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foot hill in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 5.
Questionable weather kept a lot of riders
away, but 71 of the best riders in the country
competed. Five National Champions were
present, as well as many top~five national
number carriers.
Todd Cipala tumed in the fastest time of
the day on his Harley, roaring over the top of
the lOO-yard hill in 6.444 seconds on his first
ride. The Open class, on this day, included
bikes over 600cc, which put the 75Occ-c1ass
riders in with the big-bores. As a result, the
class featured five top-five national number
carriers: Uoyd Mueller is the 2002 Open-class
National Champion; Cipala carries the "2N"
plate and is a past National Champion; Eric
O'Connor is the 750cc National Champion;
and brothers Kaleb and Jason Northrup carry
the "2N" and "4N" plates. Also, both Cipala
and Jason Northrup are past National Champions in the 750cc class. All five of these rid·
ers were in this class. as was Louie Lauters,
who finished eighth in the Open class at the
2002 Nationals.
Cipala's time was very convincing. as his
closest challenger was Mueller. who carded a
6.776-second run for second place on his hot
Harley. Cipala aiso claimed the third·place
cash, topping the hill on his Kawasaki Triple
in 6.838 seconds, with O'Connor and Dan
Lauters running fourth and fifth.
Ryan Peterson enjoyed a double·win day,
taking the 200cc· and 450cc·c1ass wins. A
past National champ himself, Peterson topped
the hill in 7.474 seconds on his KTM to claim
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uck ShoUoIIno (lion): 2. Shan>n "";daM IHon); 3.
DaIo Murphy (lion).
NOV GTU: 1. 1"\atk Appiegate (Yam); 2. Jeff Gra« (Ka...); 3
Fred MudIotf.
All GTU: 1.1'Iark ........" (Yam): 2. o.an 0.1 Twa> (Yam): 3
J
