At 25, John Koester is the top performer in AMA Pro Hillclimb competition, demonstrating his dominance during the past eight years.

Koester, of Hornell, N.Y., began competing in AMA Pro Hillclimb events in 2010 and won his first class title in 2013. He now has eight AMA Pro Hillclimb titles to his name, including all three pro class titles in 2018.

Since 2013, he has not finished lower than third place in any pro class he has raced and has won at least one pro class title each year.

While he’s found his championship-winning form in hillclimb, Koester started out racing motocross and hare scramble events at age 2.

“My grandfather, father and mother all had been racers,” he said. “When I was born, it was inevitable that I would also race in some sort of discipline. My first race ever was a hare scramble when I was 2 and a half years old on a [Yamaha] PW50, and I actually won that race!”

Koester took part in his first amateur hillclimb event when he was 6, but motocross was his main focus in his early years.

While he never qualified for the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, he made it to the regional qualifier stage several times and was a top-five expert locally. Koester said the experience of racing in the highly competitive motocross environment contributed to his success in hillclimb competition. 

 

Part of the reason for his late arrival to the hillclimb scene was a lack of amateur events in his home region. Koester competed in just two amateur hillclimb events before he turned pro.

“My grandfather, father and mother all had been racers. When I was born, it was inevitable that I would also race in some sort of discipline.”

It was his experience at a spectator a local pro hillclimb that convinced him to take his racing aspirations in a different direction.

“Poags Hole Hillclimb is 15 minutes from my house, and I used to go every year and watch all the pros, such as Dave Watson, Tiger Strank and Jeff Thomas, to name a few,” Koester said. “Those guys were nothing short of crazy to everybody who watched them. I thought I would like to give that a try, and I thought I would be pretty good at it.”

When Koester made the jump into pro hillclimb, his goal was to win a class title, which he accomplished in his fourth pro season. His next goal was to win all three classes in the same year. He did that in 2018. His goal for 2019 is to break the record of most career pro hillclimb class titles. The current record is 10.

There’s one goal Koester set for himself is still a work in progress.

“Trying to grow the sport and make it better for the riders and spectators has always been my main goal,” he said.

Koester credits the strong sense of family within the hillclimb racing community with being a major part of his success. His team consists of his father and two mechanics, and they have relied on the generosity of others in the paddock.

“We have borrowed things countless times on race day, as well as loaned parts we had to each other,” Koester said. “We also have the support of our families and extended families, who are there with us every step of the way. We also support and help our competitors with whatever they may need.”

All of these hillclimb championships haven’t dulled his affection for motocross. He said he still races motocross when he has time.

Hailing for upstate New York, Koester also has experience racing in snow. He said he was a state champion in snowcross