PA Hillclimb

We're running Burke Mt hillclimb this weekend to get Matt seat time in the car with this setup before Mt Wash. Anyone else going there?

Good luck Jeremy, Bob, and anyone else attempting this historic climb this weekend. Be careful, be safe, and be fast, but mostly, have FUN!

Steve

I just notice that Duane Foley is signed up. He runs the nice vintage silver or grey opel in the PHA series. Wish him well for us.

Thanks! I'm glad i will see a few familiar faces there.

Fun is the number one goal! If i'm fast thats great. But, if not i'm happy to be racing up the hill.

Have fun at Pagoda everyone.

some cell phone pictures and I'm sure others will start to filter in as folks get back to civilization.

http://www.hillclimb.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=579

Good to see some of you.

Would have loved to seen some of you get a few more cracks at the top of the hill, as times were starting to fall. Tough to get used to such a big hill with so little time at speed on it.

I'm kind of disappointed that the PHA group wasn't kept up to date on the event. To get some of the story you will have to go to the racepa web site.

In spite of his crashig the Evo, Jeremy did very well with an 8th overall.

Don't know how the Kennedy"s did? How about Duane Foley?

Dave Y

I do appoligize. I had no reception on the phone and it seemed like we were busy the whole time. (It didn't help that we needed 7 hours to get the car back in driving shape)

I will hopefully do a full writeup soon. I will tell you that this is the most unbelievable hillclimb you could ever imagine. Nobody can tell you what this race is about unless you have driven the road before. To race up it? I'm thinking that you have to have a serious mental problem.

I was doing very well in practice being in the top 4 until i put the car into a creek. I'm not exactly sure what happened but it's quite possible that the remains of the fire bottles to put out Tim O'neils car had something to do with it. (or i just got on the throttle alittle to early) . My team of MIke Sabina and Javier Dalago, along with super awsome neighbors Randy Hale(Mazda pro driver) and Warren Elliot(SCCA rally cross national champ) told me to get it together becuase they are getting the car back on the road. They had a full Patron/taxxis race support rig with them that they offered up to us, along with help. And with the help of a few rally support vehicles we found the parts we needed. (Which would have never happened without them, altho Warren offered up his EVO as a parts car) We got it back to about 90% with boost leak issues.

It was really just an amazing experience. Being in the midst of some of these drivers was a true honor. Alot of US rally racing history.

I will let the others tell their own story. I kno that Duane has a story to tell.

Jeremy, you did quite well. I was happy to see the car back on the course for Sunday, especially after seeing where it ended up on Saturday. I did hear the whistle of a boost leak going by Chk 28 on Sunday. You were still cruising along just fine. The other part of the PA contingent did themselves proud as well. It was amazing to see the Opel back at the hill on Sunday as well.
I'd certainly agree with you that it is a hill like no other. The views above tree line are amazing, at least when the clouds disappear long enough to give you a view.

I was disappointed to not be able to enter this year, but it looks like I'll have another chance next year. The perma-grin on every drivers (and co-driver) face tells the story of how fun this hill is. Hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit more next year. Hope to see more of you at the hill next year.

Jeremy, you made us all very proud of your accomplishements. I didn't mean that YOU needed to keep us up to date. You had a race to do and unfortunitly a car to fix. Unlike the racepa people who had the knowledge to monitor the progress on line, we didn't have anyone to keep in touch.

Quote "The views above tree line are amazing, at least when the clouds disappear long enough to give you a view."

Smart ass response: Why do you think they call it "Climb to the Clouds"?

Quote "Hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit more next year"

Another smart ass response: That IS what they call good weather. You have to be there when it's bad to appreciate a good day when you see it.

Dave Y

Double smart ass response

The event should be called the climb through the clouds.



The weather wasn't particularly good, nor particularly bad. I did the timing (at the top of the hill) when Pastrana ran last fall, and the weather was much worse......and that still isn't bad for that place. Believe me I've seen the poor weather up there.
The tease was that Tuesday and Wednesday had great weather(by anyone's standards) and again on Monday. It's more that the mountain likes to torment you by giving you the really nice stuff, when you don't need it, and the not so nice stuff when you care the most.

jerdeitzel wrote: I will let the others tell their own story. I know that Duane has a story to tell.

I'll let Duane tell the whole story, but since I built the new engine Friday night/Saturday morning and helped install it...I'll say yes, it was an interesting event to say the least!

