Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Robert Castl edine (4) went down hard after his Harley too k a detour off the course . The hos ting club designed a very tech nica l hillclimb to celebrate its 40th anniversary. custom Rotax to pull the steep incline q u ick enough, and went over seven seco nds on bo th ru ns. J ohn H islop , also aboard a BSA, p a ssed the ligh ts in u n de r seve n seconds on his first attempt, and sat in th ird fo r the first ro und . Ral p h Kreeger wou ld be the las t o ne to break seven seconds in the first ro und, with a 6.86-second run. At the end of ro und o ne , the top five were Frazier, Kreeger, H islo p , Dresser and Pinso nn ault. T he 800cc cla ss, mad e up of predom ina n tly Harl ey-Davidson hillclimbers, was mu ch faster th an the 540s up th e hill. T he long straig h taway from th e 60 foot mark to the top allo wed th e mor e-po werful 800s to gain speed and post times in the six-second bracket. Bu t the Harl eys took back sea t to the H ondas, as Gr eg Will iam s and his brother, Wade, dominated ihe class. The defending class cha m p, Lo u Gerencer J r., was the first o ne up in round one. Gerencer sat o u t th e season opener becau se of injuries, but put in two quick runs. Geren cer's first run sto pped th e clock at 6.507 seconds, bu t hi s times got qui cker as the da y progr essed. Lo u Gerencer Sr. , Lou Gerencer Jr., Harry Sch reiber J r., Rick Hunter and Jeff Yod er turned in tim es below seven. T om Ch auerson had two pow erful runs, but failed to recover o n the jump and dumped the bike twice. Schreiber held second at the end of round one with a 6.4 19 second run, o n ly a tenth of a second off of Greg Will iams' 6.301. Yoder put in the third-bes t tim e of 6.505. Lo u Gerencer Jr. was rig h t beh ind wit h a 6.507, bu t Lou Sr. fell low in the pack wi th a ro ug h landin g. Round one dosed on the 800 s wit h Greg Willi a m s, H arry Sc hre ibe r , Yoder , Lou Gerencer j r., and Wade William s fill in g out th e top five. As the 540s came back to th e line, leader Frazier stood by as nearly ha lf of the h ill climbers im proved times on thei r second attempt. Dresser put in the stronges t second round ti me , at 6.779, but it wasn't enough to force Frazier to ride again. Kreeger, who was second after ro und on e, couldn' t better h is time and slipped to third for th e day , wh il e Dresser -m o ve d u p to second. SCOll Everet t did better on ro und two, while C Ulling near ly a half second off h is first ro und time was Ernie Pellin, topping the hill in a t 6.962 seconds and moving u p to fifth . Th e 540cc class concl uded with Frazier o n top, foll owed by Dresser, Kreeger, Hislop, and Pellin. T he Williams fam ily took contro l in round two of th e 800cc class, as th ey all po sted improvements. But up first was Lou Geren cer J r. , who sha ved h is 6.507 down to a 6.454, whi ch tempor arily lift ed him into second place. Gr eg Williams' second ride was smoother and quicker, a sleek 6.084. Father J ohn Williams cut his tim e dow n to 6.33, 'and Wad e Williams lopped off nearl y a full second, going down fro m 7.063 to 6.089. Harry Schreiber wiped o ut at 175 feet and dropped to fifth . The Williams' team walked away with first, second and fourth. Yoder put h is Harley o n th e line again, but slipped tractio n and went o ver th e to p in seven seconds and ' dropped to sevent h overall. Of th e 13 remaining riders, o nly T eam USA's T om Reiser would break into the low six-second bracket, and moved into third. Charlie Casey turned in two high six-seco n d run s, but finish ed ninth o n the day. DI Ha lf of th e battle of a hilld imb event is descending the hill you j ust tri ed clim bing. T he com petitors had to negotia te a di fficult j um p at th e base of the hill. Results 8O(k;c: I. G reg Wi11iams (Han): 2. Wade Wi lliams (Han); 3. T om Reiser (H· D); 4. J ohn Williams (Han); 5. Harr y Schreiber (H- O); 6. Lo u Gerencer J r. (H-D); 7. Jeff Yoder (H-D) ;8. Rod ney Smith (T ri): 9. Charles Casey (Yam); 10. Mark Swem (BSA); I I. Lou Gerencer Sr. (H- D); 12. Rand y Gabriel (H- D); 13. Robert Castledine (H-D); 14. Michael Debusk (Ra w); 15. Steve Krauter (H-D). MOcc I. T im Frazier (BSA); 2. Steve Dresser (Suz); : 3. Ra lph Kreeger (T ri); 4. J ohn H islop (BSA); 5. Erni e Pel hn (Han); 6. Dou~ KlODt (T ri ); 7. Paul Pinso nnau lt (Ha n ); 8. T ed Wtldins {Ro tax): 9. Aaron Brown (Han); 10. Scott Evereu (Tn); 11. Alan Hoskin s (Ha n ); 12. Bill Apicella (Ka w ]: 13. Micha el Pulver (Ka w); H. Roger McN eeley (Ya m); 15. David Duncan (Han) . 29

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