Day 0  •  Day 1  •  Day 2  •  Day 3  •  Day 4  •  Day 5  •  Finish  •  Epilog

Final Checkpoint and Scoring

As the riders trickled in, GZ asked them not to use their computers or check their voicemail until 3pm. At that time, George first took Tobie and Lisa aside and told them about Uncle Bud's death. They were Bud's closest friends in the rally and George wished to extend them whatever courtesy he could. Then he made the same announcement to the rest of the riders. It was a very emotionally charged moment, and more than a few tears were shed. George then announced that Brinda Yates, Bud's wife, was coming to the banquet to meet everyone.

We discovered Brinda to be an amazing woman, full of life, who's strength and positive outlook helped everyone deal with the tragedy. She was able to meet Mark Crane who was first on the scene (about 3 minutes behind Bud), and Joe Antolick, both of whom spent several hours there and helped the rallymaster tremendously. Joe gave Brinda a great photo of Bud, which he had taken just hours before his death.

Uncle Bud, Greg Marbach, and one of the US Postal workers from the Jal, NM bonus.
(Joe Antolick photo)

The bonus scoring was complicated a bit by the "efficiency bonus" which required rescoring after the first round of scoring was completed. Joe Denton whipped up a neat Excel spreadsheet to simplify it and the process actually completed by the time we were scheduled to begin the banquet. Brian Roberts nailed the efficency bonus, by the way, just like he did in last year's Northwest Passage rally.

Results

Okay, here's what you've been waiting for, the official finishing results for the 2006 running of the Spank 5-day motorcycle endurance rally. Without further ado, we present these riders:

Position	Rider	Score	Bike	Likeness
1	Jim Owen	216,222	BMW R1150RT
2	(tie) Lisa Stevens Tobie Stevens	160,096	Yamaha FJR1300(s)
4	Tom Sperry	147,031	BMW R1150GS
5	Art Montoya	138,943	Yamaha FJR1300
6	Doug Chapman	137,939	Yamaha FJR1300
7	Eric Vaillancourt	128,691	Yamaha FJR1300
8	Mike Berlien	123,334	BMW R1150GS
9	Matt Watkins	123,207	Yamaha FJR1300
10	Terry & Lynda Lahman	119,158	Honda GL1800
11	Heidi Still	108,383	BMW R1150RTP
12	Coni Fitch	101,330	BMW K1200LT
13	Mark Crane	99,363	BMW R1200GS
14	Greg Marbach	93,562	Yamaha FJR1300
15	Marua Gatensby	92,705	Kawasaki Concours
16	Bob & Sylvie Torter	91,020	BMW R1150GS
17	Al Ladner	90,943	Yamaha FJR1300
18	Brian Roberts	62,127	Suzuki DL1000 Honda CBR1100XX
19	Joseph Antolick	57,059	Yamaha FJR1300

The Swag

Uncle Bud's finisher plaque was presented to his wife, Brinda.

The finisher's plaques were gorgeous, and the first 5 places also received a "trophy" which was a small Navajo rug in the Wide Ruins style made to look like a rally flag. Truly first class stuff.

George and first place winner Jim Owen,
with Don Moses, Joe Denton and Tom Austin looking on.

Well, everyone is in the bar celebrating -- at least they were several hours ago when I started on this page. I'm going to go join them now. Please come back in a day or two as I plan at least one more page in this series. Several of the riders got some truly excellent photos during the rally that I'm sure you will enjoy seeing...

Day 0  •  Day 1  •  Day 2  •  Day 3  •  Day 4  •  Day 5  •  Finish  •  Epilog