There is an interesting article in the May 2008 edition of Our State Magazine (North Carolina) about the Chimney Rock Hillclimb held from 1956 to 1995 in the North Carolina mountains. Elvas, Porsches, Minis, MGs, Mazdas, and many others competed over the years. The website is www.ourstate.com, but I don't know if this article and photos will be on it or not.
Just curious but are they running this event again? I would love to find out all the Hillclimb events in the Southeast and it would make for a good article in an upcoming Classic Motorsports. For those of us wanting to get into vintage racing, I feel that is one route that might be more affordable to get started in.
Cheers,
Rev.
No, the event at Chimney Rock was ended due to liability and environmental issues among other reasons. They still have some hillclimbs around.
We have one in North Alabama at Crow Mountain. Very challenging with some pretty fast spots. They will definitely get your attention!
I have a buddy who is putting together a book on the history of hillclimbing in the Southeast and he's interested in any photos/results/stories. If anyone has any goodies like that they are willing to share, please PM me and I'll put you in touch with him. BTW: he contributed heavily to the Our State article.
The Wolf Ridge hillclimb is coming up, it's going to be my first and man am I looking forward to it! :nice: http://wolfridgehillclimb.com/
Thanks for the info. As soon as the 500 is out of the shop, a hillclimb will be my first event.
Here is the Crow Mountain website if anyone is interested.
http://www.crowmountainhillclimb.org/
As far as hillclimbs go, they're a lot of fun, and perhaps the only motorsports event that's ever really scared me to any degree. There's nothing quite like the back end of the car coming off the ground at 100mph with a drop off on one side, rocks and trees on the other!
But did I mention how fun they are?
Tim used to run Chimney Rock (and even drove off the mountain there once--trees are your friend in that instance). He used to have a bumper sticker on his race car that said, "Chimney Rock Hillclimb Scares Me--And I'm Fearless!"
George Bowen (of A Mod fame) has had bumper stickers printed that say 'I drive too fast at hillclimbs to worry about my cholesterol'.
:grin:
And his car is amazing fast on course. When you watch it, the trees move when he goes by it moves so much air!
I spent some quality time on vacation near there in Lake Lure a long time ago. Beautiful country.
-John
Sister in law lives in Hendersonville so we allways get a chance to go there . We run the Honda CT 110 s up down and around lake lure allways funny to pull into one off the biker bars and show off our hogs . The economy set us off the road trip lake lure , the mitty :evil: maybe the fall
There are two hillclimbs in NC, Hillclimbing is alive and growing in the mountains of NC.
http://www.ccrscca.com/eaglesnest/
http://www.wolfridgehillclimb.com/test/2008.htm
YES!! The 2008 Wolf Ridge Hillclimb is only 3 weeks away now on June 7/8. If you live anywhere near western North Carolina try to make it. It's a awesome hill. Here is a couple of onboard videos from last year's climb. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5301438397094144794&q="Wolf%20Ridge%20Hillclimb"&hl=en http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6828384792967124301&q=%22Wolf+Ridge+Hillclimb%22&ei=sDsySOC4MqX0rAL7zYCcCg&hl=en
Well, I went to the WRHC with the main goal of not falling off the side of the mountain and I accomplished that. I will be doing more HC's in the future, that's for sure! It was an absolute blast! I did manage to get a piece of tire wall on my next to last run. Sorry for holding you up, J.K.
The next HC is the Rockin' Road August 2-3, 2008. That's the weekend after the LeMons race, so I might not make that one. Unless some of you want to sponsor me... Here's my (hopefully) best run of the weekend: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EY6sMVd3rSY
vintagegt1, that is one sweet soundin' 'Vette!
One of the first events I did with the magazine was Chimney Rock. JG wrecked there, too.