Rib Mountain may sound like a barbecue fan’s dream restaurant, but the Central Wisconsin summit overlooking the city of Wausau has been the namesake of one AMA competition club since 1946.

The Rib Mountain Riders MC holds AMA Charter No. 420 and has put on a variety of motorcycle races in the Wausau region since the 1950s.

Bill Bell, the club’s racing director, said the organization’s history reaches back to the 1910s. According to Bell, the Rib Mountain Riders MC was the successor to the Wausau Motorcycle Club, which organized races as early as 1912.

Members of the Wausau Motorcycle Club formed the Rib Mountain Riders in 1941, but the new club went into hiatus during World War II. After the war’s conclusion, the club restarted and obtained its AMA charter.

The club put on its first race, a hare scramble, in 1950. Since then, it has organized hillclimbs, enduros, motocross and flat track races.

Bell said the club worked with a local Jaycees chapter from 1949 through 1986 to promote pro-level flat track races at the Marathon County Fairgrounds, before the track was removed. It also has held flat track races at the half-mile track Langlade County Fairgrounds in Antigo, Wis., and a one-third mile track in Unity, Wis.

“Our club bylaws state the club was formed to organize and promote motorcycle competition,” Bell said. “I am deeply honored to be part of a club with roots as deep as ours with this kind of mandate.”

The Rib Mountain Riders MC traces its history to the Wausau Motorcycle Club that was founded in the 1910s and has organized a variety of motorcycle competition events in central Wisconsin.

In recent years, the Rib Mountain Riders has focused mostly on flat track. Bell said they began putting on more events about six years ago, around the same time he got involved with the club.

Since then, they have built a working partnership with a local snowmobile track, Wausau 525, to use the facility’s short track during the warmer months.

Bell said the track’s owner, Ralph Merwin, wanted to start hosting summer activities at the facility in addition to its annual summer festival called “August-OH!”

“Ralph wanted to expand the events to include motorcycle and ATV racing,” Bell said. “He knew of the deep history of those events in the Wausau area.”

In 2018, the club added another racing discipline to its portfolio when it operated the AMA ATV Ice Race Grand Championship. AMA Track Racing Manager Ken Saillant said the event went very smoothly and competitors had high praise for the track.

The Rib Mountain Riders celebrated another new competition partnership in 2019, when they worked with Steve Nace Racing to put on an AMA All-Star National Flat Track Series event at Wausau 525 on Aug. 10.

Brian Thout, a club member and former club president, said the All-Star race was a success and that the club is working to bring the AMA Featured Series back to Wausau 525 in 2020.

Bell said the success of the All-Star race wasn’t limited to attendance and ticket sales. The club gained new members from the event, including several with stock car racing experience.

The events at Wausau 525 aren’t held strictly for the club or track owner’s benefit. Some of the proceeds from the snowmobile races and flat track races at the facility go to support the Flip’s Fund charity, which supports the families of children battling serious health problems.

For the future, Thout said the Rib Mountain Riders are focusing on their relationship with Wausau 525 and working toward Merwin’s vision of having three major events at the track each year.