10 th Anniversary Big Nasty Hillclimb Remains Ever Nasty By Ron Dillon Idaho’s largest motorcycle event, the 10 th annual, Treasure Valley Ford Stores Big Nasty Hillclimb, fired up again on September 14-16, 2012 and brought together its usual eclectic mix of interesting hillclimbers, machines and fans. The event was the sixth and final round of the 2012 Racer X/Malcolm Smith Racing North American Hillclimb Association (NAHA) Championship Series, and once again pulled a record number of 748 entries from across the country. Besides the Treasure Valley Ford Stores, other heavy-hitter partners were: Monster Energy, Coors Light, Mickey Ray’s BBQ, Edge Performance Sports, Cycle City of Mountain Home, Hangover Joe’s Recovery Shot, Coca-Cola and Maverik, Adventure’s First Stop. Known as “Idaho’s largest motorcycle event,” and “The place where NASCAR meets Burning Man” the Big Nasty once again enjoyed perfect, 75 to 85 degree temperatures all weekend, and the typical Big Nasty, Woodstock/Burning Man feel continued. Children played in an inflatable toy area, X-Games Gold Medalist, Heath Frisby and the Monster Energy Freestyle Team performed freestyle tricks all weekend, a full-blown, professional bull riding competition with 40 pro cowboys competed in front of 1,800 fans for an $8,000 purse on Saturday night, local bands played on Friday and Saturday nights, the usual gigantic fireworks show entertained at midnight on Saturday, full-blown, sanctioned mud drags ran Friday and Saturday, factory Yamaha, Arctic Cat and Johns Deere, (along with local offerings from Polaris, Bombardier, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda, offered ATV and UTV demo rides all weekend, along with the usual helicopter rides. Oh, and some of the best professional and amateur hillclimbers in the world competed for three days on some really nasty hills. Adding to the fair and festival type feel of Big Nasty Land, food vendors served up everything from blooming onions to burgers and assorted clothing, vehicle and other products also dotted the venue. “We once again sold out of sponsor and vendor space” said event director, Ron Dillon. “For the fifth year in a row, we had to turn potential sponsors and vendors away, and interest in the event was greater than ever. We are continuing to draw people from a wider and wider geographical area, especially Washington and Oregon, in part because the new, Yakima, Washington Hillclimb has created a lot of interest in hillclimbing, and added new riders and machines. We are also seeing more Utah, Montana and Wyoming riders as well.” For the fifth year, the 299-foot trophy hill was lighted and hundreds of trophy riders, from young to old, climbed under the stars on Friday and Saturday nights. The new, trophy hill remained largely “ledge-free” enabling a fair number of riders to get over it, and many of the trophy classes, such as the 450 four-stroke trophy class, pulled huge numbers of entries. The weekend’s pro action began on Friday morning, with pro qualifying runs on a matching set of side-by-side 250-foot, very steep, straight hills. These were really fast, horsepower kinds of hills and thus Jake Berry topped the Open class qualifying with an awesome blast of 4.855 seconds, the only sub five-second time all weekend. Montana’s Nick Beer had the fastest 700 qualifying time with a 5.368, and California’s Johnnie Saylors had the fastest 450 qualifying time of 6.378. Pro qualifying took most of the day on Friday due to huge numbers of entries in all three of the pro classes.
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Big Nasty Hillclimb Proves NastyEnergy, Coors Light, Mickey Ray’s BBQ, Edge Performance Sports, Cycle City of Mountain Home, Hangover Joe’s Recovery Shot, Coca-Cola and Maverik,
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10th Anniversary Big Nasty Hillclimb Remains Ever Nasty By Ron Dillon
Idaho’s largest motorcycle event, the 10th annual, Treasure Valley Ford Stores Big Nasty Hillclimb, fired up again on September 14-16, 2012 and brought together its usual eclectic mix of interesting hillclimbers, machines and fans. The event was the sixth and final round of the 2012 Racer X/Malcolm Smith Racing North American Hillclimb Association (NAHA) Championship Series, and once again pulled a record number of 748 entries from across the country. Besides the Treasure Valley Ford Stores, other heavy-hitter partners were: Monster Energy, Coors Light, Mickey Ray’s BBQ, Edge Performance Sports, Cycle City of Mountain Home, Hangover Joe’s Recovery Shot, Coca-Cola and Maverik, Adventure’s First Stop.
Known as “Idaho’s largest motorcycle event,” and “The place where NASCAR meets Burning Man” the Big Nasty once again enjoyed perfect, 75 to 85 degree temperatures all weekend, and the typical Big Nasty, Woodstock/Burning Man feel continued. Children played in an inflatable toy area, X-Games Gold Medalist, Heath Frisby and the Monster Energy Freestyle Team performed freestyle tricks all weekend, a full-blown, professional bull riding competition with 40 pro cowboys competed in front of 1,800 fans for an $8,000 purse on Saturday night, local bands played on Friday and Saturday nights, the usual gigantic fireworks show entertained at midnight on Saturday, full-blown, sanctioned mud drags ran Friday and Saturday, factory Yamaha, Arctic Cat and Johns Deere, (along with local offerings from Polaris, Bombardier, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda, offered ATV and UTV demo rides all weekend, along with the usual helicopter rides. Oh, and some of the best professional and amateur hillclimbers in the world competed for three days on some really nasty hills.