Here is my in car video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUodXAzn9Og

jerdeitzel wrote:Here is my in car video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUodXAzn9Og

Awesome , Jeremy.

Jeremy,

Masterful drive! Don't know how you did so well on upper half -- no practice + fog. Well done.

For those who have never been up the mountain: below the tree line those shrubs and short trees just off the shoulder are in many cases the tops of 70-80 ft pine trees. All we see in the video are their innocent looking tips.

Brgds,

Bob D

Well, the first post on this page has a link to our web site, and on it there's a link to the twitter account that Matt (driver) was posting to all weekend (and I think he posted alot to his facebook account).
Great adventure, like nothing else I could imagine. If there's a next year, MAYBE I'll try driving instead of sitting in the silly/scared seat. I'm just tired of it raining every event I go to any more. But the weather was tolerable. Car ran fine all weekend with no problems (and the van did fine towing after all the transmission and other issues I've had in the last 9 months). All the people involved with Mt Washington (and Burke Mt 2 weeks earlier) were just great. The rain at Burke Mt was certainly good practice for Mt Washington. We didn't win anything (except whenever you can drive it on the trailer at the end, it's a win in my book). I'm sure Matt will be posting our videos and you can check the CTTC web site and that OTHER hillclimb clubs web site (www.hillclimb.org) for more stuff. See everyone at Duryea.

Hi Everyone,

Here's my report.

We did it!!! However, it was not without plenty of challenges. The weather was just awful as we encountered heavy storms within 2 hours of leaving home for the event. The heavy rains continued the rest of the way to the mountain and for the next few days.

I got my first view of the Auto Road on Thursday while riding my DR650 up the hill and I must say, everyone who told me I would crap myself when I saw the road in person was exactly right and not exaggerating at all. This is a serious mountain and it's nothing like the "mountains" we have here in Pennsylvania. It was very impressive and demanded immediate respect.

At the drivers meeting on Thursday afternoon, they made it perfectly clear when they said "you must understand, when you let the clutch out and leave the starting line you are on your own, and if you go off, you may be there for a long while before anyone can get to you for help". To me, the consequences of going off below the tree line are not any worse than when I do PHA events, as stuffing the car in the woods at speed is going to feel the same no matter which mountain you are on. The real difference of this mountain is when you go off above the tree line. There simply is nothing to stop you from plunging up to 1,000 feet or more until you hit something to stop the car. Most likely, that would be the tree line below or the huge rocks that would make very effective can openers.

Friday was the first opportunity I had to run the car up the road at any kind of speed. It was raining heavily as I left the start line and I didn't push the car very hard as I didn't know the road. I also hadn't had a chance to drive the car with the new motor and transmission, so I had no idea how the car would behave and I had to re-learn how to drive it. The weather certainly didn't help either. The car felt good as I made my way up to the half way point. The motor pulled strong with plenty of torque everywhere in the power band and the gearbox ratios were a huge improvement over the Getrag that was in the car previously. I did struggle with the shifter in finding the proper gear on a few occasions. The chassis felt awesome, offering more grip than I expected in those conditions. After my first run, I felt like I was going to be able to finish in a very respectable position if I could get the rhythm of the road down. The car just felt that good!

My second run would change my thinking dramatically though. About 2/3 the way up, the motor lost power and made some pretty ugly sounds. I disengaged the clutch to avoid having the car go into a spin if the motor locked and noticed the RPM's increased upon doing so. I reached over and shut the car down, but it was too late, the damage was done. I coasted to a stop in the safest spot I could reach and a course worker ran to my aid. There was heavy smoke billowing out of everywhere and I asked the worker if there was any flame as I had my hand on the fire suppression system activator. He said he saw none so I climbed out of the car. The guy working the radar in the speed trap said he saw a huge oil dump come out the bottom of the car and a layer of smoke just hovered above the road surface for minutes.

I rolled the car backwards to a somewhat safer spot and took shelter on the side of the mountain under some trees. The event continued and I was quite worried that someone would hit the car as it laid on the edge of the road. There was a 50 yard long river of Brad Penn racing oil and water mix running down the road just behind the car so it really added to the possibility of the car getting plowed. I spent the next, what felt like eternity, cold and soaked to the bone waiting for the wrecker to take me and the car back to the base of the mountain.

Upon getting the car back to the paddock, we removed the hood and saw the results of the number one connecting rod exiting the block on the driver’s side behind the lower alternator mount and the piston literally being puked, in pieces, right out through the carburetor throat. I then realized why the throttle seemed stuck wide open when I pushed the clutch in. A piece of the piston that was too large to fit through the carburetor was wedged in the throttle plate holding it open. The whole inner fender well on the passenger’s side was covered in oil and piston shrapnel. I figured my weekend was over.

A suggestion was made to head to Bob's shop and put another engine in while some phone calls were being made. A friend, Jim, said he had some engine bits and offered their use. We made the 3 plus hour drive to Jim's that afternoon and removed the blown motor. Another motor was assembled from what Jim had to offer and we swapped the motor back into the chassis. We drove the 3 plus hours back to the hotel and arrived at 5:32 AM. This was an awesome example of what teamwork can accomplish! Everyone pulled together and made it happen. Jim and his family were incredibly gracious in opening their home to us and allowing us to keep them up all through the night, trash the place and leave a mess behind. They even made the drive up on Sunday to support us at the track.

I will admit, I was a whiny little girl at one point and was ready to load the car and head for home. I know everyone there was exhausted and frustrated and just wanted to do everything they could do to help. Knowing that, I felt bad that all of these people were going through this for my benefit and I would have rather just called it quits. I know that's not what everyone else wanted, but I just felt like I let everyone down. Thank you to all of you for pushing me and not letting me quit.

After sleeping until 11:30 AM, we went back to the paddock and worked on making the engine run. We got it started late in the afternoon and I got to run the car up to the half way point at slow speed just to see how it would run. There was an enormous difference in torque and horsepower, but it did run and I was hoping for the best in reaching the summit.

Sunday morning meant the true test was upon us. We realized that we weren't even listed on the starting order list. They didn't realize we had the car running again, but they slipped us in after bringing it to their attention. They release cars from the start every 90 seconds plus you have up to 10 seconds to leave the line after receiving the green. Timing doesn't start until you break the beam. I left about 5 seconds after getting the green for a total of 95 seconds behind the car that went ahead of me.

My first run was somewhat eventful. The weather was much better..... at the base of the mountain. Well below the halfway point, I encountered more rain. The car was running very badly, but I pushed on trying to make the best of it. As I was in the gravel section in heavy fog conditions, a course worker waved the yellow at me notifying me of trouble ahead. You're not required to slow down under the yellow, but you're made aware of a possible hazard ahead. I stayed in the throttle regardless until a bit further when someone ran to the edge and motioned for me to slow down and he pointed ahead. I could not see more than about 30 feet in front of me. As I looked back straight ahead, I saw a darkish shadow right in front of me and realized I had caught the guy in front of me. I lifted and slowed to his pace. The visibility was so bad that all I could do was follow the shadow of his car. If he drove over the edge, I would have followed him. It was really that bad. This had a pretty big effect on my first run time.

Second run, I asked if they could hold me longer at the start so I wouldn't catch him again. They gave me extra time and it worked out well. We changed the carburetor jetting to lean it out a bit and added more timing in an effort to make the motor run better than the first run as it was more or less drowning in fuel from being set up for the other motor. This helped a little, but it still ran very poorly while it misfired and choked all the way up the hill. It got worse the higher I got as the air is thinner and the mixture got richer. Visibility was still bad near the top, but I was able to reach the top of the mountain on both of Sunday's runs.

My performance was not what I hoped for, but the most important thing is that I made it to the top and completed what we started. I really think I would have done pretty well if the other motor didn't come apart. Not saying I would have won or anything close to it, but I think a top 4 or 5 in class was within reach. Overall, it was an absolute awesome experience that I will remember for as long as my mind works and I have no regrets. I would definitely do it again if they decide to hold the event again. I am also interested in doing Pikes Peak at some point if possible.

I had several reasons for doing this. I wanted to represent the Opel community and Opel as a brand. I wanted to be the first to race an Opel up the mountain after being offered the opportunity. I wanted to do it for myself for the experience of it, the ability to add it to my racing resume for access to future events and to be a part of a historic event. But most of all, I wanted to do it for my Dad. I really wish he could have been there and I hope he is proud of me.

Duane

I finally finished getting all the videos edited and posted to our YouTube page.

Here is the in-car of our 2nd, and fasted, run to the top on Sunday, and here is one that I did just for laughs. There's 8 videos in all of different runs from different angles.

Enjoy!

Matt

Very nice Matt.

Matt found this one also. Here is my wreck!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmD1J7Qr ... r_embedded

Also Tim O'neils car on fire. This turned out to be a very active corner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ_UDyA4MZk&NR=1