Examiner Resurrection: Sidecars Are Smallest Class At Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Giorgina Gottlieb, riding with John Wood, demonstrates the position she’ll take on the sidecar on right turns.
It’s not really a race without competition, so it’s no surprise that the only two competitors in the sidecar class at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb are essentially one team. Dave Hennessy, last year’s winner, has returned with his 1000cc Suzuki rig. He will face off against John Wood, who will be piloting the Wasp/Yamaha rig run by Dave’s brother last year. John was the passenger, or “monkey,” on that rig last year.
Jeremiah Owsley is Dave’s monkey and John has enlisted Giorgina Gottlieb, a sidecar novice, to ride with him.
Wrenching for both teams is Ken Kyler, who is building his own sidecar rig and hopes the experience this year will serve him well when he competes next year.
While Dave and Jeremiah are an experienced team, it’s all new for John and Giorgina. John has his own sidecar rig that he has raced, but it is one of the F1/F2 models designed for road-racing. The MX sidecar rig he will be steering on the mountain is a different animal.
Giorgina has had an introduction to the sport on John’s rig but the first time she ever laid eyes on what she’ll be riding on Sunday was Monday of this week when everyone arrived in Colorado Springs. While John and Giorgina are from California, Dave brought both rigs up on a trailer from New Mexico, where he and his brother live. Ken came in from his home in Maryland.
Demonstrating the moves she’ll be making on the rig, Giorgina explained that the technique is mostly the same as on the F1/F2 sidecars, but “I’ll be closer to the ground, I’ll have to throw myself around more. It’s like a jungle gym.”
Thus the “monkey” designation. Sidecar monkeys move between left, right, and neutral positions, using their weight to counter centrifugal force as the rigs go racing around curves, helping keep all three wheels in touch with the ground.
John, at the helm, says the MX rig is “crazy at first, but it makes a little more sense once you get used to it. The hardest part is being in the dirt.”
While the two have helmet to helmet radio communicators, they don’t work well enough to be much use.
“We’ll be telecommunicating through the frame. The passenger needs to know by feel how far out to lean to meet the driver’s need.”
Changing complexion of the race
Ken Kyler is eager to compete next year, figuring it will be his last chance to race Pikes Peak in the old fashion. In response to lawsuits, Colorado Springs has been gradually paving the road to the top of the mountain and that paving must be complete in 2012.
“The loss of the dirt will change the entire complexion of the race. The F1s and F2s will show up and take over. The same will happen with the bikes.”
Ken figures that if he can learn the logistics and get familiar with the course this year it will reduce the stress he’ll face next year.
“I’ll be scared enough about riding.”
He also hopes he’ll have competition. While he sees the possibility of as many as five sidecars competing next year, at this point there is no assurance there will even be two.
“It’s the greatest race in the world of this type,” he says. “There are 150 turns in 12 miles. You won’t find that anyplace else.”
Tuesday was the day for all competitors to run their machines through tech inspection. After crawling over and around Dave’s Suzuki rig, the judge commented that “I wrote the engine numbers down, I’m looking at it, and it looks really nice.” He then handed Dave a bag of absorbent material to use in case of an oil spill and wished him well.
“Now,” said Ken, “it’s time to walk around and drool over everybody else’s equipment.”
Biker Quote for Today
Told him it was me or the motorcycle. That was the longest wheelie up the street I’d ever seen.
