Kaleb Northrup, and his website www.kingofthehill.org, began sponsoring 2 King of the Hill series for Minnesota/Wisconsin and Illinois/Indiana in 2003.  The series were received with great approval by the riders, and he added a similar series for Missouri/Kansas in 2005.  The King of the Hill class is a one run shootout at the end of the regular scheduled hill climb classes, with only the top ten fastest riders of the day competing.  Each hill climb club runs one such class in a season, and Northrup provides a nice plaque for the individual class winners.  At the end of the points season, Northrup provides a King of the Hill for the season plaque, along with $100 cash prize to the overall season winner, awarded at the district awards banquets. In addition, most all the clubs provide a cash award for the winners of the individual events.

            The Illinois/Indiana 7 event series started on May 21 at the Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders near White City, Illinois, with young Mike Popham  proving you don’t have to have the biggest bike to be the fastest.  Riding his Yamaha YZ250, Popham not only got in to the ‘King’ class, he won it, with his stepbrother, Cody Jenner taking second.  The next day the Belleville Enduro Team ran their event, with Jenner winning this one and Popham in fourth place, putting the stepbrothers in the top two positions, which they occupied until the final month of the season.

            Then Eric Wheelwright and Lloyd Haas, who are brothers-in-law, entered the fray.  Wheelwright claimed the win on June 4 at the Variety Riders in Ottawa and Haas took the win on June 19^th at the Rock River Riders climb near Polo, Illinois, placing four different riders at the top of the pack with one win each.  

            Then came Andy (‘Fast Andy’) Fortner. 

            Fortner had not ridden in many of the early season hill climbs, and competed in his first ‘King’ event at the King City Dirt Riders climb near Mt Vernon, Illinois on July 24, and claimed the win.  He followed that with two more wins, one at the Central Illinois M/C at Neoga, Illinois on September 17, then at the last climb of the year sponsored by the Pleasure Riders M/C near Cayuga, Indiana, on September 25.   He literally ‘came out of nowhere’ – missing the first four events entirely, but winning the last three in a row.

             The final standings are based on number of wins, seconds, etc, and not the regular district points schedule.  Jenner finished second with a win, 2d, 3^rd, 4^th and 10^th. Popham took third with his win, a 4^th, 6^th and two 7^th’s. Haas and Wheelwright tied for fourth with wins in their only appearances in the class.    

            The Minnesota/Wisconsin series consists of six events, and is always hotly contested, as many of the best amateur hill climbers in the nation compete in those two districts.

            Todd Cipala, a multi year, multi class National Champion, emerged as the top rider in this series, posting two wins, a fourth and a ninth on his classy and hot running Harley.  Steve Cain claimed second place with a win, a 3^rd, 4^th and 6^th, while Mike Wood came in third with a Win and a 3^rd.  Kurt Koester, with a win, a 4^th, two 7^th’s and an 8^th was fourth while Luke Haas claimed fifth with a win in his only time competing in the class. Wood, Koester and Haas are also all past National champions, and an amazing eight of the top ten riders in this series had been National Champions at some time in their hill climb careers – a tough bunch of climbers!

            Only two clubs in the Kansas/Missouri series were involved in the series, so they each offered two events.  Rob Fummeler was the top rider with a win and 3 seconds, with Ron Deeken, Gene Topliff and Eric Donaldson sharing second place, each with a win in the only events they rode in.  Kevin VanWey was fifth with a second and fifth place to his credit. 

RESULTS:

 ILLINOIS/INDIANA:  1.’Fast Andy’ Fortner, 2.Cody Jenner, 3.Mike Popham, 4.Lloyd Haas, Eric Wheelwright, 6.Shane Green, 7.Paul Hackbarth, 8.R.D. Miller III, 9.Jared McKay, 10. Paul Hillard, Mike Raugh.

MINNESOTA/WISCONSIN: 1.Todd Cipala, 2.Steve Cain, 3.Mike Wood, 4.Kurt Koester, 5.Luke Haas, 6.Kirk Mueller, 7.Jay Sallstrom, 8.Justin Odegaard, 9.Eric Wheelwright, Matt Nelson.

KANSAS/MISSOURI:  1.Rob Fuemmeler, 2.Ron Deeken, Gene Topliff, Eric Donaldson, 5.Kevin VanWay, 6.Derek Weber, 7.Jeff Colhour, 8.Jesse George, JJ Tilson, 10.Ben Gingery.