The 2003 AMA Amateur/Youth National Hillclimb Championships were held on August 16 and 17 on the 500 foot hill near Dickeyville, Wisconsin.  Wilwert’s Event Promotions hosted the event, and added a new, and very welcome, twist to the event.  They ran TWO hills simultaneously.  The ‘old’ hill was groomed well and used for the youth, Senior, and smaller (125cc – 250cc) classes, while the ‘new’ hill was rough, with rock ledges and a sprinkling of tree stumps.   This two hill format allowed Wilwert’s to take the 400 bike cap off the entries and well over 500 riders competed in the two day event.  Having two hills of different degrees of difficulty, the awarding of the Fast Time trophy presented a problem, but Wilwert’s solved that simply by awarding two Fast Time trophies, one to the fastest on each hill.

          Harold Waddell was the biggest winner of the weekend, taking two class wins, a third and the coveted Fast Time Award.  He took his first win in the 250cc class on the ‘left side’, with a 12.987 second run on Sunday to overtake Eric Wheelwright, who had taken the first round lead with a time of 13.419 seconds.  Jason Braun and Jeff Campbell also slipped in under Wheelwright on the second day, pushing him to fourth with Mike Wood claiming fifth.

          Waddell’s second, and most impressive, win came in the Open Class on his fire breathing Suzuki.  He set the fastest time on Saturday with a roaring 12.898 second run, but saw that time beat several times on Sunday.  He responded with the most incredible run of the weekend, flying the big four banger off the starting line breaker, landing with full throttle and absolutely flying up and over in an incredible 10.568 seconds – the only rider to even come close to the 10 second bracket.  The ride gave Waddell the Open Class championship, and also the beautiful 6+ foot tall Fast Time trophy.  Mike Wood was his closest competitor, as he delivered a very impressive 11.493 second run on his brother’s Harley for second place.  Tom Boerger took third on his hot Harley, with Lloyd Haas fourth on his oversized Kawasaki Triple and Harley riding Toby Mueller claiming fifth.

          Chuck Neinfeldt, a longtime veteran on his extreme Harley, took the win in the Senior (40+) class on the ‘left side’, and did it with 11.598 second run on the first day.  Tom Boerger was also very fast, blasting his big and beautiful Harley over the top in 11.842 seconds to claim second, followed by Tim Havercroft, Randy Matalas and Mike Bronk.

          The Haas family arguably had the best family success of the weekend.  Lloyd, Luke and Greg Haas combined for three championships, a second, fourth and fifth.  Lloyd got his win in the hotly contested 750cc class on his Kawasaki triple with a come from behind 11.604 second run on Sunday, well ahead of Todd Cipala and his 12.436 second run on his triple.  Cipala was followed by Kirk Mueller, Kurt Koester and Kaleb Northrup – all running on the screaming Kawasaki Triples.  Haas added a fourth in the Open Class and a fifth in the largest of all classes, the 600cc class, to run his trophy count to three.

          Greg Haas, Lloyd’s brother, rode Lloyd’s Honda CR500 in the Super Senior class (50+) and pulled off a come from behind win.  He turned in a 16.929 second run on his first ride and was in second place behind Ron Todd, who was riding Jason Northrup’s Honda.  On the second day, however, Haas delivered a picture perfect ride straight up the middle of the hill and carded a 12.776 second time to take the win.  A smiling brother Lloyd then confessed he’d raised the gearing without telling Greg – and told him to open it up and hold it there. Greg did just that.  Dennis Jelinek slipped in under Todd for second place with a 13.642 second time, while Todd slipped to third with a 13.642 second effort.  Gayle ‘the Old Pro’ Jenkins claimed fourth on his CR500 with Mel Piontek running fifth.

          Luke Haas, a cousin to Lloyd and Greg, grabbed his win in the 600cc Four Stroke class.  Riding a Yamaha YZ426F (also borrowed from Lloyd), Luke powered it over the top of the ‘tough’ hill on the first day in 17.706 seconds, and the time held up all weekend.  David Baird was closest to him with a 19.022 second time with defending champion Butch ‘Fearless’ Fetters claiming third with a 19.122 second effort.  Don Sheridan Jr and Steve Cain filled out the top five.  Luke came close to a double class win, as he finished second in the 600cc class, with a 12.530 second time on his Honda, but well behind the class winner, Mike Wood, who sailed his Honda over in 12.245 seconds for the class win.

          In Youth class action, young Zachary DeGross was a double winner.  He took his first win in the 50cc Automatic class for riders 4-8 years old, climbing 113 feet for the win, far ahead of his closest competitor, Logan Cipala (Todd’s boy), who climbed 57 feet for second place.  Justin Kinney, Geret Smith and Dakota Blakeney filled out the top five spots.

          DeGross returned in the 65cc class, for 6-9 year olds, and took that class win with an exciting 181  foot effort – just barely good enough for the win as Alex Gerdes rode 180 feet, just  one foot off the leader. Jeremy Johnson, Logan Cipala and Dylan Nichols took the next three spots.

          Shane Green, who has been dominating the 7-11 year old 85cc Junior Mini class in Illinois and Indiana, was far and away the best in that class with a crowd pleasing 375 foot ride on his YZ85.  His win was extremely impressive, as the second place trophy went to Alex Gerdes with a 241 foot effort.  Henry Kelly, Brent Ludwig and Drew Daniels filled out the top five.

Jay Sallstrom was the best of the 85cc Senior Mini (12-15) riders, and was the only Youth rider to actually top the hill, which he did in 27.442 seconds.  Jacob Prebe took second with a 440 foot effort, followed by Brad Berkner, Jason Sternitzke and Jared Gitter.

Other amateur class winners were Ryan Thibault in the 125cc class, Aaron Prebe in the 200cc class, Brent Stewart in the 450cc class, Mark Schroeder in the 400cc Stock class and Greg Raugh in the Open Stock class.

Special thanks and congratulations should go to Wiwert’s, who ran an outstanding event.  The hills were great, the grounds well prepared and the signups and technical inspections handled very well.  The trophies were quite excellent – truly of a National Championship quality.