Adding to the fair and festival type feel of Big Nasty Land, food vendors served up everything from blooming onions to burgers and assorted clothing, vehicle and other products also dotted the venue. “We once again sold out of sponsor and vendor space” said event director, Ron Dillon. “For the fifth year in a row, we had to turn potential sponsors and vendors away, and interest in the event was greater than ever. We are continuing to draw people from a wider and wider geographical area, especially Washington and Oregon, in part because the new, Yakima, Washington Hillclimb has created a lot of interest in hillclimbing, and added new riders and machines. We are also seeing more Utah, Montana and Wyoming riders as well.”
For the fifth year, the 299-foot trophy hill was lighted and hundreds of trophy riders, from young to old, climbed under the stars on Friday and Saturday nights. The new, trophy hill remained largely “ledge-free” enabling a fair number of riders to get over it, and many of the trophy classes, such as the 450 four-stroke trophy class, pulled huge numbers of entries. The weekend’s pro action began on Friday morning, with pro qualifying runs on a matching set of side-by-side 250-foot, very steep, straight hills. These were really fast, horsepower kinds of hills and thus Jake Berry topped the Open class qualifying with an awesome blast of 4.855 seconds, the only sub five-second time all weekend. Montana’s Nick Beer had the fastest 700 qualifying time with a 5.368, and California’s Johnnie Saylors had the fastest 450 qualifying time of 6.378. Pro qualifying took most of the day on Friday due to huge numbers of entries in all three of the pro classes.
Registration continued throughout the day on Friday and many of the stock bike, trophy classes continued to show record growth, and also proved that two-strokes are alive and well. On Friday night, both the 250 two-stroke and 250 four-stroke classes pulled large numbers of riders and were a knock-down, drag-out war for the class wins. Caldwell, Idaho’s Brady Lasher won the 250 four-stroke class with a time in the high 8’s that was only a few hundredths of a second slower than the 250 two-stroke class winner Matt Morris from Grants Pass, Oregon. Not long ago, 250 four-strokes couldn’t even make it over the hill; clearly these kind of engines are getting increasingly powerful. Other noteworthy rides were turned in by Reno, Nevada’s Justin Mastalka who won both the 251-up two-stroke and old- timer 0-250 classes, after conquering some major health issues in the last year. It was awesome to see him return to Big Nasty Land healthy, fitter and faster than ever. Saturday’s program kicked off with the annual Rekluse Celebrity Challenge, the only class that puts stock bikes on the big hill. Middleton, Idaho’s Matt Teichert became the first and only rider to EVER take a stock bike over the hill, although it took him nearly 28 seconds to get the job done, he accomplished what many considered impossible. The 450 and 700 pro mains were moved to Saturday morning in an effort to capitalize on Saturday’s awesome spectator attendance, estimated to be over 9,000. Continuing his amazing season, California’s Bret Peterson once again topped Utah’s Jason Smith and Montana’s Dusty Beer to win the 450 pro main. Smith showed perfect form to win the 700 class later in the day with a scorching 14.822 time, the fastest of the weekend on the pro hill, with Utah’s Travis Whitlock taking second and California’s Max Simmons grabbing third. Wild, side by side X-Climb competition finally made its way to Big Nasty Land and the crowd loved it. 450 Pro riders ran side by side on the pro qualifying routes, and then went above and beyond their normal boundaries to race on a course over 700 feet long. It was good stuff, and after single-eliminations weeded down the 16-rider field, Bret Peterson, Tyler Cardwell and Jason Smith finished one, two and three. Saturday night’s show was comprised of the last of the stock trophy classes, as well as all of the altered trophy classes, which have shown incredible growth since rubble paddles and unlimited wheelbases are now allowed. Riders were started as quickly as possible, but even so, the last rider didn’t leave the starting line until nearly midnight. Big winners included Bailey Kouba from nearby Star, Idaho, who topped 76 other riders to win the prestigious 450, 4-stroke trophy class. California’s Joseph Allnutt won the 250 altered, with Idaho’s Casey Moran topping the 251-600cc altered class and Jason Weddle became the only rider to the night to break the 7-second barrier as he romped to a win in the 601-up altered division. Also noteworthy was the increasingly competitive snowbike class, which put 450s with a small rear track instead of a tire, on the hill. Although they are made for snow, all seven of the class entries absolutely flew over the top of the hill, with Nampa, Idaho’s Brett Blaser leading the pack with a quick 8.317 blast, followed by Sandpoint, Idaho’s Derick Driggs. Snowbike kits are continuing to gain popularity, and all three brands, Timbersled, 2Moto and Frozen Moto, were well represented on the hill. As if this wasn’t enough fun, Driggs
