I’ve put up a Banquet page. We’ll post more details as soon as outgoing prez Tim Hunt and incoming Prez Mike Hendrickson get them to me.

The 2003 schedule, as emailed by Tim Hunt, is now up on the web site. And at the bottom of the schedule is a link to the Wisconsin/Minnesota/Illinois/NATC-FIM combined schedule, courtesy of Steve Kirschner.

Another Sunday in this wimpy winter, another sandlot/shinny/pick-up Team Trials competition at the Faribault grounds.

With a dozen riders, we formed four teams:

Spiritual Essence

Mike Hendrickson

Marty Hicks

Cole Hendrickson

Sumbitches

Jim Winterer

Gordy Boggie

Jack Chermak

Los Hombres Grandes (The Big Men)

Martin Belair

Jim Blount

Jimmy Blount

The Finns

Ben Winterer

Will Winterer

Griff Wigley

Once again, a few of stopped at El Tequila in Northfield for some fattening up for the winter which I hope to hell eventually comes.

See the complete Photo Gallery, with larger images of all these thumbnails plus many more. For those riders pictured, let me know if you’d like the full digital photo of any of the shots, as they’re suitable for printing.

Another Sunday in November, another sandlot/shinny/pick-up trials competition at the Faribault grounds.

Yesterday, we formed two teams: The Spaniards (Ben Winterer, Jimmy Blount, me) vs The Brits (Jim Winterer, Jim Blount, and Martin Belair — riding his Honda TL 250 for a combined 500 pounds of pure momentum).

Each group set up four sections, with lines for Expert and Advanced. Whichever team had the lowest total points for a section earned one point. We also counted dabs up to five.

One of the sections was “gated” — the first in UMTA history, set by Mr. Belair. A gated section has multiple lines, and each has a point value. Easier lines have point values of 1 or 2, harder lines have point values of 3, 4, or 5. The idea is to accumulate as many points as you can. But if you dab at all, you get zilch for the entire section. We all kept overestimating our ability to clean the damn section, due in part to frozen ground underneath the sand. It not only really makes you look at lines differently (am I sure I can clean this part?) but there’s a whole strategy to who rides in what order and what lines you need to ride based on the team scores thus far.

Rooting for your team, razzing the other team, closely watching the scores of every ride by every rider, spectacular all-out efforts/crashes (you gotta go for it when your team is depending on you) made for a very fun afternoon. A team trial would be a great addition to our Fun Days next year.

Oh yeah. The Spaniards whupped ‘em.

Seventeen people showed up at the trials grounds in Faribault yesterday to ride, just for the hell of it. Looking at the parking lot, you’d think it was an event.



Riders grouped by ability (one group of experts, another group of advanced/supersport) rode the sections from the last event of the year. We used golf’s Match Play scoring where you count how many holes/sections you win for the round/loop, not your total strokes/points. So each section is competed for individually. If there’s a tie, no one gets a point and the group moves on. After one loop of expert sections (Ben Winterer won), we rode a loop riding all the sections backwards, with no walking the sections ahead of time allowed. (Ken Storm won that loop.)

Another variation for a two-some: Last week, Martin Belair and I rode a couple of loops together, figuring our score as we rode by simply tracking of who was ahead by how much.

I don’t know s..t from shinola about golf but looking at the definitions for Four Ball and Best Ball makes me think we could do something similar for our Fun Day as well as for those times when a bunch of guys just show up to ride together. Like sandlot baseball, pick-up basketball, or shinny hockey. Yeah, we all like to just go out and practice, but it’s also fun to compete informally.

See the Results page for last weekend’s event in Faribault, along with the final end-of-year point standings. Podium photos are up, too.

The press release is now up on the World Round USA weblog.

See the Results page for last weekend’s events, along with year-to-date points.

