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Bonus Larison Rock pics
I just found these pictures on the EESCC site. Of course I don't have many shots of me driving at the hill climbs, so these are pretty nice to have.
The Redwood Sports Car Club and people of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation welcome all fellow hillclimbers to come on July 19th & 20th to enjoy the 26th running of the Hoopa Hillclimb in the beautiful Hoopa Valley.
Hoopa was the only hill climb in California, which made it, after Cascade Lakes, the closest to my home. At least that is what most people would think when considering the proximity of where I live to where Hoopa is. But, there is no straight shot to Hoopa. You have three options: Rt.96 which follows the Klamath River, Sawyers Bar Road out of Etna, and Rt.3 along Trinity Lake to Rt. 299 following the Trinity River. All three routes add hours to the drive, all are twisty fun but can become exhausting with their unrelenting curves. I had driven 96 the year before with my son when we took a trip to the coast so I knew what to expect there. In April of this year my son and I tried out the 3 and 299 route, forget that, it took almost four hours just to get to Hoopa. Sawyers Bar was the only one I didn't even try because Google Maps said it was a 3.5 hour drive with its crazy mile long switchbacks and from looking at the satellite map I couldn't even tell if the whole thing was paved. Hoopa also has a bad reputation connected to it concerning the locals and how unwelcoming they can be. When my son and I were on our scouting trip, getting gas in Hoopa, I had tried to explain to him (he's six) how the Europeans had forcibly taken the American Indians land and freedom leaving them understandably intolerant of outsiders. As I was pumping gas an Indian guy came up to me and started commenting on how nice my car was and how he knew a guy that was going to be in the hill climb and how much fun it was. When I got back in the car my son was like, "He didn't sound too mean." Also Hoopa had one of the highest entrance fee's and if I added in Hotel expenses I would be looking at a pretty costly event. So with all of this in mind I decided to just run one day. I called the event chair, Doug, and asked him if I could change my class to BS because I would be running street tires and putting the passenger seat in for my wife who was coming with me.
The Saturday morning of the event my wife and I got up at 3:30 am, loaded up on coffee and set out for Hoopa. I had decided on taking Rt. 96 because I had been down that road before and it was shorter than the Rt. 3 option. The drive was mostly uneventful, except when I almost slid over a cliff into the Klamath River as I rounded a curve and the pavement suddenly turned into gravel! Luckily my wife was asleep for that incident, she was awake for the large rock that had fallen on to the road that I hit squarely with my drivers side wheel. The resulting noise got a 'What the hell?' out of her and made me wonder if I had broken something. When we pulled into Hoopa to get some milk to go with our Amish Friendship Bread (my wife is quite the baker) I realized we had made really good time, making the trip in just over two and a half hours.
After I unpacked and prepped the car and had it teched I found out I would be in the morning run group. We had gotten there so early that my wife and I volunteered to help the RSCC set up the timing/start area. You will notice I had to change my number to 46, I had to do this because timing did not want any repeat numbers. Which turned out to be funny because another guy had to change his number to 40 from 46 for the same reason. A little mix-up there, and the officials ended up recording me as #40 anyway. My wife and I took a spin up the hill before the driver's meeting to check it out. It was not what I was expecting at all. First of all the area is very picturesque, with trees covering the deep valley walls, the Trinity River flowing beside the road at the pit area, and views of the valley floor appearing in the breaks in the foliage from atop the course. The road is easily two lanes wide, nicely paved, and quite clean. A very steep course (in my opinion the steepest in the whole series) favoring high horse power with many hairpin curves and a fairly straight section toward the end. I only had two runs and neither one was very spectacular time-wise, with a 2:49.25 on my first run and 2:51.11 on my second. I have included both videos for all of the wheel-spinning, sloppy 'line', gear-grinding action, and the second video gets cut short because my camera over heated and shut itself down. To say it was hot that day would be an understatement!
