Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127390
GHILLCLIMB Pikes Peak AUlo Hilldimb e Fifty-two riders tackled the 12.42-mile climb up Pikes Peak, negotiating 156 turns on their way to the top.. A 13 min ute , 28.24 second run to the top earned Brian Anderson the overall win. Dirt trackers dominate Pikes Peak 16 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, JULY4 he return of motorcycles to the Pik es Peak Hillclimb set th e stage for one of the oddest confrontations in mo dern raci ng . It was T a battle of everything versus everything else as dirt trac kers . motocrossers, desert racers, trail riders and street bike riders all took to th e hill in search of the u ltimate mode by whi ch to defeat Co lorado 's most famous mountain. When it was all over, dirt track er Brian Anderso n found th e fastest way up th e hill , although the pa ck was close behind wi th only 15 seconds separating th e top five riders. Mo torcycles haven 't been a part of th e Pike Peak H illclimb for nine years. In the ear ly '80s, riders became discouraged with th e event because th ey felt it was too dangerous. This year, Colorado 500 organizer Wally Dall enbach took on the task of bringi ng bi kes ba ck to th e mountain . Inst ead of running ' the riders up the hill 40 at a time , Dall enbach decided that lining up th e racers five to a row would pro ve to be safe. This year , the event technically was an invitational, alt ho ugh in rea lity anyo ne wh o co uld afford the $350 en try fee co uld probably have talked his way in . The fin al ent ry list was kept to a reasonable 52 riders, and that , mor e than anything, mad e the even t a safe one, with no serious injuries falling on race day . T he hillclimb co nsists of an a ll-o ut race agains t the clock from th e en d of the pavement o n Pikes Peak Highway to th e 14,110 foot su m mi t of th e moun tai n . The climb consists of 12.42 mi les, 156 turns and a vert ical rise of 4708 feet. The course was as wid e as an interstate freeway and almost as smoo th , but trac tion was hard to find. Half of the riders in the field elected to use kn obbies, the o ther half used dirt trac k tires. No on e really knew wha t the ho t set up was going to be for the run - it had been a long time since the last ti me motor cycles were included in the event and everyo ne a ssu med tha t m odern techn o log y would assure a new world record, but no one kn ew what form th at new technol ogy ' would take. Dirt track tu ner Ron Wood was there with a rare do ubl e-overh ead cam Wood-Rotax dirt trac ker and rider Eddi e Mulder. "T his en gine is putting out just a s mu ch horsepower as on e of my all-out, full y-built Rotax engi nes, and 1 think I can still find a lot more horsepower in there," said Wood. The bike used two 38m m Dell'Orto carburetors. There were quite a few riders there using Wood-Rotax engines, and the new motor wasn 't rea lly mu ch advantage over any of those. National Hare Scrambles Champion Scott Summers was there , too, but trying a co m p le tely di fferen t approach. He used the chassis from his cross-cou n try Honda XR600 - 12 inches of suspension travel an d all with an engi ne he borrowed from Fay Meyers Honda in Denver. The motor was a heavily modified XR powerplant that had been bored and stroked to 670cc, and Summers was trying it fo r the first tim e at the hillclimb. Also in the long-suspension-trave l contingent was former National motocrosser Arlo Englund on a Husqvarna 250 motocross bike. The bike was fast , but Englund said that the suspension work h e had don e to th e bike was his advantage. " It still has full travel , but I've worked to mak e it ho ok up better than th e o ther bikes coming out of the turns ," he said. The pre-race favor ite had to be Larry Ro eseler with his half-breed Kawasaki KX500. T eam Gr een started with an ex te nsi ve ly p orted KX a nd th en lowered the mac h ine for better cornerin g. Ro eseler also used a Varner Power J et, wh ich a llowed ยท hi m to alter the motorcycl e jettin g externa ll y. As Roeseler cl im bed in eleva tio n , he would reach down and turn a knob o n th e carb to make th e bike run leaner. All of Team Green's effort almost was for nothing, though. On the designated practice day , Roeseler was coming down the mountain after his first run and highsided. " I came up beh ind another rider who was going a lot slower. 1 threw a little slide to scrub off speed and the rear end suddenly caught and 1 went over the high side," Roeseler reported. " It wasn't anyone's fault, .1 don't think that other rider ever knew wha t happened. It was just one of those th ings." Roeseler's righ t han d was injured in the crash, and after a short hel icopter ride to the hospital, h is hand wa s reassembled wit h over 20 sti tches. For race day, T eam Green mechanics taped a pencil to the KX's right grip so that Roeseler's weakened hand cou ld twist the throttle. On qualifying day, only the bottom half of th e mountain was used. Riders raced against th e clock one by one to determine start positions for the nex t da y. The ent ire exercise of qualification was just a formality - all of the riders en tered in th e event would qualify for the main. This process just allowed the fast gu ys to start on the sam e row as the o ther fast guys so the race up the hill would be more exci tin g for spectators . Fas test qualifying time belonged to Wood- Rotax rider Davey Durelle, who raced thro ugh th e bottom turns of the hillclimb wit h a time of 5 minutes. 45 seconds. Anderson was second fastest with a 5:49. The fast est of the open-wh eel car s, by comparison, was 4:49. Roeseler's luck wasn't any better for qualificati on than it was for practi ce. H e ran off the course and over the side o f a steep embankment, netting himself a poor tim e and a late sta rt. Fast est of the non-dirt trackers was Englund on his 250. Qualifying left little doubt that a Rotax dirt trac ker was going to climb the hill fastes t come race day. It was only a question of which Rotax dirt tra cker . The first row shot up th e hill with Durell e and Anderson battling for the lead the entire way. When the dust cleared a t the top, Anderson was just four seconds in front of Durelle. " I just knew the hill better," he said. And erso n is from nearby Colorado Springs and has countless trips up Pikes Peak under h is belt. "I think your bike probab ly had a little more steam," he