Steve Kirschner reminds us that the year-end results are based on your best 10 finishes out of a total 14 events. The top three spots in many of the classes are still up for grabs so there’s a lot hanging on the final event of the year in Faribault on Oct. 27. Gregg Mellberg is the TM.

I’ve posted podium photos for both Saturday and Sunday events in Duluth.

WOTA’s Craig Gernhardt has submitted this article on the event to Trials Competition and Trials Action.

Magic on Spirit Mountain for Belair & Villand

October 12-13

Duluth, MN USA

by Craig Gernhardt

US Montesa Importer Martin Belair on his Montesa COTA 315R (what else would he ride?) and Team Sherco/Ryan Young Products Brad Villand on his factory Sherco 2.9 topped the Expert and Champion classes both days at the now famed Spirit Mountain Trials Complex.

Wisconsin Observed Trials Association’s rounds 11 and 12 were held on Spirit Mountain in conjunction with Upper Midwest Trials Association using the 2002 USA WorldRound venue as the arena. The final events of the year had the most difficult obstacles any rider could imagine, not to mention more rain! The event’s TrialsMaster David Deck organized the loop and sections giving local club riders a thrill and a few spills. Including Mr. Belair!

UMTA does all the work, WOTA riders do the 400 mile drive to get to the event. With over 50 riders on Saturday this was by far the largest turnout of the year. It could have been larger had Illinois not held a Trials at Polo on Sunday.

In the Championship class on Saturday Villand bested Montesa pilot Dan Hofstrand and Beta rider Steve Alhers but not with-out a little work. Saturday’s section 10 provided Alhers much delight in cleaning the section the kids couldn’t. In the end it wasn’t nearly enough to beat Villand. Villand has a way of taking on each section and will not give up. As the conditions were on Saturday with the rain, a five happens sometimes, but he grinds out threes in sections without giving in. Mentally strong as a rider, Brad keeps his cool knowing a trials can be lost if you don’t stay focused. He knows you can’t win if you give up either. With the 2 wins Villand secured another Wisconsin State Championship title passing Bill’s Cycle Ranch/Rock River Motorsports-sponsored Noel Smage. His two wins also has Villand ahead of Hofstrand for the Minnesota series by 3 points. Minnesota still has one more event left at Fairbault on October 27th.

In the Expert class on Saturday, Minnesotan Martin Belair used his many years of experience to top a couple of southeastern Wisconsin riders, Torque Center/Rock River Motorsports-sponsored Jeff Lois and Al’s Salvage Yard-sponsored Paul Philbrick both who ride Sherco 2.9s. Close all day, every section counted. The class with 11 riders, the largest class, rode some of the most slippery uphill rock sections ever seen at a local event. Many sections were near the world round sections using portions of the obstacles. Lois, who finished a strong second both days, clinched his second straight Expert Wisconsin State Championship. On Sunday the finishing order for the two top classes were same except for 3rd place in Expert went to Griff Wigley. Ben Winterer’s fourth and fifth place finishes in Duluth combined with Ken Storm’s no-show catapulted Ben past Ken by 13 points. The last event will decide the season championship.

Other class winners included Dave Hofstrand in Advanced, Todd Holste in Intermediate, James Anderson in Novice, Nick Neby in Youth, and of course Trialsmaster David Deck in Vintage class on Sunday.

Jim Winterer wrote:

“The pits for the two-day at Spirit Mountain will be in the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, not at the top. There’s going to be a ski swap meet or something going on that weekend at the top of the hill, so they’ve asked us not to ride or park up there. Just stay on the loop trail and all will be fine.”

Steve Ahlers re: Directions:

From Wisconsin: Hwy 53 to I-35 south, I-35 south to Grand Av, Grand Av to 88th Av West.

From Twin Cities: I-35 North past the usual Spirit Mt exit about 1 mile and exit on Cody St, Cody to 63rd, right on 63rd to Grand Av, right on Grand to 88th.

From Canada: You can’t get here from there. You have to go someplace first and ask directions.