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/128230
can ride the whee ls off a d irt b ike, but M cGrath hadn't raced a 500 in 10 years, and ne ver a l e n g t h e n ed on e w ithout a rear brake - n o t t o mention the c om plet ely berserk and intimidating hill th e Bill ings Motorcycle Club calls the Bentonite Nigh tm are. Off-road star Shane Watts was entered in the class as well , but flight problems meant he arrived after th e cl ass was fin ished. The club let h im make h is tw o runs for fu n to see how he would have done. Watts virtua ll y rolled in , changed and hit the hill on a strange bike and without eve n a look at the hill. His first run was a scoutin g mission, but he was going for th e top - on his second run . With out seeing the o t h er rid es o ve r , Wa tts spie d th e same line McGrath used to jump the na stin ess at th e to p. H e g ave i t a major effort, but we ' ll nev er kn ow. When the rear wheel clipped th e final ledge, the KTM 550 swingarm exten sion s b ro k e off! With th e rear no longer attached, that was th e end for Shane Watts. "I nearly [d irtied] m y pa nts wh en I saw th e h ill, " Watts q uipped , " but I have a t aste of the adre na line now, and I want come ba c k and c o nq uer this [femal e dog] !" At l east th e Peters on Ra cin g Hond a CR500R M cG rat h bo r ro w ed w as som ewhat fa miliar. Ev en mo re s impressi ve was his th ir d tr y at th e hill o n Pet er son 's 2500 c c fue l-injec t ed , 21 8 -h o r se po w er H arl ey - D av i d so n . Mc Grath decl ined p ra c t i ce t im e on the m ac hine, fearing that he would be too intim idate d to attempt the hill on it. Instead, they pushed the bike to th e start line then fir ed it with a start cart. McGrath did one burnout, rolled to th e lin e and bl ew ove r th e hill fast enoug h to earn 16t h in cl ass. " I j ust di d n't want to l ea ve h e re without go ing over the hill: McG rath cl aim ed later. "I was so p umped to be ove r t h e h ill th at I fo rgo t t o ga s it thro ug h the timing lights. I' m not sur e I ev er let the cl utch all the way o ut o n the Harley . I was a little rel ieved w hen Rod ie Peterson br ok e th e sho ck on it before m y seco nd run !" Th e 0 -500c c Tire class , Open Tir e and Op en Unlimited cl ass all run variations of the same path up the j um bled slope. Whitlock 's winning 0 -600cc run wa s in the 14 -second rang e, and Mel Kimball , Waddell and Pete Kr unich all were in the 15 s, w ith McGrath and J on Smith in the 16 s. In c ontrast , the o pe n b ikes had Wh itloc k and Coleman i n t h e 12s! W a d de ll ( G S XR1100) was the on ly rider in the 13s , Peterson an d D av e J oh nston posted 14 s, and Pa t Lis cum ( S u zu k i TLl OO OR) was in th e 15 s. Jo hn s t o n also w on th e Seni or c lass b ut broke a coll arbo ne in th e