After lunch my wife and I both worked corner 11 with two other drivers, and for several of the runs, a couple with 4 kids who were there to spectate. It was a lot of fun and the children were almost as entertaining as the racing action going on around us. Corner 11 was the final hairpin before the finish and the tail end of the high speed straight so it was one of the best corners to spectate at. On a side note, Jerimiah who was running a 1967 Lotus 7 clone with the drive-line out of a S2000, lost it on corner 11 and rolled over into the berry bushes. I wasn't there on Sunday to see it happen but I heard about it at the next hill climb, where Jerimiah showed up missing some of his front clip. You can check it out
. Jen got first place in her class with a 2:31.06, but Brenda snatched up Queen again with a 2:21.23. The King of the Hill went to Robert in his '07 Z06 Corvette with a fast 2:13.42. The guy with the Datsun 510 from Cascade Lakes won OSPU with a 2:26.29, and I won BS, but I was the only one in my class. Even though it was so HOT, Hoopa was a lot of fun. A lot of that had to do with my wife tagging along and all of the camaraderie with the other drivers. I definitely want to give it another try by running both days to get a better feel for the course, better driving skills and certainly stickier tires.
Next up: Bible Creek, OR
Last edited by saving4one; 11-14-2020 at 07:11 PM.
Bible Creek is located twelve and one half miles northwest of Willamina, Oregon on the coastal side of the coast range. The starting line is at the 600-foot level with the finish line at the 1500 ft level. The course is an adrenalin pumping 2 and 2/10ths miles long.
I had reserved a room on the ground floor facing the parking lot at the Motel 6 in McMinnville a good two weeks before the event, which was as close as I could get on the cheap. I really had no idea what to expect because I had never been to this area of OR or even Salem, which I would be passing through on my way to Willamina. I spent my work breaks the days before the hill climb planning my route and studying the forest roads that led to the course. After Larison I didn't want to get lost in the woods in unfamiliar territory and be late for any of the scheduled tech or meetings. I would be driving approximately 30 min. to and from the course from my motel and I wanted to give myself plenty of time. I had taken that Friday off from work and left fairly early in the morning to hopefully check into my motel and get to Bible Creek in time for tech and registration which closed at sundown. I took I-5 again and stopped for lunch at Rice Hill for another great burger, which was a bacon cheeseburger this time. Mmmm tasty.
When I got to the Motel 6 I discovered that my room was on the second floor not facing the parking lot. I wanted a ground floor room so I could park right in front of the window of my room and keep an eye (and ear) on the S. I asked the clerk if I could get a room on the ground floor, to which he responded he had one left on the other side of the building, which I took. Ha! It was on the ground floor alright but it faced a fence and not the parking lot. Now I had a little bit of added stress concerning where I was going to park the car. I decided to worry about that later as I quickly unloaded the car and headed out to Bible Creek. To get to the event I had to pass through the two small towns of Sheridan and Willamina, both quaint little logging towns which I noted where their gas stations were so I could keep my weight down by keeping just enough gas in my tank. At the western end of Willamina I turned north and headed into the forest past the local lumber mill. Picturesque country side with some nice houses and small horse ranches lined the route here and there as I got closer to the event site. The road soon lost it's painted dividing lines and I was immersed in a seemingly cathedral-like canopy of trees as the road got increasingly twisty.
I was about an hour from the motel and starting to think I might have gotten myself lost when I heard the unmistakable scream of a barely muffled Wankel engine. I started passing a couple of race cars as I realized I was on the course headed towards the start area and the pits. I had the car teched and filled out the rest of my registration paperwork. Many of the regulars were there with their trailers and campers and the pit area was pretty full, luckily Marie and Bob let me stash my tire tail and slicks in their car trailer for the weekend. I haven't mentioned Marie and Bob yet but they were key players in my hill climb racing experience this season. They were co-driving their '72 MGB GT and were attempting, as I was, to run in every event. This would prove to be quite the accomplishment considering they were driving all the way from somewhere in British Columbia, Canada! Marie is the NHA treasurer and Bob is a retired Portland police detective, a very sweet couple, both full of racing knowledge, good advice and laughs.
