Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Mel Kimball Jr. was the overa ll.winner at the Widowmaker Hillclimb. He was a lso the first rider over the top, claiming $1000. Kenny Kimball cl imbed to second overall in the Open Exh ibition class on his 1225cc Honda . He reached the 1125 foot mark. Silver Anniversary Widowmaker Hillclimb Kimball 'reclaims gold at 25th Widowmaker By Karel Kramer SALT LAKE CITY, UT, MAY 22 Mel Kimball Jr. join ed h illclimbing 's elite today with an aggressive, successful run at the serpentine, 1500-foot face of the famous (or infamou s) Widowmaker H illclim b. Kimball's run was the only successful shot at climbing the ·II · . h.. VIa the· seq:~entme, Iedg~Iilled, 15-foot wi de open exhibition lane during the normal cornpetition. The winning run on hi s 1125cc Honda four-cylinder gave Kimb all the overall win and his second victory at the best known climb in th e world. Robert Horban had mad e.a good try at keep in g th e $1000 for th e first rid er over the hill from Kimball when he made wh at looked like a clean go of th e tougher 700cc Exhibition class. A check of the boundries, th ou gh , revealed that he had been br ie£ly o ut of bounds and th e ru n was disq ua lified. . . Af te~ th e regular.c1.u:nb, the top ~O nders 10 each EX~lb1Uon class paid $50 eac h . for a ' winner-take-all run at th e h j ll, Dunng the sh~t-ou t . ~.orban clea ned th e sa~e hili th at KImball had to pped ear he r to prove th at th e former class C racer's run was no £l uk e. . Unfort una tely for Horban , T raVIS 'Yh!tlock too k a ~onda CR500R. Sim ilar to H orb an s, over the open exh ibi tio n hill for a fast er tim e. T ha t gave Whitlock th e win and th e cash. Whitl ock, lik e Kimball, co mes from a hillclimbing famil y, and he ha s been so mething of a phen om eri on in this shoot-ou t in pa st years. He borrowed his father's Open Exp ert bik e when he was 14-year sold to becom e th e youngest rider to ever top the hill. Last year, he tied with multi-winner Kerry Peterson in th e s~oot-out. This year he was on the way to good runs when he broke chains in three out of four of his chances. He made good in his last cha nce for the day. When asked about hi s seeming aptitude for the shoot-out, Whitlock said, "I guess I just get mad at the end of the day." Todd Whitlock took th e 700cc exh ibition win, and Debbi e Whitl ock to p ped fi rst tim e climber Candy· Hateley in th e Powder Puff class. Debbi e may have won a tworider class, bl;ltshe blasted to 660 £e~t, one of th e highest runs o n that hill for Sportsmen and old men 's classes. As clt mb an~oun cer J ack Ca rlto n co nsta ntly reminded the spectators, th ere was a tim e wh en it seemed a Uta hn cou ldn 't bu y a winner for th e Widowmaker. Winning th e Wido wmaker is easy for Uta hns now _ as lon g as your nam e is Kimball. Mel J r. was th e first rider from Utah to win th e cli mb wit h a ride over th e top. Kimb all 's fat her. Mel Sr., was th e first Utah rider to win the hillclimb back in the '70s. Mel J r. won in 1986. his brother Kenn y Kimball kept the traveling troph y in th e famil y room in 1987, and Mel J r. mad e sure the tro phy was back in the hous e with less than a day's absence this year. Bro th er Kenny strengthened th e famil y dom ina tion of the climb'bv taking secon d in th e Open Exhibition class this year. Then Mel grabbed fourt h in ' th e 700cc Exhibition class with Kenny eig h th . Like last year, the Bees Motorcycle Club ran three hills on a lower face of the Point of the Mountain. The new hill is severa l hundred yards from recent, brushier Widowmaker sites, and about a mil e west on the face from the hill seen in the original On Any Sunday movi e. For 1987 and 1988, th e climb returned to a location on the hill that was used in the mid70s. Spectator a nd rid ers al ike were treated to a better hill and a better, more fair even t. Club members wh o work th e hill are allowed to rid e, but thi s year was th e first tim e that riders were all owed to walk th e hill. Last yearthe hill was so difficult that most rid ers crashed befor e they got high eno ugh for th e specta tors to see. This year there was at least 3OO-feet of relatively straight run before major turns or