Rally in the Valley brings 500 motorcycle enthusiasts to Corbin

Organizers are calling the first annual Rally in the Valley a smashing success, and say lessons learned from the Corbin motorcycle convention will make it even better in the future.
Joe “Butch” White, himself a Harley-Davidson owner and principal organizer of the rally, said over 2,500 motorcycles and about 5,000 people attended the three-day event at the Corbin Civic Center.
“I had a lot of people tell me they definitely are going to come back,” White said. “They just couldn’t ask to be treated any better than we treated them. It was a great success … at any one time, we had over $20 million worth of motorcycles on display.”
Most popular were the biker build-off motorcycles on display inside the civic center itself. Performances by the Road Hazard stunt team were also well received. White said “poker” runs to help support hurricane victims and research for cancer cures also went over well. The Tri-County Cancer Coalition would receive about $5,000 from the event, he said.
White said fears about traffic violations and possible drunk driving surrounding the event didn’t come to pass.
“We had no incidents over the weekend,” he said. “No wrecks. No speeding tickets. Nothing. Everyone was real responsible. Everyone enjoyed everything.”
Though weather was sunny and clear the entire weekend, with mild temperatures, White said he’d like to move the event to September next year so it would be warmer in the evening. Many bikers left before nightfall because of plummeting temperatures. He said he also plans to move many of the bigger musical acts to earlier in the day so that attendance is higher. He said Saturday night’s performance by the Classic Rock All-Stars was good, but cool temperatures kept some away.
“We learned a ton of lessons from this one,” he said. “This is just a foundation. We’ll build and build. It will be twice as big next year.”
White said he’s already picked up a new corporate sponsor for the Second Annual Rally in the Valley, and plans to work hand-in-hand again with the Greater Corbin Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Commission. Chamber Director Bruce Carpenter was also instrumental in planning the event.
“Really, the volunteers are what makes all this possible,” he said. “I can’t thank them enough. Most of them helped with the NIBROC motorcycle show and poker run. All of them ride and were interested in seeing Corbin have a rally. Everybody just pulled together.”