Utah spe ctato rs converged on t he Widowmake r festivities to chee r: (Above left) Nebraskan George McGraw .
(Center) Californ ian Ron Thompson . (Left) th irt een-veer-o ld Steve St it h and (Below) Overall win ner Ji m T rue .
·I
W IW
I ·
rnak r
•
I
..
•
ATru
I
By Ann A. Powell
BLUFFDALE , UTAH, APRI L II
For the past five years, riders from
all over the United States have
been coming to this high plate au
overlooking the state pris on at
Bluffdale , Utah , to see if they cou ld ride
to the top. It finally h appened.
Jim True made th e tr ip fr om
Northern California all the way to the
to p of the 1500 foot Widowmaker.
Mounted on a 900cc Harle y-Davids on,
with chain wr apped tires , True took off
from the starting line and didn 't stop
until he reached the distant crest. Fo r
accomplishing what none of the o th er
351 entrants could do , True went home
with the super trophy, $500 in cash ,
and th e unique honor of bein g
on~;~~a,::::
',
spectaCle:~ ~r*r~i;~~:~~~~1~:1~: t;*,,
his winning run in the
. i..
, ' . ..... . ' '-::.' ~~' ~": climbed. They had watched hu!,?!~ of ;:~
, ,' . . .", '-' ~' ~ 2,ru n. already, ap !!f . th e m exclt!!lg~
'-i
. -i-i-"liIiiiiiiIiIi ~,-, .,.. .
- i '
L...J1liiiiii_iiIiiI=liiiiill.i.-' ~
~I
'
0:-'
'
..... ". -.
.,'
~'
nothing to co mpare with this. Most of
the good riders managed to get from
400 t o 650 fee t up the hill , b ut were
halted by the steep grad e, th ick bru sh
and deep holes that were dug by
previ ous riders. True bree zed beyond all
t his in such a manner th at it all looked
simple,
Following th e Exhibition class , there
wer e still more than 200 attemp ts made
on the hill , The bikes in the 3 71 to
500cc class had a second try , and those
in the 501 to Open class still had two
tries, Every on e of these riders went all
out to match True 's feat . As with the
earlier runs, most stopped somewhere
aro u nd the 5 50 to 650 mark.