When I got back to the Motel 6 it was almost dark and I drove around the motel lot looking for a good spot to park, I settled on a spot in front of the pool where people were still swimming and hanging out. I figured the car would be safest right where the most eyes were on it. There was a Subway right around the corner from the motel so I walked over and got a sandwich and headed back to my room to eat and watch some cable TV. Around 10 o'clock I decided to go check on the car and ask the front desk for a wake-up call. As I was walking toward the car I overheard two guys up on the second floor balcony talking and could have sworn I heard one of them say 'There he is now' I looked up at them and sure enough they were looking down at me. I unlocked the car and got in and drove off wondering where I was going to park. I drove up the street and got some gas. When I returned I decided to park at the other end from the pool, under a big well lit billboard sign next to the main road. Needless to say I didn't sleep too well that night.
Saturday morning I was up just before 6 am (I had checked on the car around 3 am, after a loud crash on the floor above woke me up) I walked out and checked on the car then walked to the Carl's Jr that was next door to my motel. I love their breakfast burritos and its proximity to the Motel 6 was one of the deciding factors in why I chose to stay there.
At the drivers meeting I found out I was in the morning run group, so as soon as it was over and seeing how I had already prepped the car I was the first one to stage. Some drivers drag their feet because they don't want to be first, but I didn't mind, I always tried to take it easy on my first run anyway to get a feel for the course. With that in mind, somewhere around turn 2 on that first run, I went sideways, counter-steered and snapped back almost facing backwards before I came to a stop. You might notice from my video, the course consists of a steep embankment topped with trees on the driver’s side and a steep drop-off/cliff also mostly populated with forest on the passenger side. This drop-off varies from 20 ft to (someone quoted) 90 ft to the creek below. So my momentary loss of control left me a little shook up even though I was left pointing toward the 'up' side. Cold tires? Too much push through the turn? Probably both, I thought as I tried to find reverse and get going again. While staged for the return trip back to the start, I did a walk around to check the car over and I discovered that I had thrown my passenger side number magnet off during my sideways antics. The next guy up the hill driving a '08 Porsche Carrera S had done almost the exact same thing as I did but he had actually gone off the pavement and thought maybe something was wrong with one of his wheels.
That first run netted me a time of 3:00.129 and I see-sawed with my times the rest of the weekend, but my best run was still my last run with a 2:34.267. There were 6 drivers in OSPU and I came in 4th overall. My main competition, I found out while I was riding in the back of the work truck to my afternoon corner position, was a guy in a Ford Focus sedan (not sure of the year). He was telling a female competitor how 'at least I'm faster than that blue S2000'. So I piped up with, "That S2000 guy is pretty slow huh?" Followed by, "Oh wait that's me", to which they both kind of looked at me all peculiar like. I thought it was funny. Anyway, he was faster up the hill than me by 0.370!
After I had gotten my tires changed over Saturday morning I looked across the pits and saw a red S2k! Cool, I thought, another S at the hillclimb, finally. I walked over, took a picture and looked it over. Truth is I rarely get to see other S2000s, they are a very rare breed where I live and the ones I do see are usually moving. I thought it was an AP1 because after a quick glance I thought it had the 9k tach. I was pretty sure it was lowered through some means and I thought maybe the owner had swapped AP2 tails. I didn't even note which headlights it had, because the hood was up and I was distracted by a Megan Racing strut bar that was a 4pt like mine. The owner came up and we chatted a bit but he seemed kind of stand-offish. Maybe he thought I was a fan boy or something (or some dope who can't tell the difference between an AP1 and AP2), I couldn't put my finger on it. He only ran the one day and his best time was a 2:27.786, about 7 seconds quicker than me. The more I thought about it I wondered if maybe he thought I was going to protest him or some such thing and that is why he seemed a little peculiar. It was an AP2 with some mods that I have mentioned and others you might note from the photo. I came to this conclusion after I realized he didn't have his class on his door just his number. When our times were posted I saw that he had classed himself in BS. I could have cared less as to how he classed himself, I was just glad he was there to rep the S2000 and not get beat by a Ford Focus.
