Motorcycle rally on tap for weekend
By Johna Strickland
Argus Observer
Friday, June 27, 2008 10:08 AM PDT
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| High Desert Motorcycle Rally founder and promoter Greg Mattke (left) talks with Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick. The rally starts today in Ontario and goes through Sunday afternoon. Events include a car show, live music, a poker run and a motorcycle ride to Owyhee Dam. |
Ontario — One morning last year, Greg Mattke woke up and decided to convert his idea for a local motorcycle rally into reality.
“It took me a couple years to get up the nerves, the guts to try it,” he said. “I just finally woke up one day and said, ‘This is it. This is the year. Let’s try it.’ ”
Just like that, he single-handedly set out to organize the High Desert Motorcycle Rally.
“Last year, I put this all together myself. I didn’t have a committee,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “I didn’t see 3 feet off the end of my nose.”
The event hosted about 150 registered motorcycles, 100 ride-in motorcycles and eight vendors last June while raising $4,500 for the American Cancer Society, Locks of Love, the Ontario library and the Aquatic Center.
Now for its second year, the High Desert Motorcycle Rally, which starts today and goes through Sunday, has a planning committee, 45 vendors and 250 registered riders.
Mattke said rally promoters hope to raise $8,000 for renovations in downtown Ontario, the American Cancer Society and Locks of Love — an organization that provides hairpieces for children who have lost their hair.
Centered at the historic train depot in downtown Ontario, this year’s rally will offer a plethora of fun for all. Friday will feature live music from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., a car and motorcycle cruise from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and a luau from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Birds of Prey Harley Davidson in Caldwell.
Saturday starts with a poker run led by Mickey Jones at 9 a.m. — actor, celebrity biker, musician and humanitarian — then moves to two lawn mower dragster races at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., a car show at 10 a.m., live music at noon and after 8 p.m., hypnotist Kendrick Lester at 1 p.m., poker walk at 1 p.m., watermelon feed at 4 p.m. and tattoo contest also at 4 p.m. Registration runs all day Friday and Saturday.
Sunday starts with breakfast at Apache Cycle Sales and a celebrity ride to Owyhee Dam with Jones and ends with biker games back at the depot, 300 Depot Lane.
“From the downtown association’s standpoint it looks like it’s going to be an awesome weekend,” Jim Griffith, president of the Ontario Downtown Ontario Business Association, said Thursday. Bikers from across the West have already registered for the ride, Mattke said. A group from Usk, Wash., a town 30 miles from Canada, plans to ride as well as groups from Albany, Southern California, Portland, Utah, Spokane, Wash., San Francisco-area and Northern California, Mattke and Griffith said. Some fly in and rent motorcycles, Mattke said. A few people flew in from New Jersey, though they won’t ride.
“They’re kinda friends of the family. It’s a long way for them to come, but they like to support the family very strongly,” Mattke said, adding they count the trip as a vacation.
As for the rest of the out-of-state bikers, why they come is something of a mystery.
“ ‘If you build it, they will come.’ That’s the only explanation we have,” Mattke said. “We have phone calls from people saying they’ve done just about every ride around here and now they’re coming to ours ... You just never know what will possess them.”
What possessed Mattke years ago was the desire to have a local motorcycle rally. His father’s death from cancer when he was 15 and meeting Jones at a rally six years ago influenced him, Mattke said. Once he met Jones, they stayed in touch, and Mattke asked Jones if he would attend a rally in Ontario if Mattke organized one. He said yes, and the High Desert Motorcycle Rally began.
For more information, visit highdesertmotorcyclerally.com, or call Mattke, (208) 216-0862.
