Billings Hillclimb

Travis Whitlock is unquestionably one of the greatest hillclimbers of all-time, and his performance this year event in Billings, Montana, proved that once again. He won two of the four regular classes at this 86th annual event, and then won the invitational State Shootout for the ninth time.

Local favorite Dusty Beer was the only rider who gave Whitlock much trouble throughout the entire weekend. Unfortunately, Beer crashed hard on Saturday leaving him with a sore knee for the majority of the competition, but he didn't use that as an excuse. Beer rode aggressively in front of the 23,000 plus fans, but his only victory came in the 0-600cc class where he topped 120 riders. He took second in the Open Rubber Tire and the 0-700cc Unlimited classes, and finished runner-up in the winner-take-all State Shootout.

Jason Smith, who topped the 0-700cc Unlimited class, was the only rider to beat the famous rivalry between Whitlock and Beer. Smith edged out Beer by almost three-quarters of a second to claim one of the biggest wins of his career.

"You have to watch the lines all day long," said Whitlock. "You have to watch other riders to see how their bikes kick when they get to a certain part of the track. We're not allowed to go on the hill at anytime other than the rider's meeting on Saturday morning. This makes it tough, because the conditions change all the times and new lines develop, and favored lines deteriorate."

"This year's event was hot and dry," added Whitlock. "There was a lot of competition, and that made it really exciting. The biggest challenge is waiting for someone to beat that time. When you have another ride coming up, and you are the leader, you can pass up your second run if no one beats your time. So you always have to be ready to rise to the challenge, and you never know when that is going to happen."

"This year was really tough," said Beer. "We've never had that many riders in the 701 & Up class. I think there were 85 or so. That made it really difficult at the top, and I've never seen it so rough. One of the coolest things for me was something that my brother and I did. Don and I were the only riders to make it over the wall on both of our runs in the 0-700 Unlimited class. I'm pretty proud of that fact."

"The Open Rubber Tire was the most difficult this year," said Whitlock. "I had a fast time, then Dusty came back to beat it, and then I came back and beat that by half a second. Then, I had to wait around to see if he would beat me again, because he got the last run. Fortunately, my run held up. The coolest thing, though, was winning the Shootout. That's matters to me the most, because they only allow the top six riders from the 0-600 and the Open Rubber Tire classes. That means you have to be almost perfect to win that thing, and I feel honored to have won it so many times."

RESULTS

0-600cc:
1. Dusty Beer (15.305 sec.)
2. Harold Waddell (15.847)
3. Travis Whitlock (15.914)
4. Kenny Barbula (16.490)
5. Pete Krunich (16.495)
6. Shannon Chambewrlain (16.591)
7. Dave Johnston (16.899)
8. John Cullinan (17.048)
9. Kenny Kimball (17.167)
10. Dustin Quast (17.285)
11. Chris Justice (17.326)
12. Dean Dahl (17.683)
13. Larry Halter (17.826)
14. Jason Blackford (18.074)
15. Troy Sherwood (18.120)
16. Mel Kimball (18.214)
17. Ed Taylor (18.441)
18. Rick Stauffer (18.463)
19. Mike Dubell (18.902)
20. Chuck McCasland (18.932)

Open Rubber Tire:
1. Travis Whitlock (12.632)
2. Dusty Beer (13.083)
3. Bret Peterson (14.815)
4. Jon Smith (14.853)
5. Craig Spencer (14.934)
6. Pat Liscum (14.970)
7. Brandon Whitlock (15.046)
8. Shannon Chamberlain (15.252)
9. Scott Ehlers (15.324)
10. Brian Osborn (15.846)
11. Pete Krunich (15.919)
12. Kevin Downs (16.458)
13. Ed Taylor (16.688)
14. Don Beer (16.809)
15. Cory Sweat (17.044)
16. Chris Justice (17.254)
17. Robie Peterson (17.540)
18. Curstis Sorensen (17.751)
19. Rick Stauffer (18.189)
20. Dave Johnson (18.189)

0-700cc Unlimited:
1. Jason Smith (15.956)
2. Dusty Beer (16.720)
3. Robie Peterson (17.291)
4. Jeff Thomas (17.852)
5. Travis Whitlock (18.294)
6. Eric Cherry (18.870)
7. Don Beer (19.023)
8. Kelly Braswell (19.310)
9. David Watson (19.680)
10. Brandon Whitlock (19.818)
11. Kevin Downs (21.479)
12. Pete Krunich (22.025)
13. Mel Kimball (22.770)
14. Pete Loomis (23.416)
15. Scott Ehlers (282 feet)
16. Dustin Quast (281)
17. Chad Lorenz (280)
18. Josh Esquibel (279)
19. Bret Peterson (274)
20. Shannon Chamberlain (272)

701-UP Unlimited:
1. Travis Whitlock (13.299)
2. Eric Cherry (14.352)
3. Jeff Thomas (14.465)
4. Mel Kimball (14.479)
5. Pete Loomis (14.504)
6. Dave Johnston (14.738)
7. Shannon Chamberlain (14.819)
8. Troy Sherwood (15.133)
9. Kurt Koester (15.207)
10. Jason Smith (16.394)
11. Harold Waddell (16.642)
12. Bob Spadt (16.879)
13. Kevin Downs (16.831)
14. Todd Cipala (16.972)
15. Cord Mitchell (17.651)
16. Chuck Dubell (18.232)
17. Larry Coleman (18.257)
18. David Watson (18.646)
19. Scott Olson (18.860)
20. Cory Sweat (18.982)

State Championship:
1. Travis Whitlock (13.617)