AUGUST 23, 1998
COURTESY OF CYCLE NEWS
Text by Bud Northrup
Photo by Mark Lewis
Cayuga, IN, AUG 23, 1998
Shafer, Stewart fast at Indiana State Championship HC
"The Pleasure Riders hosted the 1998 Indiana State Championship hillclimb at their club grounds near Cayuga, Indiana. The club did a fine job of preparing the hill and the grounds, and the event ran very smoothly. The most interesting thing about the event was that there were no multiple-class winners in the District 15 amateur event. Brent Stewart, Mark Goodman Jr., Jason Northrup, Andy Fortner and Dan Walstad all claimed two wins, but they all picked up their sexonds in Exhibition-class action.
Mark "The Shark" Shafer, from Arcola, Illinois, nailed his second consexutive fast-time award. He flew over the top of the 120-foot hill on his KX500 in a blazing 3.085 seconds to take the 600cc-class win and the fast-time trophy. Unlike the night before, Schafer carded this time on his first run and waited to see if anyone could beat it. No onedid in the amateur-class racing, but Brent Stewart, from Galva, Illinois, shot his KTM 380 over in a breathtaking 3.084 seconds in the 400cc Exhibition class to set the overall fast time of the day. The trophy, ofcourse, goes to the fastest amateur-class rider.
Andy Fortner was the closest challenger to Shafer in the 600cc class, as he delivered times of 3.161 and 3.173 seconds on his Honda, while Jason Northrup finished third on his Sportland Honda with a 3.320-second time. Kelly Brady and Darrell Trent, both riding Hondas, filled out the top five.
The most interesting class to watch was the 750cc class, as Jason Northrup was having bigtime troubles with his Hondasaki triple. The bike had developed carburetor-float problems the night before and nearly didn't make it to the line then. When it did, Northrup flew it over in 3.080 seconds, setting the fast time up to that point. After Mark Shafer turned in his 3.032, Northrup stripped his kickstarter shaft trying to get the troublesome triple running again, and he didn't take a second run to try to retake the fast time. On Sunday, with much help from his friends, including Andy Fortner, the Schafers and Brent Stewart, he push-started the big triple and turned in a respectable 3.579-second run on his first ride to set the first-round lead, hoping it would stand up. But Andy Fortner blitzed the hill in 3.294 seconds on his second run on his Hondasaki triple to take the lead, then went to the pits to help Northrup start his bike. Northrup brought the bike to the line and shot it over the first breaker under full throttle, landed past the second with power on and flew over the top in 3.145 seconds, taking the 750cc-class title from Fortner and coming within six-hundredths of a second of Schafer's fast time. It's amazing how willing these hillclimbers are to help their fellow riders get their bikes to the line, even though they might be aiding their own most threatening opponents. This behavior has been seen time and time again."
GOTO Pleasure Riders August 22, 1998 event