Well, since I had the pleasure of participating in the Maryhill Loops
hillclimb last year I reckon I'm somewhat of an expert. I had the fastest
time for a while, until that B@$#@ard Tony Garmey got his thumb out of his
butt and broke the hill record by nearly ten seconds in a really trick
formula Junior circa 1965. Then a bunch of other guys got fast too and I
wound up about fourth or something.
Anyway, I digress. Your initial mental picture is about right, except
there are generally only a couple of places where you can do a serious
long jump. And everyone starts out pretty slow--it's not that much
different from driving any mountain road, except you do it over and over
until your own personal sense of self preservation is overtaken by your
urge to move up a notch or two in the standings. Maryhill was great fun,
and we had everything from Peyote, to Formula Fords and Juniors, to Julian
Balme's Wolly Bully (a '51 Lincoln as I recall). Julian didn't have the
fastest time, but boy was he intimidating on the ride back down, with that
bigass bumper that weighs more than all of Peyote and me put together
glaring in my rearview.
At any rate, I recommend 'em highly. A lot more fun than I expected, but
still kind of relaxed and sporty.
You can pretty much run in any condition you find your car in. I recommend
some decent tires--mine were definitely at End O' Life and gave me a few
interesting moments. The big trick seems to be to get a really good time
at the bottom, 'cause folks tend to start out a little tender and work
their way faster. Then just be consistent and drive like they taught you.
Find your apexes and stick with them. Early, early is better than even a
little late.
-----Original Message-----
From: MJSUKEY@cs.com [mailto:MJSUKEY@cs.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 5:40 PM
To: fot@autox.team.net; Triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Hillclimbs
Seems as though TRF is replacing their autox with a hillclimb at this
years
summer party. I've never seen one let alone participated in one. In my
mind
I picture it as a race up a road going up the side of a mountain (go
figure)
with not much room for error. Too much right foot and off you go, big time
carnage. Any body out there done some of these that could tell me what to
expect and what kind of car prep I should plan on compared to running
"prepared" class in SCCA?
Thanks for the info.
Marty Sukey
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