The Rest of the Story
On the way back down the hill after my first run I was waved over to the side by a woman holding my number magnet. It was a little road-rashed but other than that ready to go back on the car. I was quite thankful I didn't end up walking the course looking for it. That Saturday morning, while we were staged at the finish waiting for the rest of the runs to conclude, I had been talking with this guy who drove a nice '06 MX-5. My stock shocks were starting to bleed fluid and I was looking at upgrade options and he was telling me about his set-up. On the third run the guy in the Carrera, Michael, and I were chatting and realized that some time had passed since a driver had come through the finish. Then we got word there had been a pretty bad crash and the wrecker was pulling the car out of the trees. It turned out to be the guy with the Mazda MX-5 who I was talking with earlier. I had seen this guy at Cascade Lakes and Larison Rock (he holds a class record at both) displaying very competent driving but he was definitely pushing hard, 10/10ths kind of racing. It seems he had went into a spin hitting his rear on a rock on the 'up' side then shooting off the 'drop-off' side towards the creek below. He ended up on his side only about 20 ft down, stopped by a tree which crushed his A pillar/windshield frame. He was racing top down with an installed roll-bar per NHA rules, but you can deduce for yourself how lucky he was that the tree didn't end up in the cockpit. He didn't have a scratch on him.
I pitted next to this guy Dominic who raced his '12 Porsche Cayman R. I had first seen him at Larison Rock, pretty decent guy who entertained my questions about his awesome car, and even complimented my car. The thing you notice first about Dominic is that he is missing a leg, his right leg. Yeah, talk about left foot braking. Since then I have met him again at Maryhill and have discovered his many race videos on YouTube, the guy is pretty good and ballsy to be hill climb racing in such an expensive car. Robert took King again with a 2:07.870, just beating out Stefan in his Cobb Tuning STI (I learned he works for Cobb when we worked the straight together), Jen ran a 2:29.968, but Brenda got Queen again with a 2:23.129. Bret did not attend this one, which I was kind of bummed about, because he missed such an awesome course! It really was a great event, great people, great BBQ, even the shirt was pretty cool. I definitely plan on doing it again.
After I was all packed up on Sunday I followed Bob and Marie on a different route back to Salem and I-5, which is nice when you don't have to worry about checking directions because you are your own co-pilot. I stopped in some little town for some Mexican food and got to enjoy an awesome sunset. I pulled in my driveway pretty late that night and had to drag my sorry ass off to work the next morning because I hadn't taken Monday off, it was all worth it though!
Next up: Bogus Basin, ID where the wife goes with
Last edited by saving4one; 11-14-2020 at 07:16 PM.
I had taken Friday the 29th off from work, to allow myself enough time for the drive to Idaho. Monday would be a paid holiday for Labor Day so I didn't have to take a vacation day. Bret would be at this event and he had reserved an efficiency unit for us, at the Pioneer Condominium. Bogus Basin is a ski park and the course is the road leading up to the Pioneer Lodge and condos, with the parking lots acting as the pit area. My wife had taken a leave-of-absence from her job to look for a different job, so what better to do than accompany your husband on a race weekend. I bolted my passenger seat back in for her and put the front tire that usually rode in that location on my tire tail sandwiched between my two rears. When my friend Cody was welding up the tail he planned on it being able to carry 3 tires, I just had to pick up another ratcheting tie-down. We were not camping at this event so I didn't have to pack any camping gear, which left extra room for my wife's luggage and other stuff that I usually packed in the passenger seat area, to go in the trunk. Also, a couple of events ago I had switched my floor jack, which I packed in the spare tire location, with my Fit jack. This saved a considerable amount of space.
