Sturgis Rally motorcycle street racing will return

This story has been updated with quotes from city council member Jim Thompson.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will return to its roots as the motorcycle race will return to Sturgis streets after a 7-0 approval Monday by the city council. One city council was absent from the meeting, a news release said.

Back in 1938, the rally started to provide races for motorcyclists, according to numerous historical descriptions of the rally.

The 2024 race will be on Sunday, Aug. 11, which is a day when many of the rally attendees have already left the annual 10-day rally.

The street race had originally been approved by a prior city council but citizens opposed to it organized a vote and the race was rejected. One big concern was the roughly $653,000 the city may have needed to help fund the race, said the city’s communications director Deb Holland.

“Although the AMA told us all along that it would find sponsors to cover that $653,000, and the message was out there, it never took hold,” Holland said.

The motorcycle organization made a big change. “They came back and took that off the table,” said council member Jim Thompson said of the money.

Since April, the AMA has been more intentional and transparent with the community, Holland said, and the street race idea gained support.

The support was evident to him when he walked downtown Sturgis after the Monday meeting and talked with about 100 people and only three were opposed to the race, Thompson said.

“Some of us have thought for years that we need something on that second weekend,” said Mark Bruch, an owner of the Loud American roadhouse on Main Street in Sturgis.

An American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Pro street race will draw younger fans during that last week and weekend and entice others to stay longer the annual rally, Bruch said.

“It will be a boost during the last few days of the rally, said Rod Bradley of the Oasis Bar and Fireside Lounge.

Typically, most rally goers are gone by the last Sunday, Thompson said. The street race will allow the rally to end with “firecrackers” rather than with a “fizzle,” he said.

Bradley and Bruch support the street race but like the majority of voters who turned down the first race proposal in April, they had concerns and questions.

They also had concerns about the $653,000.

Other concerns included that the original Sunday route placed a dirt portion of the racetrack in a Catholic church parking lot, which was near to a Lutheran church, Holland said. Sherman Street in the church area would have needed to be closed under the original plan

The route was also changed to place the dirt section in a bank parking lot so the churches are not impacted. The race route is now a 1/4 mile instead of a 1/2 mile, Holland said.

The street race is an adventure-style race that is gaining in popularity, Thompson said.

Not only should it draw race fans to Sturgis, the AMA has said the street race will be broadcast on FOX

“A big part of this is it will be shown on the FOX network,” Bruch said. Sturgis, the area and even the state will benefit from that TV exposure, he said.

“That’s a big deal for Sturgis,” Thompson said.

Now that the street race is set, it’s up to businesses and vendors to help make it successful, Bradley said. “It’s going to take all of us,” Bradley said of businesses, vendors, the city and others.

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