The Indianhead Motorcycle hosted the 2006 AMA Amateur/Youth/ATV Hill Climb Championships on their 310 foot, four stage hill in Red Wing, Minnesota.  The Cipala family emerged as the big winners of the day as Todd took the win in the 750CC class, seconds in both the Open and 600CC classes, as well as taking the coveted Fast Time of the Day award and being named the AMA Veteran Hill Climber of the year.  Logan Cipala made the family day even better by winning the 85CC Junior Mini class and was the fastest youth rider of the entire event.

            The fast time war really started in the first round when Greg Dunbar turned in a 6.825 second time on his Honda to take an early lead in the 600cc class, only to see Cipala slip under him with a 6.812 second run to take the class lead into the second day. 

Cipala’s 600cc first round fast time didn’t hold up long, as Kurt Koester flew his classy and fast Kawasaki triple over the top in a blazing 6.574 seconds, while Cipala crashed on his Triple at 240 feet.  Koester’s time, in turn, also didn’t last long as veteran Chuck Neinfeldt blasted over the rim in 6.428 seconds on his incredible Harley to take the Open Class lead into the second day.  Cipala, also riding a beautiful Harley, posted a very good 6.558 second time to hold down second place at the break with Koester third on his KZ1428.

It rained overnight and the hill was pretty slippery for the early classes on Sunday, and badly rutted for the later ones.  Few riders improved their times, but one of those was Greg Dunbar who nailed a 6.812 second run to ovetake Cipala in the 600cc class.  Cipala had a rough time on his second ride and couldn’t improve on his first time and had to settle for second place behind Dunbar, with Jay Sallstrom third on his Honda with a 6.871 second first round time.

But Cipala was perfect in the 750cc class on Sunday – blitzing the hill in an incredible 6.069 seconds to take that class win – and Fast Time – in convincing fashion.  Koester’s first round time held up for second place with Greg Dunbar moving up to third on his beautiful Suzuki with a 6.593 second run.

 Neinfeldt couldn’t improve on his first round ride in the Open class, but his first day ride held up for that win, with Cipala’s first ride holding for second place and Koester staying in third.  Neinfeldt had one more shot at fast time and let it all hang out with a full throttle charge in the Senior class, but crashed hard at 220 feet.  He did take third place in the Senior class based on his first day 7.247 second time, with Duane Walser carding a first round 6.818 second time on his slick Harley for the win, and Jeff Campbell slipping in a nice 7.200 second round ride on his Honda to move ahead of Neinfeldt for second place.

In youth class action, Logan Cipala, as noted above, was the fastest rider, winning the Junior Mini Class title with a 9.461 second ride on the first day, with Mitch Koester also breaking in to the 9’s with a 9.839 second ride for second place.  Dakota ‘D.J.’ Watson thrilled the crowd by nearly topping the hill in the 50cc class, riding his little Cobra 304 feet for the win, with Braxton Stamm claiming second on his KTM with a 208 foot effort.  Mitch Koester was the winner in the 65cc class with a 13.199 second run on his KTM with Nathan Prebe and his KX65 claiming second.  Koester was also named the AMA Youth Hillclimber of the Year. The Senior Mini Class champion is William ‘Austin’ Coon, who topped the hill in 9.534 seconds on a KX85 with Alex Gerdes claiming second with a 10.740 second time on his CR85.

Other Amateur class winners were Jacob Prebe (125cc), Jay Sallstrom (200cc), Eric Wheelwright (250cc), Kory Fasnacht (450cc),Nate Redmann (600cc 4-Stroke), Roger Bibbler (+50),and Jessica Prebe (Women).

In ATV action, Josh Hatfield claimed the 250cc 2-stroke win, Frank Wilson was a double winner, taking both the Open 2-Stroke and also the 4-Stroke title, while Greg Casdorph was the fastest of the Vets. In addition, Wilson was named as the AMA ATV Hillclimber of the Year.

Overall the event was exceptionally well run by the Indianhead club, headed by Kaleb Northrup, with a big assist from the Pleasure Riders M/C which supplied the scoring system and personnel to run it (Gordon Green, Chuck & Mark Schroeder and John Colbert). Tim Cain did a great job as the climb referee with Bill Paider and other club members doing a fine job as line judges. The AMA representative on site, Ken Saillant, was gracious in his comments, commending the club for a very well organized and well run event.

The Hill

Todd Cipala

Dakota Watson