Submitted by Bob D'Amore
06-Aug-2007

It's no joke. There really is a Polish Hill Climb -- no you don't run it in reverse or race down the hill. It's the latest hill in the ever expanding Pennsylvania hill climb series.

After a brisk 615 mile tow one arrives at the base of the Polish Mountain, located in Flintstone, MD., just over the border from western PA. The hill is a marvelous piece of real estate. Years ago it was Route 40, the national East-West highway before the interstates were built. I actually drove over it in 1958 on my way to Texas. So, although it winds tightly around the mountain, it is banked like crazy -- probably to keep the tractor trailers from tipping over back in the day.

The course is 1.2 miles long, rising about 520 ft around 9 turns. The road was just repaved by the state of Maryland expressly for the event. The state legislature also passed an emergency bill to give this event immunity from the statewide ban on racing on public roads. 3 of the turns require some braking upon entry and the other 6 can be taken like a bobsled -- you just barrel through if you have the courage.

Butch was scheduled to run in Special 3 which it turns out, he could have won. Everyone was commenting how the Blazer would have blown the locals' minds had Butch made it, but he did not. No problem, Butch, we all did about the same in terms of placing.

The 3 favorites were Darryl Danko's record holding Indy Lola, George Bowland's record breaking winged Shark (which is perennieally the SCCA National A-Mod autocross champ) and the McKee. I should explain that while the McKee had no pedigree to rival those of Darryl and George, the hill was ideal for the car and its performance at Rose Valley did not go unoticed.

George Bowland was complaining that he had no chance because his underpowered (230 HP) car would not do more than 92 MPH on the hill with its 3/4 wing setup, while Darryl and I would likely hit 150 MPH on the long straight between turns 7 & 8. What George doesn't tell you is that he gets up to that 92 MPH and with the exception of one hairpin, never lifts -- thus enabling him to average just over 81 MPH for the entire 1.2 miles.

Once we got our FAM runs out of the way (new hill -- everyone was a novice -- I even spun on the FAM run -- I still can't believe it) I roared away from the start on my first timed run intending to just haze the rear wheels until the wing hooked them up, at which time I'd start turning the hidden ponies loose. About halfway through 3rd gear I could feel it dig in and stepped down on the right hand pedal -- the car responded so hard I felt like the bullet in a gun -- but it also began to shake like one of those things they use in a hardware store for mixing the paint. I popped it up into 4th gear and it seemed to smooth out until the revs built, when it again did its version of the St. Vitus Dance. As long as I coasted, everything was fine. Apparently my clutch came apart somewhere after the start and was causing a huge imbalance that shook the car so hard, I could not see where I was going. In fact my butt and elbows were really sore from the beating they were taking inside the cockpit. I knew my weekend was over before it started and reluctantly loaded the car onto the trailer.

George Bowland went up next and carded a 55 second run, again lamenting his lack of horsepower -- meanwhile no one else had got under a minute, no matter how much power they had. That is until Darryl pulled up to the line in his 900+ HP Lola. He was banging off the rev limiter as he went through the 5 gears in his sequential gearbox and flew out of view. His time was an excellent 58, but not as good as George's 55. It turns out the turbo Buick that is Butch's prime S3 competition swallowed a valve somewhere on the course and was seriously down on power, and it too was soon back inside its 53' trailer. George was down to 53 by the time I left Sunday morning and I assume he won the beautiful FTD trophy that had us all drooling. It was huge thing carved out of native granite, inscribed and polished.

Some of the cars that run with PHA are fairly interesting. George's Shark weighs 960 lbs with him in it, develops 230 HP (flywheel) and generates more than 1000 lbs of downforce at 70 MPH -- thus it corners at 2 Gs (measured on a skid pad @ 70 MPH).
Kurt Eikengerg's D Sports Racer has a 2 liter 180 HP engine and weighs 1010 lbs gross on the start line. It has front & rear wings and full ground effects and corners almost as hard as George's car but cannot accelerate as well. He probably finished 2d, based on his time Sunday morning.
Darryl Danko's Lola T89 was Bobby Rahal's winning car in the 1989 Indy 500. It is an 1800 lb turbo Buick running on methanol and develops somewhere between 900 and 1200 HP for short events. The car has front and rear wings and a full undertray and develops 3000 lbs of downforce at 120 MPH. It runs the so-called "street course" wings and gears for the hill climbs, which limit its top speed to only 160 MPH.

I am fascinated by the 1990 Mustang that generally runs in the top 4 or 5. I know nothing about it, except that the driver Mark Aubele takes the shortest path up the hill -- he stays tight inside everywhere, leaving him enough room to recover each time it starts to get away from him. What reflexes!

Shades of Mike Wilson -- I actually thought he was entered. An identical 4WD turbo Porsche was screaming up the hill, holding down 2d place for much of Saturday. I have never watched anything as violent as that Porsche when the driver mashed the throttle at about 75 MPH -- it seemed to leap up on its suspension and catapult forward like a jet from a carrier. 4WD definitely helps with that much horsepower. An Evo was also running under a minute.

About 36 of the 102 cars that showed up were historic or vintage. The first car up the hill on the first FAM run wrecked. After that, there were almost no incidents -- which was good as the wrecker was a 1948 Mack B model that ran on its crankcase oil and killed all the mosquitos and several deer, but needed help up the hill in its own right. They later brought in a 14 wheel wrecker that looked like a Baldwin locomotive from where I was sitting. I think it could have been used to recover railway cars or M1A tanks somewhere in its past.

Overall it was an excellent event and well worth the tow, even if I did not get to really race.

There is also a new event in NC in 2 weeks -- The Eagle Hill Climb.

Brgds,

Bob D'Amore