.HI'LLCUMS: .
..AIIA NaIionaI ChaJiIpiooihIp HllIcIlmbSeries
Round 5: Marquette Mountain
J,.
(L8ft) Lou Geret-.
(left) acond the 800cccIas win, while Ted
W111dna (right) ~
his tInIt win of the ,..,
In the 540cc dlvlslon.
(Below) Rick Sot8r ..
~outofthe
starting boll tor his first
IIttempt up the
Marqu.tte Mountain hili.
He encIed up finishing
third In the 540cc.
The hill, just off the back deck of
the Marquette Ski Lodge, boasted a
400-foot light-to-light climb with
ample room for another 400 feet. The
first obstacle sloped up to the 6O-foot
mark where the groove drops out to
form a 30-foot-wide ditch. And then,
two more tiers followed at the 170foot marker and at the 280-foot marker. The starting box was made up of
loose, rich soil, which made getting a
good track out of the box a challenge
in itself.
(Lett) Gel'1ll1C8r'. win In Michigan _
the
second ot the yM' tor the detenolng
champ.
By Jay Herndon
MARQUEITE, Ml, JULY 22
oU Gerencer Jr., of the Gerencer's
Pro Hillclimb team, used the
drag-strip conditions at the Marquette Mountain Ski Resort
slopes to his advantage by
putting the awesome horsepower of
his Harley-Davidson to the ground
and emerging with his second 800ccclass Pro Hillclimb win of the season.
On the other side of the coin, Ted
Wilkins, aboard his snowmobile-powered hillclimber, recorded his first Pro
Hillclimb win of the season in the
540cc division.
This was the first .time Marquette
hosted a Pro AMA motorcycle event,
and it was conducted by the newly
incorporated Superiorland Motorsports club, which consists of just
seven people who banded together to
put on the well-run show.
L
Getting things underway was Bob
Shreiner, in the 540cc class, who drew
slot number one, but his BSA
wouldn't start. Ted Wilkins stepped
in and took his place, making the first
run up the .hill and clicking off a time
of 7.249 seconds to set the day's pace.
Shreiner managed to get his bike running and took his shot at the hill, but
couldn't better Wilkins' time with a
9.840.
But it was Paul Pinsonnault setting
the quickest time of the first round in
the 540cc class. The number-one-plate
holder powered his Honda up the hill
stopping the clock at 6.550. Rick Soter
III was the closest to matching Pinsonnault's time, but still came up
short with a 7.114 on his BSA.
After an injury to a rider in the
800cc class during the first round of
action, the club chose to change a portion of the hill to make the climb
more safe for the second round of
action.
When the 540cc class came out for