Wall of Death - History of the Wall

"Wall of Death highlights this year's Poags Hole Hill Climb"

The Evening Tribune
Dansville, New York

By Robert J. Roberts

Poags Hole - After rain dampened last year's Poags Hole Hill Climb, organizers decided to get rotten.

Rhett Rotten, that is. Rotten-also known as Rhett Giordano-is the featured attraction at Sunday's sixth annual Poags Hole Hill Climb, the biggest Hill Climb on the American Motorcycle Association's national circuit.

What Rotten does is resurrect a stunt from motorcycling's early days - a motordrome known as the Wall of Death.

The 61-year-old Wall of Death is a 12-foot high, 30-foot round "wooden barrel turned on its end," says Mike Mistretta, who with his wife Margaret runs the hill climb by their home on Poags Hole.

It is around this barrel that Rotten will ride a vintage 1927 Indian Scout, a retrofitted 1957 Harley Davidson Hummer at top speeds of 50 mph, held in place only by centrifugal force. He also races a go-cart throught the Wall of Death.

"There are only two people in the world doing this anymore," Mistretta says.
Rotten will perform half-hour shows throughout the day. Gates open at 9 a. m., with the hill climb starting at 1 p. m.

"We always want something for people to do, more entertainment that makes it better for the customers," Mistretta says. Rotten was considered as a feature when the Mistrettas first launched the hill climb, but it wasn't until last year - when Mike Mistretta heard glowing reports from someone who had seen Rotten at Daytona Beach - that organizers began planning to add the Wall of Death to the hill climb.

Years of skyrocketing attendance quickly made Poags Hole a recognized tourist attraction in Steuben County, while drawing the top motorcycle hill climbers in North America. But rain last year held paying attendance to under 5,000 people, Mistretta says. The record is the 8,500 people that attended in 2000.

Poags Hole is famous for a 525-foor hill whose uppermost 200 feet are at a 75-degree incline that punishes both the nitromethane-powered bike and its rider.

Even that was not enough. Event officials have "dished out" the first jump on the hill, Mistretta says, "to make it a little more exciting."

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Death-defying stunts inside the Wall of Death
2006

A Rotten Interview
December 2006

Rhett Rotten Work can be a barrel of fun
December 2006

Another round trip along Wall
October 21, 2006

Puerto Rico Bike Weekend
Metal @ Work
February, 2006

Circular Sicko
January/February 2006

"Indian Larry He was my Friend"
December, 2004

"The Wall of Death is His Life"
June 19, 2004

"Biker Barrel"
October 4, 2003

"Driving Himself Up a Wall"
September 12, 2003