Kato Cycle Club’s Night Hillclimb Mankato, Minnesota - July 21 By Mike Nelson
O
n the tail end of a mid summer heat wave it was a relief to be at the Kato Cycle Club, and enjoy the cool of the evening at their annual night hillclimb. The club has been busy since their June climb, changing their hill back to it’s straight run format, and they also changed up the first jump to make it a tricky double. The new look on the first jump had the first ATV riders of the day taking a conservative approach to getting it figured out. Then, the top five all put up very fast runs under six seconds in their opening runs led by Zach Diercks out of Hager City, Wisconsin with a run of 5.609 seconds. With the lights turned on in the twilight hours of the evening, the second round got started with the ATVs again leading the way, and Tyler Clark from Missouri absolutely screamed up the hill, breaking the five second mark with a run of 4.992 seconds. Clark was the only ATV in the four second range, and was one of only four riders to break into that range from any class all night. On the 4-Stroke side of ATV competition, Emily Dosdall chalked up her first ever win in just her second year of competing after joining her husband Mike and son Isaiah Thomas on the hill last year. In the youth classes Bodee O’Neil wowed the crowd on his second run in the Micro-Mini class as he put his little Cobra over the top in 9.107 seconds to take the win over Haley Bach. Braiden Henry and Casey Paider traded firsts and seconds in the 65cc and Mini Jr. classes, with Paider coming out on top in the 65s. Local rider Jason Laven had a comfortable half second lead in the Mini Sr. class after the first round, but Nathan Prebe came back from a disappointing fourth place run his first time up the hill and put together a smooth run of 7.136 seconds to edge out Laven for the win by just 26 thousandths of a second. The tightest racing of the night was in the 600cc class. This class of twenty-six entries finished with less than a second separating first from twentieth at the end of the night, and just a half a second split the top ten. Local rider and club member Marcus Winch took the top spot away from first round leader Zach DeGross with a time of 5.012 on his second run. Steve Cain improved his fifth place first run making his second trip up the hill in less than five and a quarter seconds to round out the top three in the class for the night. The fastest runs of the night came when the Open bikes took to the hill. Ryan Stevermer was the first Open rider to flirt with the 5 second mark. A couple rides later Zach DeGross took to the hill on his big Kawi and 32 CYCLE USA, September 2012
flew over the top with a time of 4.991 to be the first rider of the night to break in to the four second range. Next on the hill was reigning District 23 champion in the class, Jared Gitter, and he delivered a 4.905 that held for the win, and fast time of the night through regular competition. In the second round Local vet rider Brent Stevenson joined Gitter and Degross in the four second range, splitting their times for second place. Stevenson also won the +40 class. When the fastest riders of the day were running for the King of the Hill, it looked like Gitter’s time of the day would be safe with times holding around the mid five second range until the final three riders came up. With only the two fastest riders of the day to follow him, Marcus Winch reopened the crowd’s eyes when he sailed over the top on his 600cc class machine to take the KOTH lead with a 5.064 second run. Stevenson pulled into the start next and cracked the throttle open on his big custom built open ride, screaming over the top with a time of 4.985 to move into the lead. Last up the hill was Jared Gitter. Having already won the Open class and setting fast time of the day, Gitter wasn’t ready to call it a night just yet. Looking for more, Gitter wound up his big Honda and let it fly, laying down a sweet run of 4.877 seconds to break his own fast time and win the King of the Hill. The Kato Cycle Club, their crew, and all the riders did an excellent job of keeping things going to get the 220+ entries all up the hill twice and still wrap up not too far past midnight on this unique night time event. Thanks to all for putting on another great show. Results: ATV: 1.Tyler Clark 2.Austin Welch 3.Zach Diercks 4.Stephen Clark 5.Ryan Johnson ATV 4-Str: 1.Emily Dosdall 2.Dion Welch 3.Marty Clark Micro-Mini: 1.Bodee O’Neil 2.Hayley Bach 3.Jacob Berg 4.Kyren Sunken 5.Cody Paider 65cc: 1.Casey Paider 2.Braiden Henry 3.Bodee O’Neil 4.Kaden Funk 5.Davis Sunken Mini Jr: 1.Braiden Henry 2.Casey Paider 3.Olivia Bach 4.Davis Sunken 5.Cody Atherton Mini Sr: 1.Nathan Prebe 2.Jason Laven 3.Taylor O’Neil 4.Luke Cipala 5.Madison Welch 125cc: 1.Nathan Prebe 2.Jessica Prebe 3.Taylor O’Neil 4.Logan Peterson 5.Luke Cipala 200cc: 1.Taylor O’Neil 2.Gabrielle Prebe 3.Reed Lexvold 4.Jacob Prebe 5.Jessica Prebe 250cc: 1.Joel Falde 2.Marcus Winch 3.Nathan Prebe 4.Charlie Cain 5.Casey Wood 450cc: 1.Marcus Winch 2.Zach
DeGross 3.Jacob Prebe 4.Joel Falde 5.Aaron Prebe 600cc: 1.Marcus Winch 2.Zach DeGross 3.Steve Cain 4.Mike Wood 5.Jay Sallstrom 750cc: 1.Corey Danberry 2.Charlie Cain Open: 1.Jared Gitter 2.Brent Stevenson 3.Zach DeGross 4.Jay Sallstrom 5.Ryan Stevermer 4-Stroke: 1.Zach DeGross 2.Joel Falde 3.Jared Gitter 4.Aaron Prebe 5.Ben Parmeter Women: 1.Casey Wood 2.Jessica Prebe 3.Gabrielle Prebe 4.Emily Dosdall 5.Jaclyn Gerdes Senior: 1.Brent Stevenson 2.Mark Nielsen 3.Darren DeGross 4.Mike Wood 5.Corey O’Neil Sup. Sr: 1.Tim Cain 2.Dave Byer 3.Dan McMurlyn 4.Doug Marble 5.Walter Krech
Local rider Jason Laven in Mini Sr.
Emily Dosdall rode to her first ever win in the ATV 4-Stroke class.