Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

trophy . at Widow maker only one more time to retire the Perpet ual Kerry Peters on (above and inset) has to cross the finish line I P et er so n pl ow s W id ow m ak er w it h H ar le y po w er By Karel Kram er SALT LAKE CITY, UT, APR. 25 Yor ba Lind a, Cali forn ia's Kerry Pete rson drov e 900 mile s to the Wid owm aker hill clim b, only to get a tota l of 93 seconds of ridi ng time in. He left far from disa ppo inte d and $3500 richer after he crested . the infam ous ~500-fo.ot, 8degree slope twice, deligh ting some 20,000 sun burne d fans. 7 12 Histor y of some sort is always made at Widow maker, either in the form of great winner s, or a myriad of triers. Peterso n pulled his Palmda le Harley-Davidson/JR B Engine ering/ Wheels mith/J R Racing/KRW -sponsored 1500cc nitro-b urning , fuel injected, 200-horsepower Harley up to the line as the fourth starter. He powere d over the hill in 57 seconds in his first runl Exhibi tion bikes are run on virgin terrain , and Peterso n ignore d the sagebr ush, rocks and monster ledges at 1150 feet to run straigh t and sure up the hill. If you ign ore the 2OO-horse motor, his Harley was surpris ingly untrick , sportin g a single ~lr of Works Performan ce shocks m the rear and a pair of pre-'76 Maico forks on the front. Peterson described the Harley as not only the fastest hill climbe r but " the fastest bike I' veever ridden. You gas it, and it leaps forwardl " His hill toppin g first run earn ed him the choice of not runnin g again or choosi ng the time for his second pass. He chose to start last. Previo us fast time, actuall y the only previo us time, for the worlds longest and largest hill clim b was one minute , 20 seconds, set last year by Cal ifornia Keith Roessler on a 1000cc Honda four. Peterso n is the only man in history to go over the top twice the same day and to go over three times. Only Ron True and Bob Day, Jr. have made official runs over the top of the new, larger hill. Last year's winner , Roessler, never got close to the Harlev that carried Peterson over the top. Roessler took lOth in the Exhibi tion class, saying, "I just rode too hard. I had good rides going, then near the top I'd get sideways. " He did take the win in the Expert Open class with a 900-foot run on the Amate ur/Exp ert hill running his 1000cc Honda on a rubber rear tire rather than the steel paddle s that automa tically put the bike in the Exhibi tion class. Peterson also had success in anothe r class as he took a Wheelsmith Maico 490 to second in the '!>71-500cc Expert class. The 20,000 spectators on hand were the biggest turnou t of spectat ors the even t has ever drawn . Eighty -nine hopefu l riders attacke d the Exhibition slope while, one lane over, 84 riders gave their best in the 500cc Expert class, '!>OO riders in all. Part of class were the reason that the so large, was that the Salt Lake City Bees Motorc ycle Club, who have sponso red the event contin uously for the past 19 years, require all out of state riders to partici pate in the Expert class. Second to Peterso n was Vince Bertolucci , from Califor nia also, on a 1000cc Trium ph. Third was anothe r Califo rnian, Troy Bartle on a 500cc Yamah a. Only Califor nians have ever seen the top the hard way. Riders came from 25 states and Canada , and motorcycles ranged from the myriad of yz Yamah as of all ages to Malcol m Wendt 's 750cc Vincen t (a 1949 V-twin), to the several l'!>OO+cc Harleys. The Exhibi tion class got underway with a bang as fourth rider out, Peterso n, motore d over the top with an awesome display of raw power. He was one of the few riders all day that could shut off the throttle and pick up speed again. The Harley went over the top so smooth ly that many people predict ed that many more riders would cruise over in like fashion , but it was not to be. The next three riders fell early. Larry Shultz was the next rider to pick off a good ride with a jaunt of 859 feet, Ron Edie pushed his trick nitro injected Jawa four-valve speedway-engined climbe r to 818 feet. The hill seemed to rut up, and many riders bogged out at around 500-600feet. A superc harged Yamah a with a 15-inch radial car tire, with steel paddle s across it, broke the curse and a substan tial trail, and many riders stoppe d boggin g out. The first round of Exhibi tion drew to an end at about three o'clock . One of the last to run was the '49 Vincent. It went to the 700-foot mark, but no official score was recorded, meanin g that it must have broken the lime barriers early in the run. For the Exhibi tion racers, only the start of their hill, about 20 feet, was cleared of brush. As the second round got underw ay, the bikes started going much higher . Peterso n had commented earlier, "The only advant age to going out early is that you get first shot at the $1000 bonus for being first over." For a string of runs in the second round, almost no riders were staying below the 9OO-foot mark, and for the first time the two-stroke rigs, mostly near-stock bikes with extended swingarms, began edging up the hill into the regions that had recently been " fueler only" territory. As the fuelers ripped out the brush and big obstacles, handli ng became a bigger factor. Bertolucci's Trium ph roosted into second place, but the third and fourth place bikes were 500cc or less. Troy Bartle was the 64th rider to make a second run, and he clung to the hill for 11'!>8 feet, '!>50 feet shy of the top. In fourth place was the top placin g Utah rider, Lance Lundg ren on a 490 Yamah a. Califo rnian Steve Smith coaxed his Trium ph up to II'!>O feet. One Widow maker regular who didn't fare as well as usual was Jim True. J im is in the hunt every year, and was

• Cover