My wife and I left around 9 in the morning and made it to Cinco de Mayo in La Pine, OR, for lunch. Some of you might remember this Mexican restaurant from my Freezeout post, I had wanted to bring my wife there so she could taste the awesomeness, and there we were. Mission accomplished. I basically took the same route that I had taken to Emmett, with having to go just a little farther on I-84 to get to Boise. I had learned my lesson from my first trip on Rt 20 across the OR high desert, and fueled up in Bend. My wife wasn't as impressed as I was with the sights along the Malheur River, probably because she was overdue for afternoon coffee, which we got when we reached Vale, OR. After that we passed a bunch of onion fields then crossed the border into Idaho and got on I-84. I told my wife how the first time I came through there I realized where they got the Ore~Ida potatoes brand name from (there is a big Ore~Ida factory off I-84, while passing through Ontario), growing up on the east coast, eating their potato products and never putting the two together. We also noticed the speed limit was 80 mph on that section of I-84, seemed like everybody that passed us was on their cell, and no helmet laws. ID seemed like a fairly liberal or dangerous state, depending on how you looked at it. Our directions had us go right into Boise and through some very nice suburbs to N Bogus Basin Rd, which snaked its way up the mountain to the ski park. The road was about 18 miles of twists and turns with great vistas of the city in the valley below until the tree line starts up again at about 6000ft obscuring any long distance views. After we entered the Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area we passed a building that appeared to be the main ski lodge, the road was unpaved for a bit and then when the pavement started back up I figured this section had to be the actual hill climb course. My thought was vindicated when after one last hairpin we came to a parking lot full of trailers and race cars. We came to a stop just above the first parking lot and parked next to Bret's trailer. We were at a little above 7000ft and the view of Boise below was breathtaking.
I got up at the crack of dawn to prep the car and get teched. Bret let me keep my passenger seat, tires and gear in his trailer, which was pretty nice to keep everything dry and secure. It had rained during the night on Friday but the course was quickly drying out. Before the drivers meeting and when I still had the passenger seat in my car, Bob ('72 MGB) rode along with me to go over the course and give me some pointers. I was very grateful for this and was pleasantly surprised when I actually remembered his advice during the race. I found myself in the morning run group on Saturday with Bret, Stefan and Scott (who I'll cover a little later) among others, as we started staging our cars. Per usual I started out not being overly aggressive on my first run which was a slow 2:22.217. The other 3 runs that day were all in the 2:17 range, only separated by thousands of a second, I seemed stuck in a rut, but I was having a great time. My second run on Sunday was my fastest with a 2:16.746. I was the lone entrant in OSPU until a guy showed up on Sunday with a supercharged Miata? (I don't quite recall). He won first place in our class with a 1:59.998. For my third and fourth runs on Sunday I ran lower tire pressure than I had been all season, which to my dismay put me back in the 2:21 area. When I first started auto crossing I was on the stock S02's and experiencing bad understeer. A seasoned racer told me to add 10 psi all around, which totally corrected my issue and gave me more of a neutral balance. So I always ran with these air pressures, even in my R1's. At Bogus Basin I was lamenting how I didn't have an air source and when Bret and Stefan found out I was running such high psi they suggested that, with slicks, I should be running much lower pressure. I didn't go that low because I didn't want to make too drastic of a change, but even 8 pounds less made me have snap oversteer, and caused two scary sideways moments. Perhaps I had been running my pressures high all along but at the lower pressure my car became very unpredictable, hence, at that time, maybe it was a bad idea. Of course, just like at Bible Creek, I didn't get any of these near-misses on video, because if I had I would have been sure to post them up. When the event was all over I was joking with the guys who were working the corner where I almost lost it, because they were pretty sure I wasn't going to keep it on the pavement.
