Under blue skies, the Eagle Ridge Motorcycle Club kicked off their fourth annual hillclimb with the singing of the National Anthem followed by the Canadian National Anthem. Many local riders as well as riders from the Western and Midwest circuits of hillclimbing made the trip to North Dakota making the total count of riders around 180. Plus, just like in past years, there wasn’t a shortage of spectators with early estimates at about 5,000 people.

In the 500 class, La Valle, Wisconsin’s Kirk Mueller was the first rider to drop below the five second range with a 4.965 second ride, but Omaha, Nebraska’s Harold Waddell claimed the lead with a 4.637 second ride on his Honda. Columbus, Montana’s Dusty Beer lowered the bar with a 4.562 second ride on his KTM in the 750 class, and then knocked two thousandths of a second off his time in the Open class on his Kawasaki with a time of 5.560 seconds to eventually take fast time of the day.

In the 80 Open, ten of the day’s fastest riders competed once again for the overall win of the day, and with the vast majority of the riders’ qualifying times only a few hundredths of a second apart, it promised to be an interesting race. Local rider Arnold Jelinek set the pace with a 5.454 second ride on his KTM, but Red Wing, Minnesota’s Kurt Koester set a time of 5.084 seconds on Beer’s Open class bike, taking the lead. However, Waddell dropped down into the fours with a 4.811 second ride with only one rider left: Dusty Beer. Beer lined up his Open class Kawasaki and flew up the hill in 4.606 seconds to take the win.

Results

50 1.Mitchell Koester 2.Travis Soma 3.Garett Skorheim

65 1.Danielle Gorder 2.Devin Rachae

80 1.Robert Bergner 2.Nick Beer 3.Jay Jelinek

125 1.Kevin Braun 2.Cory Heiderscheidt 3.Jamie Greicar

200 1.Harold Waddell 2.Cory Heiderscheidt 3.Shane Sandmeyer

250 1.Ernie Beckwith 2.Kevin Braun 3.Harold Waddell

400 1.Troy Dam 2.Chad Koopsma 3.Jamie Greicar

500 1.Harold Waddell 2.Dean Jelinek 3.Kirk Mueller

750 1.Dusty Beer 2.Arnie Jelinek 3.Dean Dahl

Open 1.Dusty Beer 2.Harold Waddell 3.Kurt Koester

Sr 1.Greg Dahl 2.Leslie Peterka 3.Boots Weber

Women 1.Sarah Waddell 2.Mindy Halter 3.Jessica Prebe

ATV 1.Rich McPherson

Fast time of the day Dusty Beer 4.560

80 Open 1.Dusty Beer