Submitted by Bob D'Amore
(17-Sep-2007)

t was a strange Mt. Washington hill climb. The weather was strange in that it rained all day Saturday with intermittent snow squalls. The upper sections had icy patches. Yet Sunday was idyllic with bright sunshine and 60 degree temps.

The enteries were both vintage and whatever the BMW club could scare up. So the line awaiting the start featured a 1927 Bugatti with mechanical brakes sitting just behind a menacing black Dodge Viper. A beautiful blue Cobra was idling noisily behind our own Brian Ennis's resurrected Triumph Spitfire, which in turn awaited a Kurtis Indy clone S500 to make its run. Prewar MGs nosed up to Porsche 911s and Bimmers of all persuasions in the line, while Bill Rutan's old Tub was overlooked by all in favor of the much sleeker, more modern iron. The tire dichotemy pretty much indicated from which club the entries came. Tall skinny 600 x 15 Dunlop bias plies labled the runner as VSCCA while fat, short sidewall gumball radials up to 345mm wide were the colors for the BMW set.

Because of the terrible weather Saturday's runs were inconclusive except it was obvious Mike Wilson's Porsche was faster in the wet than anyone else could hope to be in the dry. Most of the faster cars did not run on Saturday, choosing discretion over valor. The driver's meeting on Saturday was interesting. After the usual platitudes and dinner party announcements Ed Valpey addressed his BMW invited runners (we were concerned that this being their first hill climb, many of the BMW entries might wreck). He said, "We can tolerate no wrecks, as it would spell the end of this event. There will be no wrecks. If you do wreck and don't need an ambulance up on the course you will need one when you get back here to the bottom."

NEHA acquitted itself admirably: Mike Wilson not only won the event by 26 seconds but we think he set a new half course record, 3:58. This is faster than Chinnoire and Sprongl in their event winning factory rally cars back in the late nineties and 2000-2001. Another Porsche came in 2d at 4:24. Third place went to our own overlooked Bill Rutan who cranked the Tub up to a blistering 4:32 on his 2d and last run of the weekend. This beats his best 2005 time by ten seconds (must have found a newer set of tires somewhere in the shop, or else after 50 years racing on it he knows another way up the mountain.).

The vintage favorite Kim Eastman in his Kurtis that had turned an 8:06 over the full course in 2001 was as expected, extremely quick -- but Brian Dennis was 6/10 second quicker nailing down 5th in his Spitfire.

So the vaunted Vipers, quick Kurtises and careening Cobras were completely overshadowed by two of NEHA's older cars while everyone fell prey to the rampaging Porsche Turbo.

The course was extremely rough, particularly the first two miles. Even Mike was getting tossed around in his sure footed 4WD rocket. I managed to once again smash my Kellison's oil pan, but did it on a different frost heave this year. I discovered I was no match for the bumps and was elated each time I made it up to the second check despite bouncing a wheel off the pavement several times.

Next year I'm positive we will be able to supply more entries from NEHA for the event. So let's hope there are no schedule conflicts and our members can again dominate the ranks at N.E.'s highest hill climb.

Brgds,

Bob D'Amore