Bret was experiencing some great competition within his class, from one guy driving a CRX, named Scott, and another guy driving an older turbo SAAB, who both were also Bret's main competition at Freezeout. My wife and I worked a corner with Scott on Saturday. I had talked with him some at Freezeout where he came across as the quiet type, but my wife is quite the talker so she got pretty much his life story out of him by the end of the afternoon. Scott's CRX is both supercharged with a turbo, and he engineered a solution to getting them both to work in conjunction all by himself. It made good power and worked, I thought it was impressive. Bret knew he was going to have a tough time beating either one of these guys at this high elevation and him not having FI. Scott got a new SMF class record with a 1:52.299! Bret was running consistent 2:02 - 2:01, getting his best, a 2:01.685 on his first run on Sunday. He thought he at least had second place, but the guy in the SAAB got a 2:01.640 on his final run! So close. Jen got Queen, with a 2:07.488, which awarded her a trophy much akin to the Stanley Cup, with name plates from past winners filling the bottom tier. King of the Hill went to a guy named KP who drove a yellow K-swapped Lotus. He got his champion time of 1:48.034 on his second run on Sunday, and then on his next run crashed and broke his front passenger knuckle/hub or some such thing, I never did learn the particulars of that story. He was uninjured and had already cinched King. Speaking of Lotus' remember this guy from Freezeout? He fixed his car and came back for some more fun. He did well also, with a best time of 2:09.103, and no off-course excursions.
I had a really pleasant experience at Bogus Basin. The course is quite challenging and fun and the usual drivers were all there, many with their significant others, adding to the sense of community. My wife cooked breakfast for Bret, Buddy, and I, and made us some tasty sandwiches for lunches and dinners (being well fed is important). Bret grilled up some awesome marinated tri-tip the night we partied with Jen, Rob and their son, who were our neighbors at the condo. Yeah, I don't remember which night that was exactly, because we stayed up too late drinking and laughing pretty much every night we were there.
We said our goodbyes Monday morning and had a nice pleasurable drive home in the Western late summer sunshine.
Next up: Maryhill, WA the final Hillclimb of the season
Last edited by saving4one; 11-14-2020 at 07:21 PM.
Fantastic read! We actually stumbled across the Bible Creek hill climb on our way back from the beach to Portland (always take back roads). Was a very remote location and a long gravel road to get there. Thought about running it but the wait was quite long and we needed to get back. Would really like to participate in one soon, or perhaps rallying after watching Chris Harris in a 911 Cup Rally
Arsenal, thanks for the compliment and thanks for commenting here, I was beginning to think no one was going to. It's nice to have some feedback. I visited Jen and her family at her gorgeous home outside of Eugene, when my family and I were returning from WA after Christmas. She sent us on a back roads trek to I-5 that was lots of twisty forest fun, too bad it was dark and we were in my wife's SUV. I'm coming to realize you really can't go wrong with almost any coastal forest back road that you turn down, as long as it stays paved.
Thanks juliog, that's one of the main reasons I am taking the time to write this, to get other people interested. At the prices hardtops are going for these days a roll bar is the cheaper and safest option. Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are no hill climb events down south, or else Bret would be racing down there. Not for a lack of great roads, just no sanctioning body/club.
Mary Hill Hillclimb is located about 10 miles north of Goldendale Washington on Loops Road and has been the site for the last 13 years for the SOVERN vintage hillclimb.
Loops Road is located off Washington Scenic Route 14 just east of U.S. 97. As the first macadam asphalt-paved road in the Pacific Northwest, it served as the only road between the Columbia River and Goldendale, Washington prior to the construction of U.S. 97. The historic Maryhill Loops was a part of a larger road that encompassed several miles over which seven different experimental roads were constructed.
The starting line is at the 600-foot level with the finish line at the 1500 ft level. The course is an adrenalin pumping 2 miles long. The road itself ascends 850 feet in a series of curves with a gradient of ascent at 5%. In 1998, a 3.6 mile section of the road was completely refurbished. It consists of 25 curves, 8 of which are hairpins.
