Hillclimb Blog

2008 NAHA Hill Climb National kicked off round 1 in Tracy CA.
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The Skips at Carnegie event is known for it’s rock faced hill and tough obstacles, last year 2007 this event was topped by Harold Waddell, winning both the 700 open and the Open Ex class. This year looking to defend his Open Ex National title, Harold Waddell staged for his first run of the day looking at a rock filled single line hill that looked like a lot like cow trail. With the lines concealed and no room for error, Waddell cleared the hill in both classes on the first run posting decent times.
For the second run Waddell decided to turn it up having cleared the hill in both of his first runs. As he came out of the hole on his Suzuki Powered Open Ex Bike he drifted slightly to the right, quickly he reacted making his correction, but missed the mark by a narrow margin and slammed into a rock hidden in the face of the hill sending him over the bars leaving him a solid 5th place finish in the Open Ex class.

The 700 open second run for Harold was a good fast clean run that secured a second place overall. Harold Waddell was very pleased with how everything was working, the bikes were flawless the entire weekend and the setup was perfect. Even though he left the weekend with a 2nd and 5th. He feels that it was a successful weekend and he is looking forward to Round 2 at Glen Helen April 25th & 26th.

Side Note: For a little seat time he will be making an appearance in Logan Iowa for their annual Hill Climb on April 20th. Click here for this event flyer.

If you live in the Nebraska Iowa area you can not miss this event, it’s the only time you will be able to see the 2006 & 2007 national champ on local turf.

If you have never seen a hill climb in person, this is your chance to see what it’s like to go from 0 to 80 in a split second Straight up!

Photos from http://www.dirtfocus.com
They have alot of great Photos from the event, so stop by their website
and check them out.

2008 Racer X / Suzuki N.A.H.A. Pro Hillclimb Series Opener
- RacerX press release -

Beer, Smith and Whitlock Lead Off

Tracy, Calif. (April 8, 2008) – Billed as the “Return of Harrison’s hill”, Round one the Racer X / Suzuki N.A.H.A. Pro Hillclimb Series saw Columbus Montana’s, Dusty Beer return to his winning ways by taking home the coveted Open Exhibition win saying that, “it more then exceeded my expectations – I’m real happy” after his first run at a blistering 10.116 up the over 500ft wall. It didn’t come easy for Mr. Beer as Mr. Consistent; Farmington Utah’s Jason Smith was only four 100th of a second behind – posting an equally fast 10.505 which was good enough for second. Two-time Defending Champ Harold Waddell just couldn’t find the same lines with the big bikes as his best ride was a 13.364, while taking second place in the 0-700’s while Utah’s Travis Whitlock rounded out the top three in the big iron class.

Dusty Beer

Smith had a good day and was easily the most consistent rider in all thee classes besting the 0-700 filed over Waddell; who’s second run in the 700’s was online to be the best of the day until a kicker sent him flying, fortunately he got up unhurt. Rounding out third place was California’s’ Brian Osborne.

Jason Smith

Only the fourth rider of the day, Travis Whitlock took his KTM to the top the famed hill and much to the delight of an estimated crowd of nearly five thousand – he would be the only 450 rider toping the hill at 14.193 with second place going to Jason Smith when he tipping over at the 490 mark. Finally, a local rider, Joe Shipman surprised everyone taking home third by getting up to 427ft.

Travis Whitlock

Other notables of the day include a frustrated Robbie Peterson who is defending his number one plate in the 0-700 as his team struggled all day” we had some problems today that have never really happened to us before and all we can do is just re-focus and put it behind us and make it up on the next round” offered Peterson. He wasn’t the only frustrated competitor; at least he got over the top – not all of the riders could say they did, in fact only 14 out of 130 earned that distinction.

Round 2 comes to Southern California’s Glen Helen Race park April 26th & 27th visit www.glenhelenHC.com for more information.

Special thanks to George Horne and his crew for making a really great event. I’m not sure on the spectator count, but it looked pretty impressive. There were some awesome rides put in on an very difficult “Harrison’s Hill”. Congratulations to all the winners.

450 Ex.
1. Travis Whitlock
2. Jason Smith
3. Joe Shipman
4. Robie Peterson
5. Scott Burns
6. Austin Fox
7. Bret Peterson
8. Paul Stoffers
9. Ryan Madrid
10. Corey Erhardt

700 Ex.
1. Jason Smith
2. Harold Waddell
3. Brian Osborn
4. Travis Whitlock
5. Dusty Beer
6. Brandon Whitlock
7. Pete Krunich
8. Robie Peterson
9. Bret Peterson
10. Jeff Geraci

Open Ex.
1. Dusty Beer
2. Jason Smith
3. Travis Whitlock
4. Craig Spencer
5. Harold Waddell
6. Pete Treadwell
7. Kevin Porter
8. Pete Krunich
9. Jake Flanigan
10. Robie Peterson

* I will get the complete results to Kaleb for them to be posted on the N.A.H.A. site shortly. Next event April 26 & 27 @ Glen Helen.

