New England Hillclimb Schedule at www.hillclimb.org

[agrabau]

I'd like to encourage drivers to come check out the New England Hillclimb championship series. Anyone can run and the whole weekend entry fee is $150.00. The races run over two days, first day is practice, Sunday is the race day. I use less than half a tank of gas and get a lot of seat time.

The races are run at a lot of Vermont's big ski resorts, up the paved access roads. There is a lot of talent and it's a new place to meet drivers and hone skills, course memory is one of them.

For more information check out the website- www.hillclimb.org

Good drivers, a new experience for those who have never tried it.

Here's an in car vid from my spin on Sunday at Okemo.



My gearbox exploded on the launch and I was spilling oil on my tires the whole way up.

[offcamber09]

My first SCCA car was an ITC Rabbit that was used as a hill climb car- run on propane- before we got it.

[agrabau]

There are certainly a lot of homebrew cars up there. It doesn't surprise me. This weekend Steve from Vt ran an Ex-Rutan Turbo Rabbit at a very rapid pace up the hill.

It looks just like COM only a different parking lot.

[skivittlerjimb]

Will definitely put in another plug for NEHA events. I've run three so far and I'm very hooked on driving up closed, narrow mtn. roads as fast as my sanity and skill will let me. Next up is Burke Mtn. on August 23-24, Mt. Ascutney (very close to MA!) Sept. 13-14, and last Mt. Philo Oct. 25-26.

(Yes, this may conflict with the penultimate COMSCC event, but $150 < $425, and you get a ton of runs up the hill at Philo- I think I got close to ~18 runs up the hill there last year over the course of the weekend.)

At least here the GVR4 looks fast:

[cuda6666]

One year back in the early 1990s, COM ran Ascutney as a points event.

[cfossum]

Maybe they've gotten more organized, but I ran Okemo with them several years back. I got two runs on the first day, then two runs on the second, for a total of about 12 minutes of driving in total. I decided that the event had a low power to wait ratio.... Not much powering, but a lot of waiting. One of my buddies got disqualified for leaking a small amount of oil. Meanwhile, one of the Rutans' VW bugs was hemoraging oil but nobody seemed to notice.
If you can really do eighteen runs, then that would be fun. But it wasn't like that for me.

[brucesallen]

"Maybe they've gotten more organized, but I ran Okemo with them several years back. I got two runs on the first day, then two runs on the second, for a total of about 12 minutes of driving in total. I decided that the event had a low power to wait ratio"

and that day I counted that ten percent of the entries crashed! Including Rick Long in his 427 Cobra.
It was during the dry spell as NHIS was being built.

[cuda6666]

and that day I counted that ten percent of the entries crashed! Including Rick Long in his 427 Cobra.
It was during the dry spell as NHIS was being built.

I crashed too, but only after winning my class, I believe. Or did you beat me that day, Bruce? I remember being very tired after listening to you snore all night.

[agrabau]

There are a lot of crashes but hey I got rear ended at a COM event and I have yet to damage my car at a hillclimb.

[skivittlerjimb]

There are a lot of crashes but hey I got rear ended at a COM event and I have yet to damage my car at a hillclimb.

:^o (Well, only if you don't consider tires or gearboxes part of your car!)

Just kidding. Yes, more than 2 runs per day should definitely be the norm. I believe Ascutney I this year it was like five runs per day. Okemo II was rain shortened but it should have been at least four or five runs per day.

I suppose if it's all about time in the driver's seat, it may not be for you, but for me it's about the challenge of learning the hill. The people are pretty cool, too.

[cfossum]

Ya, I suppose. It sure was a challenge learning the hill in four runs. I will say it was a blast though. I got faster each time, I just wanted to go more times.
The carnage was interesting too, with rollovers and cars stuck in ditches... It also seemed like there was always a big tree waiting for you at each turn if you didn't make it. It was a thrill, I'd love to do it again but it just wasn't worth $100 per run, which is what it worked out to with the hotel and all. If I knew that I could get at least five runs a day, I'd definately go again. And I agree that most of the people were cool too, except there was a group of folks who were exempt from the rules.

[brucesallen]

and that day I counted that ten percent of the entries crashed! Including Rick Long in his 427 Cobra.
It was during the dry spell as NHIS was being built.

I crashed too, but only after winning my class, I believe. Or did you beat me that day, Bruce? I remember being very tired after listening to you snore all night.

I have NEVER heard myself snore.

[horizenjob]

Mt. Ascutney is a really wonderful drive. And a really nice campground. COMer's have been battling there since the late sixties.

I like the "15 MPH Posted Speed Limit" sign at the starting line.

At my first event, there was an Opel wedged into a tree some considerable height off the ground. The event organizers decided it was safe where it was and left it there for the weekend, as sort of a reminder.

They gave out a *really* big bottle of champagne for a prize one year and that's my favorite trophy ever. It came with a silver bucket, which was recycled by a previous winner from COM. So it had a new plaque screwed on over the old inscription. I love it for the sheer Yankee-ness of it and because I liked the previous winner, who has passed on now.

Another year the top of the course was shrouded in fog, suddenly maybe 50' visibility...

I have seen more then one car wipe out after the finish line, before they could slow down. It's as though it's so hard, you get to the finish and just cave if your not careful...