Submitted by Bob D'Amore

What a fabulous weekend for a hill climb. The weather was excellent and the only complaints were that the track never got up to temperature.

Don Peaslee and I made the 390 mile trek to Reading, PA. to represent NEHA. Due to space limitations, most of us had to leave our support vehicles and trailers at the top of the hill, while the hot pits were at the bottom. There is no easy way to get back to the top during competition.

Don's VW Rabbit's reputation as a Rutan-mobile preceded it and promptly landed Don is the hot S2 class, where 3 of the top 5 cars ran. Had he been put in C-Street Prepared his creditable 67 sec would have either won the class or been worth 2d.

I was more fortunate and ran unopposed in Historic 3, but my 61.1 still came up just over 3 secs shy of the class record set by a Formula Atlantic. I tried my large sprintcar wing but found I went faster as I lowered its angle of attack, effectively neutralizing it. It was doing nothing in the hairpins, but was probably more stabilizing than I realized in the real fast section. At one point I tried to go through turn 3 without lifting and began a very weird slow motion 4 wheel drift into the cable fence, but found that the car stopped just inches from it, probably because of the wing's huge side boards which are designed to develop tremendous vortices to correct slides. Very impressive but from then on, I turned off the 'automatic stabilty control' and lifted going around 3.

The hill has 4 very tight hairpins and a very fast 5/8 mile stretch that contains no less than 5 bends that many claim to take without lifting or braking, and many more will tell you the non-lifters are liars. Of all the hill climb courses I have been on, this one is the most dangerous for me. That 5/8 mile is lined with trees just like our Vermont venues. It not only has insidious bends but the road camber varies greatly making some of the apexes treacherous. It is very difficult to approach a blind left hand bend staying out on the yellow line -- it's so tempting to cut in across the apex, but having tried it at a lower speed I know I will be thrown violently back to the right and have to contend with that damned cable fence, if I give in to temptation.

The 1 mile course is so tight that I do not exceed 65 MPH until after the first two hairpins. Then one has to tighten the jock strap, or whatever piece of apparel our distaff members wear to keep the more valuable organs in place, because crossing that 5/8 mile stretch at what I thought was a daring 110 MPH costs you just over 4 seconds. Even at that modest speed I feel like a pinball zipping in between all the bumpers. The 2d place car admitted to using 133 MPH going into 'Oh Sh-t 6'. The FTD car, a 1989 Lola T89 Indy car with Buick Turbo and methanol wasn't talking but he had to exceed 145 MPH in order to get the 52.9 sec time he got (he's close to eclipsing all of the PHA records -- even on the short courses).

Saturday night Don and I compared notes and we discovered the same things wrong with both our cars. Despite 4 runs neither car required much more than a gallon of fuel to top off. Phenomenal gas mileage? Hardly -- we weren't using our throttles enough. It's the only time I've used about half a 5 gallon container all weekend. So, I hope when I return for Duryea in the fall I can let some of that horsepower work for me between turns 3 and 7.

There were many wrecks and one real bad one. Ted Klauss is 78 and an icon in both hill climbing and road racing. Ted won the SCCA national runoffs several times in past years and even while in his seventies managed to place 2d in Super V at Mid-Ohio. He wanted to break a minute on the course before he hung it up. He not only got down under a minute but clocked in a wild 58.2. Not sure what he was going after but on his last run he went through Oh Sh-t 6 at top speed, fishtailed and shot through the steel cable fence, going into the trees. At first we didn't know who had gone where, just that we were missing a car. Finally someone followed the tire marks and found Ted walking back toward the road, holding his arm. Other than a broken arm, he seems fine and subsequent brain scans and an MRI comfirmed his outstanding geriatric ruggedness. The car was not caged, nor did it have nerf bars or any other special reinforcement. While Ted is okay, his car, a very rare and valuable Birch Super FV was totally destroyed.

His incident cast a pall over the rest of us awaiting our last run. Not only is Ted well liked but we know his driving is top shelf. If he had a problem, then the rest of us should reconsider how badly we wanted our last run to be the 'hot' one.

In summation, we were well received by our PHA mates and made to feel very welcome. We didn't scare the class record holders but we acquited ourselves fairly well. Don was on the verge of 66 sec. if he could keep his foot down through Oh Sh-t 6. This would be a very impressive time for a 135 HP full fendered production car. By the way, it was his first time on the course.

I was 9th overall and if I could have found the courage to make up the 4.1 secs. between 3 and 7 I would have been 2d. 'Would-haves' don't mean much, but at least I know what the problem is -- me. But then again, consider the fuel mileage I was getting.

77 entries showed up and only 73 received times. Some don't even get past the first run. One overzealous rookie spun out on his very first run on the first corner, and then wrecked the car just a bit further up the course on his second run.

We had the opportunity for 9 runs despite the many delays. I believe everyone got all the runs they wanted.

Good luck to all at Okemo. I won't make it with the car but I hope to put in an appearance as a worker.

Bob D'Amore