I was going to camp out for this event, so I had quite a loaded S2000, which I spent most of the night before I left, packing with all my gear. Thankfully, I had become good at utilizing every little bit of space that could be found and knew where everything would go to keep the items I needed during the drive accessible while making unpacking and re-packing as efficient as possible. Call me strange, but I find this aspect of road-trips somewhat fun. I had barely reserved a campsite in time, the RV/camp park only took reservations on Tuesdays between 10am-2pm and they never answered their phone. I was calling every Tuesday (leaving messages) for the entire month of August, they finally answered with about a week to spare! It was worth the trouble though because Peach Beach RV Park was right on the bank of the Columbia River in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge!
I couldn't get the entire day of the 5th off, so I worked from 5-9am. I was going to be taking Rt. 97, all the way to Goldendale, its entire length through Oregon. I was interested to see what lay north of Bend, because that was where I had previously turned onto Rt. 20 on my way to Idaho. New territory! Of course I stopped in La Pine for lunch at Cinco de Mayo, making sure to savior every last bite because I knew I probably wouldn't be in the area again anytime soon. After Bend, 97 quickly passes through Redmond with its urban sprawl then just as quickly the farm land turns into more high plains desert with less greenery. In the basin city of Madras Rt. 97 turns a little to the east after Rt. 26 branches from it. I had to turn around and go back into Madras to get gas after I had gone about a mile past the city limits. A sign saying 'last fuel stop for 90 miles' got me thinking about my low fuel scare from my first trip across the Oregon high plains desert. It was a good thing I fueled up. There really were no more gas stations on the last leg of my journey, just a lot of high plains desert and scrubby prairie, with a couple of abandoned looking one horse towns thrown in for good measure. Actually, I am fascinated by this type of Western 'Ghost Town' artifice. You know there are people living there, even though signs of human activity are scarce. I wish I could have stopped to take pictures and explore but I needed to get where I was going, and nobody likes to change tires in the dark.
I knew I was getting closer to the Columbia River Gorge as the landscape changed into steep canyon-like walls just before it spilled out into the town of Biggs. I-84 follows the river on the OR side of the Columbia which I crossed over on my way to the Rt. 97 bridge that spans the river to the WA side where the campgrounds were. Biggs was mostly a big truck stop area with the usual restaurants and motels, where I planned to get most of my meals at while I was in the area. On the WA side of the river I drove along a road lined with peach orchards on one side and a thick hedge on the other that opened for the turn into the RV park. I checked in and got to work setting up camp. I changed my wheels over and headed up the road to find the event course. I would be driving around on my race rubber all weekend figuring they were on their last legs anyway. I found Loops road, registered and chatted with some of the usual folks and then realized, luckily it was only about 7:30ish and the sun was just starting to set. So on the way over to Biggs to get some dinner, I stopped at a Veterans Memorial built to look like Stonehenge that had a great view of the River Gorge. The light of the setting sun on the gorge walls really made the view spectacular, with Mt. Hood clearly visible off to the west (as seen in the photo above).
Saturday morning I was up at dawn prepping the car and feeling pretty anxious to get to the hill. I had slept quite well with a cool breeze blowing through my tent keeping me comfortable as I had drifted to sleep listening to the sounds of the river. Nothing had crawled in my ear either, which was a big plus. I got to the hill and pulled into the staging lot and had my car teched, then bought a breakfast burrito from some folks who were serving as an on-site food vendor. At the drivers meeting I learned I would be driving in the morning run group and working the afternoon.
