advance the cause, it has been decided that the 2013 event will BEGIN AND END AT WOLF'S RUN with Wolf’s Run Transport and Gowanda Harley-Davidson as our hosts once again.  The next Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge will begin on JUNE 23^RD, 2013.  Applications are already being accepted.

Let us all go into this next and final event looking back for wisdom and guidance and looking forward to changing at least this one thing that is broken in our world.  Hopefully we will see you all there for the final chapter, the 4^th Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge.