PA Hillclimb

Once again, I've missed Hershey. I'm really not afraid of it, honest. Well respectful maybe. Anyway, how about a report on the weekend. How is "my little oak tree" doing?

Well, I got there Saturday around 2... was able to record 44MB of cool video (about 11 min total) of one group, then the battery pooped out.
Morgan had an incident, thankfully ok; the car looked sad though.
I'll share the full version once uploaded. For now, just a teaser!
Click here to watch Hershey-Hillclimb-2006-sampler
I'm looking forward to join you all as the MR2 gets old enough to play with the "senior" cars!

Fabio Vlacci
#911

great weather for sure!! Got tons of runs. Sunday, for the most part, was pretty event free. Saturday seemed to drag on forever with some folks going off roading. Charlie Reel took his Mini for a ride...Morgan's was the most serious. He was ok...but I understand the car isn't. I only saw it from a distance on the hook. Let's hope he gets it back together!

The driver list was shorter this year with about 50+ drivers/cars with most of them being PHA folks. Gordon and Don were at the PHA tent and look as if they did a great job selling shirts/stuff and promoting our events!

Didn't make the banquet but heard it was good.

Always good to see the hill climbing folks!

Taggart got FTD with a mid 47 second run (I think). Merlin was there on Saturday, but did not return on Sunday after damaging the car. Nothing too serious.

Lots of incidents on Saturday, Morgan's being the worst. His chassis is hurt more than a little.

Peter Stillwell was there with his recently purchased 914-6. Pretty tricked-out car and he was among the fastest doorslammers with a 51.9 I think.

Fastest doorslammer was Brian in his yellow rotary-powered Midget with a 51.3. Good job, Brian!

My car ran well, my best was a 50.0.

Lots of PHA folks there, and the announcer made mention of PHA several times throughout the weekend. We may see some new faces as a result..

Five runs on Saturday, and at least eight on Sunday. The weather was about perfect, the organization was better than usual, the party was excellent.

The best thing about the weekend, though, is that it marks the beginning of a new season. Or as I like to call it, High Holy Days!

Rich Rock

Thanks Rich.

Hershey was a lot of fun, and for a hillclimb virgin, it was a lot to learn. The hardest thing for me (beside the trees inches away!) was the flickering light through the trees while at top speed. It really made it hard to focus on the road. Are other hills this bad? Are there any tricks for this? Smoked visors or sunglasses?

It was good fun running against Walt in his rotary powered bug-eye Sprite. There were plenty of PHA people present that I knew from running the Jefferson events and it was great to see everyone again. I'm looking forward to spring Jefferson.

After a weekend of racing up the hill over 100mph (yes, I was well into 4th gear on the “straight”) without injury, I ended up falling off the trailer’s tongue while trying to take the canopy down. I landed on my left ankle and rolled it over. I’m lucky I didn’t break it, but it is just a sprain and I should be OK for walking around Carlisle in a few weeks.

Just call me Grace…

Did anyone see the course worker with the radar gun on the hill just before the left sweeper on the straight? I saw him out there on my touring runs on Sunday. I was wondering who it was and if he kept records of speeds up the hill?

RX-Midget wrote: Just call me Grace…

Hey, now what's up with that?

Grace
(sorry, couldn't resist)

I left something out of my report. Tom Knorr was there with his Sprite, but he didn't drive the car to the event. Believe it or not, Tom now has a truck and a trailer!!!!

Visibilty was a problem for me on the section between the start and Turn One. More so this year than in the past, probably because the trees have more foliage on them than they did when the event was held in April. The flickering light and shade remind me of Pagoda and Duryea between 5 and 6 but they aren't nearly as bad as it was at Hershey this year.

I don't know anything about a radar gun. I'm not sure I want to know how fast I was going through that left-hand sweeper.

Rich Rock

Ooops, my best was a 52.0

Rich Rock

Rich Rock wrote: Visibilty was a problem for me on the section between the start and Turn One. More so this year than in the past,.

Maybe it is just because we are all a year older

It was my first Hill Climb as a driver and I had a blast.
Any one out there sitting on the fence, I highly recomend you make an event.

I worked tech there the last 3 yrs so it was nice to see how the other half lives.

I was running the red Renault R5. Started out at 73 seconds and got it down to 64.125 when they finaly kicked us off the hill Sunday. The nerve of those officials! I was ready till run till midnight!

It was nice meeting alot of you guys.

Can't wait till Jefferson.

I think I am addicted. Now I know how heroin addicts feel!