I suppose we were taking a risk putting the starting point for this years Ride West Insurance 3 PASS BLA$T in Bellingham this year. I personally like Bellingham, but it is a few hours away from Seattle. Nonetheless, everyone finished on Bainbridge and for Seattle riders it was just a ferry ride home.
One area that went well this year was the 3 Wheel category. 2004 is the year Washington adopted a sidecar endorsement policy and the fine people at URAL came to the party with a crew of 10 signed up to compete for the 3 wheel crown. They won and big time. Russ Noe won the crown for best time in the category, but the club participation hailed them the club prize of $500 as well. Very impressive. I’m not sure what they’ll do with the money, but if there’s a party please make sure I’m invited.
The big winner was Ralph Noble who took the grand prize of $885 as well as the best weekday time for $100. Ralph’s doing very well for a retired guy with a Suzuki. He worked together with Tommy Thompson to crack the code on the Absolute Time and together the pair devised a plan to take the cake. Noble came in with a 7:19 time on the route. Thompson followed him in at 7:24 taking the crown in the senior category. As I understand it the two will split the overall win of $885. This is the first time that only one person has won the Overall category. In the years past there have always been two winners.
The other big winner was the Starlight Children’s Foundation who was awarded $25 for every 3 wheel rider that rode on the Endurance Day sanctioned in early September. They not only got that money, but we also made them the beneficiary of our raffle during Sportbike Northwest this summer in Stevenson where we raised additional money for them. In all I handed a check to Brenda Potts of Mountain to Sound for $1,000 which was the take between the two fund raising events. Brenda is a big player for Starlight here in Washington State and rents some fine motorcycles in Fall City as well.
By now you’re probably wondering who the rest of the winners are. Fire up your Acrobat Reader and CLICK HERE.
If you need to review the scoring procedures, CLICK HERE.
TM/Fall 04