2009 IRON BUTT RALLY

2009 Iron Butt Rally

The official announcement
The 2009 Iron Butt Rally begins at 10am on Monday, August 24, 2009. The start for this years rally is in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The timetable for the 2009 event is as follows:

Rally starts

10am Spartanburg, South Carolina Monday 24th August

1st checkpoint

St Charles Illinois, 9pm Wednesday 26th August. Next bonus list issued at 4am

2nd Checkpoint

Santa Ana, California, 9pm Sunday 30th August. Next bonus list issued at 4am.

Rally Finish

Spokane, Washington, 9am Friday 4th September.

As in 2005 and 2007, there will be a minimum number of points required in order to qualify as a finisher. In other words, it is possible for riders to ride for 11 days, not obtain enough points and NOT qualify as a finisher.
Because the riders have to obtain a minimum number of points it is not possible simply to ride from checkpoint to checkpoint. Plus the riders need to hit those checkpoints on time otherwise they're out of the rally.

The Brit Butt is 36 hours . The IBR is 264 hours . Competing in the IBR is not to be taken lightly.

The 2009 Rally has two UK riders competing and both are veterans of previous IBR. One of the UK riders, Brit Butt Rallymaster Chris McGaffin, will be carrying a spot tracker so it will be possible to follow his progress online throughout the event. The weblink for his tracker will be posted on this site and also on the UK forum before the start of the rally.

Chris has secured the use of a Rally Prepped Yamaha FJR from an American Sponsor. .....Not your average FJR cockpit though.......

Plenty to play with

prepare to be dazzled

And a personalized number plate !

The Iron Butt Rally is held in the United States every two years. Although we have looked into moving the rally to other countries, only Australia offers the wide-open spaces without international borders for the running of this 11 day, 11,000 mile marathon.

To completely describe the Iron Butt Rally would take an entire book. In fact, one of the best sources for information is Iron Butt competitor Ron Ayres's book, "Against the Wind" . Many other unique stories have been written about the rally and some of the best ones are available on the IBA web site www.ironbuttrally.com and can be viewed by scrolling through the Iron Butt Stories sub-menu above. The Iron Butt first ran in 1984. In 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987 the rally started from Montgomeryville Cycle Center near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States.

The Iron Butt was not held again until 1991 when it came under the management of the Iron Butt Association. While the basic format of the original rally remained, two important things have changed; to insure the quality of the event, the rally is run every other year and the starting and ending points are rotated to different sections of the United States.

The Iron Butt Association is dedicated to the promotion of safe Long Distance Endurance Motorcycling.