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bike and the hard-charging rider. Reesor handled the clearance problem by jumping the entire rock face, skipping once on the final slope and getting major air over the top for a sick 9.4-second run that topped the identical 10.04s of Beer and Whitlock. All three runs were amazing spectacles. This year, the club actually groomed the vertical rock chute near the top of the hill to speed the program up, and doing so allowed 33 riders to get over. No money was involved, but there was also an invitational "World Cup" class with riders from the U.S., Canada, France and England. Again, Beer kept the cup close to home with a 9.7-second blast. The Billings event will be 84 in 2002, but it isn't getting old just yet. CN 6reat American Championship Hillclimb Billings, Montana Results: July 28-29, 2001 1Ab0ve) Jason Smith powers his Kawasaki up the technical climb, aiming straight for one of the hill's vertical ledges. 1Ab0ve right) Nearly as Impressive as the riders' athletic talents are those of the spotters, who wield rope-mounted hooks and sport hard hats and chest protectors. Here, an unsuccessful competitor Is saved by one of these "guardian angels." Great American is big on tradition in many ways. For instance, traditionally you'd need to beat local boy Dusty Beer or Utah/Widowmaker-grown Travis Whitlock to have a shot at being champion. Every year - before the event - the pit pundits are saying that the winner could be any of 30 good riders. Beer and Whitlock are the first to banish the notion that Billings is a two-man show. Both also concede that luck is needed to accompany skill, with Whitlock joking with the club members that he was hoping for a lucky bounce. Who actually won depends on your point of view. At most events, the rider with the biggest wad of greenbacks in his pocket after the trophy presentation is the winner, and that was Beer with a bit over $5,000. The money is paid out from the four major classes: 0-600 Tire, Open Tire, 0-700 Unlimited and Open Unlimited, but there is also a championship class that pits the top-six finishers in the two tire classes against each other in a head-to-head shootout. The amount of money is small, but it carries the title of champion that the riders crave. Travis Whitlock nailed his seventh championship by setting fast time of 10.205 on his trusty Yamaha FJ1200-powered special. Whitlock barely aced his younger brother Brandon to win the 0-600 Tire class with a 18.939-second run in a class that saw only six riders (out of 118) go over the top. This class was made even tougher than usual by a pair of cuts dug into the lower part of the hill and a freak rain storm the night before. It was tough enough to even get past the mid-section of the hill, and all of the available lines through the mid-section forced the riders to turn into the mouth of the vertical chute. A series of rock steps sticking out of the face didn't make things any easier. BMC club members Ed Taylor and Larry Coleman were third and fourth, though Coleman had to cut a cast from his broken leg to compete. Beer was an uncharacteristic fifth, but his clutch was sounding pretty smoked at the end of his run. Kenny Kimball was the only otlier rider to top the hill in the class. Beer smoked to the Open Tireclass win with an 11.360 that was over two-seconds quicker than second-placed Whitlock. Only five of the Open tire bikes, including Mel Kimball, Patrick Liscom and former champion Shannon Chamberlain, topped the hill. The muddy cuts and ugly chute made this class a tough one as well. Beer's fourth-place run in the 0600cc Tire class cooked the clutch in his usual KTM 550, so he was bikeless when the 0- 700cc Unlimited class rolled to staging. Beer luckily was able to borrow Robie Peterson's aluminum-framed Service Honda CR500R. Most riders ride their 500cc MXer-based machines in both the b600cc Tire class and (after extending the wheelbase further than the tire class' 66-inches and adding a paddle tire) the 0-700cc Unlimited class. The BMC does not allow riders to share bikes in the same class, but Peterson rides a 699cc Zabel-powered (sidecar MX engine from Europe) motorcycle in 0- 700. Despite never riding the bike before, Beer made the 20-foot rock cliff near the top of the hill look like child's play and topped the 0700cc Unlimited class by more than a OM600 ROBBER TIRE CLASS:1. Travis Whitlock; 2. Brandon Whitlock; 3. Ed Taylor; 4. Larry Coleman; second over Jon Smith's exotic special. Smith had Rocket Science of Bountiful, Utah, create a Kawasakistyle perimeter frame to hold a 685cc two-cylinder Rotax snowmobile engine fitted with a clutch. The twin sounds like ripping cloth as it assaults the hill with ample power on tap. Only six of the 107 riders entered completed the run, though both Beer and Whitlock made it over on both of their runs! Whitlock earned third with Peterson fourth. Jason Blackford and Dean Dahl were the other riders to get over. Normally, the Open Unlimited class is the playground of Beer and Whitlock, and Beer had just installed a new 200-horsepower, 1400+cc Kawasaki KZ1000 engine in his much-modified KX500 chassis. Neither counted on Canada's Michael Reesor. Reesor has had his 200-horse KZ 1400-something-powered KX250 for several years, but ground clearance is sometimes a crippler for the cu cl .. 5. Dusty Beer; 6. Kerry Kimball; 7. Shane Smith; 8. Ken Long; 9. Mel Kimball: 10. Nolan Martin; 11. Ron Zundel; 12. Brent Bakken; 13. Neal Payne: 14. Shannon Chamberlain; 15. Robie Peterson; 16. John Cullinan; 17. Kevin Downs; 18. Peter Loomis; 19. Mike Dubell; 20. Dave Johnston. SENIORS CLASS: 1. Darrell Holmquist; 2. LeRoy Ebeling; 3. Dirk Wolff; 4. Lefty Freuh; 5. Dan Frye. 0-700 QNLlMITED CLASS: 1. Dusty Beer; 2. Jon Smith; 3. Travis Whitlock; 4. Robie Peterson; 5. Jason Blackford; 6. Dean Dahl; 7. Nolan Martin; B. Harold Waddell; 9. Michael Ressor; 10. Pete Loomis; 11. Brian Helton; 12. Bill Bertram; 13. Brandon Whitlock; 14. Chuck Dubell; 15. Jason Smith; 16. Eric Dickerson; 17. Mike DeVries; 18. Todd Cipala; 19. Lance Beslanowitch; 20, Steve Mann. OPEN RUBBER TIRE CLASS: I. Dusty Beer: 2. Travis Whitlock; 3. Mel Kimball; 4, Patrick Uscum; 5. Shannon Chaberlain; 6. Michael Reesor; 7. Shane Smith; 8. Todd Cipala; 9. Robie Peterson; 10. Brandon Whitlock; 11. Jon Smith; 12. Troy McDowall; 13. Ed Taylor; 14. Rick Stauffer; 15. Larry Coleman: 16. Nolan Martin; 17. LeRoy Ebeling: 18. Brain Helton; 19. Chad Lorenz; 20. Pete Loomis. 70t·UP ONUJYlITED Cl.J\SS: 1. Michael Reesor; 2. Dusty Beer; 3. Travis Whitlock; 4. Robie Peterson; 5. Shannon ChamberlaIn; 6. Todd Cipata; 7. Ed Taylor; 8. Kurt Koester; 9. Kenny Kimball; 10. Ron Zundel; 11. Harold Waddell; 12. Mel Kimball: 13. Jon Smith; 14. Brandon Whitlock; 15. Pete Krunich; 16. Eric Cherry; 17. Larry Coleman: 18. John Cullinan; 19. Pete Loomis; 20. Kevin Downs. CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS· 2001 CHAMPION: 1. Travis Whitlock; 2. Michael Ressor; 3. Dusty Beer. WORLD CUP CHALLENGE: 1. Dusty Beer. (Below) Vertical chutes, rock steps and deep trenches are just a few of the challenges the hlllclimbers face at the Great American hillclimb. n .. _ s • AUGUST 22, 2001 39