OFF THE WIRE
http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2011/03/25/news_update/194.txt
Bikers' battle: Motorcycle club revs up pledges against road rage
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@acnpapers.com
Bikers Against Road Rage, a nonprofit organization started by the Dirty Bastards Motorcycle Club (DBMC), held its first fundraiser Saturday, March 18, at Hank's Texas Grill in McKinney.
The group, "Bikers Rocking and Revving Against Road Rage," put on the event to raise money for McKinney residents Loren and Lacey Santos, whose parents died last September because of an accident caused by road rage.
"It's not about us at all," said Scrape, DBMC member and event organizer. "It's about the girls and helping them do the things they should be able to do."
The local club hosted the fundraiser only months after it founded the organization. The girls' father, Ernie Santos, was a member of the club. He and his wife, Elisa, died after crashing their motorcycles on U.S. 75 in Richardson, when the owners of two vehicles in front of them had taken their bar fight onto the road.
Plano resident Sterling Mitchell and Dallas resident Michael Pyburn engaged in an altercation inside the Verandah Grill and Lounge in Richardson on Sept. 17th, 2010. The disturbance continued into the parking lot and then onto U.S. 75. At about 2 a.m., Mitchell suddenly stopped his white Mitsubishi pickup truck in the left-center lane, directly in front of Pyburn's black Lexus. To miss the truck, Pyburn swerved to the right and made fatal contact with a motorcycle ridden by Ernie and Elisa. Ernie's fellow DBMC members quickly heard about the wreck.
"That night, we all had calls coming in at two and three in the morning," said Mongo, DBMC member. "We were there for each other right away."
Lisa died at the scene, and Ernie died in the hospital two days later after several unsuccessful surgeries. Shortly after, Scrape, Mongo and the rest of the club started Bikers Against Road Rage (BARR).
"It's what we're supposed to do," Mongo said. "Ernie's not here, and we're his brothers."
Loren, 13, and Lacey, 5, now live with their aunt and uncle and were at the event held in their honor. Scrape and Mongo, who both asked to be referred to by their club names, helped organize the fundraiser, which according to Scrape was certainly "rocking."
He said between 700 and 1,000 people were there throughout the day, many of them parking four or five lots over and walking almost a half-mile just to get there.
The bands that played for free at the event included Wade Reeves, Rock Theory, Voodoo Blue, Delta Rage and The Maylee Thomas Band. The Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) also participated in the event and teamed with Harley Davidson of Dallas to sponsor the event.
"We've had so much support for the foundation since we started it," Scrape said. "This weekend, all the support we had from the sponsors was just unbelievable."
The club raised money through door cover charges, biker games and raffles. The event, which lasted from 2 p.m. until early Sunday morning, allowed Hank's to set a single-day sales record.
Scrape and Mongo said they hoped the fundraiser would help outsiders understand that not all motorcycle clubs are law-breaking outlaws.
"Most people have a real bad misconception about us because of our name," Mongo said. "We're anything but what they think, and we come from all walks of life."
Three men started the DBMC in 2007 because they simply wanted to ride together. They each were in a different stage in life and had a mutual passion for riding motorcycles. Other clubs they tried to join would only accept one or two, but not all three of them, so they started their own. Scrape said because they weren't accepted, the three were "like bastard children," an idea that gave the club its name.
T1he DBMC is only considered an outlaw group by definition: The American Motorcycle Association (AMA) says that any club that wears patches and doesn't belong to the AMA is an outlaw club. Scrape and Mongo emphasized that their club is not a "one-percenter," a club that participates in illegal activity.
The DBMC members have a bond that allows them to always be there for each other, and in recent months, there for each other's family. Last weekend's turnout gave the club reason to believe its fight against road rage is just beginning.
"We hope it grows into something as big as Mothers Against Drunk Driving," Mongo said. "We just want to be in a position to help families who are in the same predicament as the Santos on that night."
