First Hillclimb

Long story short, I ran my first hillclimb over the weekend. (The long story I am writing, want to get all the details right). I ran the Pagoda in Reading, PA. Now I am shopping for cars with cages...

That looks like a lot of fun. I always pictured lots of cliffs and drop offs. I may have to see where they do this near me

When I took the orientation ride up Okemo, the driver/instructor stopped the van at one spot. He said, "Look to the right and then to the left. This is one spot you don't want to screw up". To the right was a "canyon" and to the left was a stone cliff.

Just what imgon pictured.

I ran one is 2005, and to date it is the only motorsports event I've done that actually scared me. I remember one spot near the end where you had something similar to an "S" turn, and the car (SSC Celica) was moving about 3 to 4 feet over the humps, at something like 90mph with trees, rocks and a drop off. I'd do it again though, what fun!

There's one a couple hours from here in September, I should at least go spectate. Always wanted to run one.

If you ever have an "off", just keep the hammer buried.

1) It looks awesome in the video that you're man enough to not even lift.

2) You might land back on the wheels, and nothing looks manlier than not even lifting as you crash and then keep going.

3) There is going to be body damage, so you might as well end the motor while you're at it. It'll be a sweet video grenading the motor while cork-screwing overhead at full throttle.

You got this. We're all pulling for you.

Pinch, were you in the white Neon? Sunday was a VERY nice day for the event, glad you had a good time

Paul

SkinnyG wrote: If you ever have an "off", just keep the hammer buried. 1) It looks awesome in the video that you're man enough to not even lift. 2) You might land back on the wheels, and nothing looks manlier than not even lifting as you crash and then keep going. 3) There is going to be body damage, so you might as well end the motor while you're at it. It'll be a sweet video grenading the motor while cork-screwing overhead at full throttle. You got this. We're all pulling for you.

We need more posts like this around here.

Donebrokeit wrote: Pinch, were you in the white Neon? Sunday was a VERY nice day for the event, glad you had a good time Paul

I was the slower of the two drivers.

In reply to pinchvalve:

I took my son up Sunday morning to watch it. He loved it, I actually ran this as Duryea back in 98 in a rally car I borrowed. Lot of fun. We left around 11:30 after the guy went off since I knew that would take awhile and we needed to get back for another activity. Do you still need a solo 1 licence to do this? I thought I heard that you didn't.

Rumnhammer wrote: Do you still need a solo 1 licence to do this? I thought I heard that you didn't.

You do need a license but you can essentially get it through the hillclimb program directly. Register/apply with them, get novice permit, complete two events without any offs, maybe some other details, transition to full license.

I halfway built a car to the minimum required specs last year and then decided a Miata with a bolt-in roll bar wasn't going to be safe enough for me to have fun even if it was technically permitted.

Now have plans to get on the hill in 3-4 years as budget allows. I could codrive friends' cars (both red Miatas there last weekend have offered) but that's a really dicey situation and what's the fun in spending $500 in personal safety gear and $200 in entry fees to just 'take it easy'? I can take a leisurely legal run up the hill anytime, if I go to a hillclimb I'd want to compete and for that I need a disposable safe car IMO.

But you were in the event, better than watching the event.

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blockquote>pinchvalve wrote:

Donebrokeit wrote: Pinch, were you in the white Neon? Sunday was a VERY nice day for the event, glad you had a good time Paul

I was the slower of the two drivers.

Vermont hill climbs do not require a license except for you state drivers license.