RP

Chase McGrath and Harold Waddell went out for some practice this weekend and from the looks of it Harold Is ready to go win another Hillclimb national championship.
Next weekend Harold is heading to California for the N.A.H.A hillclimb national championship series opener. the NAHA Pro Series Round 1 will be at Carnegie.
Harold Waddell will be defending his national title and representing the midwest again the 2008. While Chase McGrath has never raced a hillclimb event he is planning on racing his first event at the Logan Iowa Hillclimb April 20th, Click Here for Flyer. Chase really wants to go the event with a better understanding of how to climb a hill the way the pro’s do.
Well Harold showed chase how it’s done by rolling his front wheel up to the base of the hill, with his front tire shoved in the rut at the bottom. One second Harold was at the bottom and in a split second he was launching straight up with NO RUNWAY! From stop to full throttle just like that. Both me and Chase were hollering at him because it was freaking awesome to see. I have been at several of these events and I just cant get enough, when you see it first hand you get a much better appreciation for what these guys do. Well If you have never raced a hillclimb or never been to one, this is not one to miss, it will be the only time this year that you would be able to see the National Champion do his thing on his nitro burning 1100cc Motocross bike. This is a must see event. for more info click on the flyer. for more about Harold Waddell visit his website www.haroldwaddell.com
Click here to view last years Photos from Logan Iowa Hillclimb

If you are a current NAHA member, and would like access to the NAHA Members-Only forum, please…

1. REGISTER on the forums

2. Email (Motoman@KingOfTheHill.org) or send me a message here on the forums with the member name you signed up with on the forums and ask to be added to the NAHA Members group.

3. Viola! I’ll add you to the group and you’ll magically see the additional forum. Non-members can’t even see that it exists.

- Racerxill.com press release -

Pro National titles are what dreams are made of, most of us dream of one day making it big but the reality is there’s only a handful that make it happen, and even fewer that see it twice. So when you sit back and think about how many times you’ve wanted something that seemed impossible, I’m here to tell you it’s just not true, because dreams are possible. Harold Waddell is a shining example of this, with a lifetime of dreaming, last year Harold made his dreams come true by winning the NAHA Pro National Title in the Unlimited class, but true champions never quit dreaming, so this year his dream was to successfully defend his title.

In the opening round of the NAHA Pro National Hillclimb event in Tracy, CA, Waddell took home his first win of the year starting the season off the way he finished last season. By the 4th round in Sturgis, Harold had a comfortable lead in the points series but as the day started so did his problems. He blew first in the transmission, and with the gearing set to run in 1st gear the bike would have to be re-geared for second. So they went to the line 1 rotation out of the ratio they needed to have a chance at winning the event, his never quit, never give-up mentality would get him through all the trouble he had to face that day, as he was still able to salvage a respectable 3rd place, enough to maintain his points lead going into the next round in New Plymouth, ID.
The defending champ’s troubles continued, this time it was traction troubles that plagued him through out the event. Run after run he found himself struggling to post a reasonable time, by days end this would be his worst finish of the season finishing 5th place.

The Nebraska native Harold Waddell entered the last round in Nashville, IN with a slim lead of 1 point. The pressure was on as this would be his last chance to defend his Pro National title. In his first shot at the hill for the day he launched out of the box for a flawless run, posting an amazing time of 17.0400. This time became untouchable, as the runner up posted a time that was nearly 1/2 second off at his best. With the NAHA Pro Hillclimb national title secured, his second run wasn’t needed, so he made his final pass for the day his victory pass.

Take it from Harold Waddell, don’t think for one second dreams don’t happen, because they do, his never quit attitude and desire to succeed has launched him to his second consecutive NAHA Pro Hillclimb National Championship in as many years. This season Harold also finished 3rd in the 700X class for 2007 and he will be extending his persistence and dedication to that class as well for 2008, Harold will continue his defense in the Unlimited class looking forward to the 2008 season. Congratulations Harold Waddell on successfully defending your NAHA Pro National Championship Title.
By Randy Toy

Visit  http://www.nahahillclimb.org/ for the 2008 Schedule

  The NAHA is an organization of semi-pro and professional hillclimb competitors and events held primarily in the western United States. Our events are generally held on rough terrain, ungroomed uphill courses, sometimes over a thousand feet long! Our style of hillclimb differs from the typical style in the eastern United States, where the hills tend to be highly groomed, faster terrain.

     Please take a look at what our site has to offer, and do yourself a favor and attend a NAHA event! Feel the earth-shaking thunder of 2,500cc Harley-Davidsons, the haunting wail of high-powered 2-strokes, and smell the nitro methane burned by furious four-cylinder Open Exhibition bikes! Hillclimb is the oldest of all motorcycle sports - the original extreme sport. Witness the timeless war of man and machine vs. seemingly impossible hills on battlefields that only exist in the North American Hillclimbers Association!

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