continued to play around on his machine all weekend, even chugging over the big, pro hill on Sunday, before finally being defeated by the King of the Hill cliff on Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning fired off with the always competitive pro mini class, which pulled a solid 19 entries this year. Defending class champ, Chase Seal clawed his way up to a dizzying 569 feet, only a couple of feet short of the top, and many thought that he had the class won again, but Oregon’s Nathan schnepp, somehow got his mini over, becoming the first mini bike to ever scale the Big Nasty, in a time of just over 26 seconds. Later that morning, the Open pro main was simply a Whitlock affair, with Utah legend, Travis Whitlock just pounding the competition to win by nearly three seconds over his little brother Brandon, with California youngster, Logan Mead taking third. Then, it was finally time for the long-awaited King of the Hill competition, which allowed the top three riders from the 450, 700 and Open Pro Mains to take one shot at the dreaded Big Nasty Cliff route, a hill so heinous that it was abandoned at the end of the 2006 season as simply being unclimbable. After getting input from spectators and sponsors for six years about wanting to see riders on the cliff again, it was decided to turn the best of the best pros loose on it again to see what would happen. This spectacle clearly proved that riders and machines have come a long way since then, and four of the seven riders who attempted the cliff, starting with Max Simmons, fought their way over the dry, ugly, vertical route that literally had a sheer, 12-foot cliff near the top. In his usual “win or crash trying” style, Bret Peterson flew up the hill at tremendous speed before endoing violently on the ledge, and the crowd cheered wildly when he jumped up and waved that he was okay. In the end, it came down to two old masters of hillclimbing, Dusty Beer and Travis Whitlock, both of which are extremely skilled and brave riding on ledges and walls and area also both well into their 40’s. Beer edged out Whitlock by only a couple of tenths of a second, to win $2,000 in cash and get his named engraved on the Big Nasty KOTH trophy for the third time. The record-sized crowd and number of sponsors and entries produced a record cash purse of a little over $35,000 for the weekend. The number of women competing in hillclimbing is also steadily increasing, on both the trophy and pro levels, and Friday night’s trophy women’s class was blown wide open by Danielle Cuellar who blasted over the hill in just over eight seconds, a time that would have beaten most of the men. The women’s pro class on Saturday was a war zone with a talented 13 rider field, (Cuellar was not entered in this one, but that would have made it even more interesting). Jenny Kouba had to ride perfectly, (and she did) to win for the third year in a row, becoming the only woman of the weekend to go over the top of the hill, on a stretched out CR500 Honda. Chelsea Saylors took second, with Lexi Whitlock and Tanaya Peck breathing down her neck for third and fourth. With the level of skill and guts that these women showed, it remains just a matter of time before a woman qualifies for one of the pro class mains. Yes, they are getting that good and the days of powderpuff girls are long gone. Next year’s Big Nasty will be held on September 13-15, 2013, and discussions are well underway on how to make Idaho’s largest motorcycle event an even better show in the future.
The organizers wish to extend a hearty "helmets off" to the sponsors, donators and partners: the title sponsor, The Treasure Valley Ford Stores, Monster Energy, Coca-Cola, Maverik, Adventure’s First Stop, Edge Performance, Coors Light, Hangover Joe’s Recovery Shot, Cycle City of Mountain Home, Mickey Ray’s, Bish’s RV, United States Marines, Nationwide Insurance, Carl’s Cycles, Moto Tech, Jailbreak Bail Bonds, Buck’s 4X4, KLIM, Campbell Tractor, Battery Systems, Frozen Moto, Lotus E-Cigarettes, Modern Woodman Insurance, City First Mortgage, Trailers Plus, Kiwi Loco, United Metals Recycling, Crawford’s Pro-Tec, Trantula Tequila, Les Schwab Tires, Rekluse, Tullett Hay, Fly Racing, Pro-Moto Billet, Timbersled, 2Moto, Kouba Link, The Double Diamond Saloon, EZ Mart, HCD Construction, and the Clarion Inn. A big thank you is also in order to the ranch owner, Tom Pence, and the small army of staff and volunteers who helped, including the Fly Racing, Big Nasty Catchers, headed by Derray Quarders. The event could also not have happened without the support of the Payette County Commissioners and law enforcement and medical personnel, as well as the Idaho State Police, and nearby landowners, George Colwell and Dan Bicandi, who helped insure that the front gate ran quicker than ever before. At past Big Nasty events, some have had to wait nearly and hour to get in, and traffic has sometimes backed up over a mile. This year, the longest wait of the entire weekend was about ten minutes, even with a record attendance. Event DVDs are available, as well as t-shirts and hats. For more information visit the Big Nasty website at: www.bignastyhillclimb.com or call Ron Dillon at (208) 573-4255. Also check out YouTube, where dozens and dozens of film clips are posted.
(Riders below in Red received cash or trophies)
Sunday, King of the Hill: (Cliff Route)
First Name Last Name 1st Run Best Run Finish
Dusty Beer 10.28 10.28 1
Travis Whitlock 10.90 10.90 2
Jason Smith 12.53 12.53 3
Max Simmons 13.16 13.16 4
Logan Mead 16.59 16.59 5
Brandon Whitlock 442.37 442.37 6
Bret Peterson 434.13 434.13 7
Sunday, 701-Open Pro Main: (600-foot hill)
First Name Last Name 1st Run 2nd Run Best Run Finish