ledges in th e hill. The 700cc Exh ibition class got under way first o n a modified version of 1987's Open Exhibition hill. The start was a long, off-camber run at th e hill which went over a rise and dipped through a gully before negotiating a series of sharp; steep uphill turns with -cliffs and ledges dug in the apex of each tum. All told , it was a brutal h ill. H orban was the h ighest of the first runs at 985.9 feet with Mark Cox at 930 feet and Todd F. Whitlock at 924 feet. Behind them were nine riders between 827 feet and 853 feet then roughly 25 riders between 725 and ·755 feet. The results stayed close to the end. Whitlock topped the class when hi s second run ended at 1269.33 feel. Horban was next with 1257 feet. T om Elmore proved that Eastern riders can be a consista nt threat with third pl ace at 1253.66 feet , with Mel Kimb all Jr. at 1246.75 feet and Carl Collier 's Kawasaki 1.75 feet behind Kimb all. Kerry Peterson and Kenny Kimb all were th e on ly o ther riders past 1200 feet. J erry L. Apland at 1I85 feet and Ru ss McCoy at 11 45 o n a Yam aha (one of th e two nonHondas in th e top 10) rounded ou t the top 10. O pen Exh ib ition was a spec tacular displ ay this year, a di splay as welcome for th e specta tors as th e riders. The heavy, powerful bikes were o n a h ill so difficult that th ey looked comp letely fool ish in 1987. T h is year's hill used th e top part of 1987's 700cc Exhibition class hill , but a straig h t run of nearl y 600 feet marked th e start, then bent into a right-hand tum where the lane made riders sideh ill for a few yards befor e mak in g a tough left-hand tum to accelera te toward a five-foot ledge foll owed immedi ately by a smaller ledge. a left tum/righ t tum combination then four off-cam ber ledges in a row followed by a more than 9O-degree left with a cliff in the middle before a run to the top. Lance Lundgren was the second rider · out on his stock-framed Yamaha FJI2oo. He made it to the first ledge and tried to ease up to it, th en power over. He dug in. Dusty Beer came out next, eased through th e Sstum, then clutched his 1981 KX250-framed 1280cc Kawasaki four to gain speed . At top speed he used a giant tug on the bars to wheelie th e behemoth over the ledge ! The long swingarm got the engine cases over the ledge, but the bike' rear wheel kicked 10 th e air for a moment. Beer looked as stunned that the bike went over as anyone of the astounded specta tor s, backed off for a moment, then gassed it to chum his way up to 1058 feet. That early run was Beer's best for the day, and it remained the sixth best run of the day on that hill. After Beer showed the way , many of the aggressive Open Expert riders wheelied their huge machines over the ledge. The sig ht was one of the most awesome in motorcyclingl Rod Whi tlock grabbed fifth in the class on his 1200cc Honda four wit h a second run of 1072.5 feet. Sid Seitz used a 1250cc Suzuki in an R M500 frame to notch fourth with 1091.25 feet. Travis Whitlock had a beautiful new YZ-framed Yamaha FJI200, but he broke th e chain on both runs while high on the hill. Still, he grabbed third place with an 1I05foot run on th e seco nd try. Kenny Kimball's first run on hi s Brindosbuilt 1225cc Honda four took him to I 125 feet for second place. About midway through the second set of runs, Mel Kimball Jr. launched hi s Brindos Honda off th e line. He had been stopped by th e first ledge on his first run , but kept on storming on th e second run to clean the hill. In doing so, Kimb all claimed $1000 for being the first rider over as well as th e cash for win ning th e class. The Expert classes had a tough time thi s year. The 250cc Expert class ra n o n th e tire hill, but th e bottom turned into silt that stopped man y rid ers. Three rid ers sh ined in that class, th ough. David Sven vold won on a YZ250 with a 680 foot run followed by Rod Jorgensen on a Honda 250 at 661 feet a nd Brett H eninger on a no ther YZ at 648 feet. Fourth place Kell y Petersen made it to 325 feet. Steve Jorgen sen took his Honda 500 to th e top of th e 50-rider 500cc Expert class. The class was run on the Op'en Exhibition hill after the big bikes had made one run and

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