Submitted by Bob D'Amore (18-Sep-2006)

Butch King and I made the long trek to Pennsylvania's slowest, most technical hill -- Weatherly. Just outside of Jim Thorpe, PA. (which was Mauch Chunk until a much needed name change was instituted about forty years ago), it's only one mile long and 6 turns up its 347 foot change in elevation. I've run 4 events at the track and Butch has ran it twice -- yet we still spend a lot of time talking about trying yet another line through 1, or how high up to enter the "wall", or how much air is acceptable going over the blind jump, etc. Jackie King worked the check point at the jump, radar timing us as we launched off it (She confided that Butch was getting far too much air, which more or less confirms Don Peaslee's observations that Butch was dirt tracking at a 45 degree angle coming out of the 3 turns that Don was able to get access to.).

Butch (or Charles as he is referred to by the track announcer) was again lumped into Special 3 class along with an ungodly fast Corvette and a Jerry Driscoll type single seat special. I was treated far more humanely and placed into Historic 3 where I could not lose -- being the only car in class. Don P. made the trip with me and it certainly was reassuring to have a friendly, knowledgeable crew chief looking out for my interests in a 'foreign' land.

Both Butch and I started working our way down from the high sixties on a wet track to the low sixties as it dried, improving with each succeeding run. Butch kept changing rear end ratios going from 4.86 to as high as 5.79, and employed several more ratios in between. He wanted to hit the rev limiter as he crossed the finish and apparently the 5.24:1 gear set did just that and he dropped over a full second on his last run to 60.7, only a fraction from the sought after magic minute. The only other cars going that fast with fenders and doors were turbocharged 4 WD or rear engined turbos -- and all but one of those eventually crashed. Charles was faster than most of the formula cars but despite turning the hill's 4 acute hairpins into a defacto drifting event he would get very close to, but was unable to catch the single seater in his class. A word on this other car: It is built on a narrowed NASCAR tube frame with Ford NASCAR suspension and a big, howling Ford V8 engine. It has an aluminum single seat body and sprouts wings from every possible horizontal surface. It is well driven by an experienced oval track racer with a NASCAR background and access to NASCAR equipment.

My McKee ride is starting to come together as I did manage to break the H3 class record by 2+ seconds before a dead battery sidelined me after my 3rd Sunday run. Despite having 87 cars show up we got 9 timed runs during the 2 days.

The favorite for FTD was the Danko short course formula 500 powered by a large snowmobile engine/transmission (Long courses are handled by the unbelievably quick Lola T89 Indy car). In a repeat of the Spring Weatherly the F500 got too much air over the jump and did its now famous bull dozer imitation, leaving the door open for Kurt Eikenberg's D sports racer to take the event with a time just under 56 seconds. As at our hills when Danny doesn't break, 2d place went to a German turbo machine (500+ hp Audi S6) with 4 WD while another F500 snowmobiler took 3rd. Butch opines that we were in the top 10 but I have not confirmed that.

Jackie also told me Butch, despite getting too much air was third fastest of all the cars she timed coming off the jump at an even 70 mph. I was accosted by the tech inspector in my pit who informed me I was spraying the starter with gasoline each time I left the line. Apparently off the line acceleration has improved somewhat and foam baffles stuffed down into the filler necks seemed to mollify all concerned.

This Weatherly was kinder than the Spring event as I finally made as many runs as the wrecker. Turn one, a fast right hander seems to catch most of the unfortunates where everyone that went off reported they hit the trees at least 6 feet high up the trunk, thanks to a banking that acts like an Evel Knievel ramp. Several cars were totaled in this manner -- but happily no one was hurt. I'd love to read the accident report that a new $32,000 VW R32 might submit to its insurer -- hit a deer on PA. route 1052. One look at the car and the adjuster will undoubtedly ask, "Hit a deer? How many times?"

Hope all had a great time at Ascutney -- best regards,
Bob D'Amore