Having been recently paved and not being abused by everyday traffic (the road enjoys historical status and is closed to the public), the Mary Hill course was by far the best surface to race on of the entire NHA series. A black ribbon of smooth unbroken pavement surrounded by rolling golden hills, many topped with wind-turbines lazily turning in the breeze. I started out conservatively with a 2:31.486 on my first run and whittled that down to my best time which I again achieved on my final run on Sunday, 2:24.623. I did not get my best run on video, my camera memory card was just too full. I have included two video clips, both from Sunday. The first one is the entire course and the second one is cut short when I ran out of memory, but it does have me almost staying flat through the first curve after the start, on my way to my second fastest run. Much of my footage from Mary Hill is washed out from my camera being inside my dark shaded cockpit, trying to focus out on the intensely bright sunlit landscape. There were 4 entrants in OSPU and I came in 3rd. The first place driver was in a Corolla and his best time was a 2:18.957. I had a lot of fun but was left wishing my tires were fresher (more confidence inspiring grip) and my skills/nerves were more honed. In comparison of the cars ability, the guy with the red AP2 from Bible Creek was there and his best was a 2:19.345. Also for an added bummer (for me) and to put things in perspective, the driver of a Chevy Spark EV (not completely stock, so he said) got his quickest time of 2:23.769! Just shy of one second faster than me, at least it wasn't a Ford Focus again.
There were all the usual battles going on, to add to the excitement of the final event of the season. Jen's best time 2:14.378 wasn't enough to beat Brenda's Queen winning time of 2:05.010. Stefan, in his COBB STI was very close to winning top honors with a 2:02.624, but King again went to Robert and his Z06 with a 2:02.315! Scott and Bret were the only two in their class, SMF. Bret was very consistent in all of his runs throughout the weekend, with barely a seconds difference between all 8 of his attempts, his best being a 2:10.057. Scott started out slower than Bret on his first run, spent the rest of Saturday improving, then on Sunday ran in the 2:08 area for all three of his remaining passes. His best time was a 2:08.180. On our last run of Saturday morning, many of the competitors, including me, were at the finish staging area overlooking the course, watching the action when a Mustang went off just after the finish cones. This was one of those FR Mustangs that Ford Racing built as a turn-key race car. There is a little kink coming out of the final turn just before the finish line and he overcooked it and went off into a shallow ditch, hit some rocks that flattened his tire and brought him to a stop. Something sparked the dry grass and his front drivers side burst into flame. Luckily, one of the quick thinking drivers was already running toward him with a fire extinguisher. The Mustang did have a halon system but it failed to activate when he pulled the cord. The driver was unhurt and the fire was quickly put out, it appeared that the rocks had crushed a brake line and perhaps that is what initially flamed up. Even after the vehicle had come to a rest it was odd how there was a moment's delay before anything started burning.
Scott with the CRX stayed at the same camp ground as I, so we went to dinner together Saturday night. I got to ride in his CRX and he got on it as we were going over the bridge into Biggs. I had a big grin on my face as the surprising acceleration set me back into my seat. We ate some pretty good burgers and fries at a diner while chatting about....get this...our cars and racing. Also on Saturday, Doug, the chairman of Hoopa had presented me with my class trophy which was a wood carving of a redwood, as in their club, Red Wood Sports Car Club. That night I parked that little redwood next to my air mattress and drifted off thinking about how, when this was all over I should write something up for S2KI. My tent site was really nice because it was entirely shaded throughout the day. So each day when I got off the hill it was nice and cool and relaxing. I spent Sunday night there too, I didn't want to be driving into the AM on Sunday, trying to stay awake just to get home. I said my goodbyes to all of my new hill climb friends over a semi-warm beer, not believing it was all over, the season was done. I looked over my S before I drove back to camp, thinking I had done it, I made it, I had completed the whole series and the car was still in one piece. I changed my wheels over that night and packed up what I could so I could make a quick exit in the morning. I took a shower and headed over to the diner Scott and I had eaten at. I sat at the counter and had a patty melt, still thinking about how much fun this whole endeavor had been, and how I was sure this would be my only shot at doing all of the NHA hill climbs. Monday I was up bright and early, anxious to get home, I hooked up my tire tail, broke down my tent, packed the car and set out. It was a pleasant drive home and the only significant stop I made was at a parking area that I had noticed on my way up with a sign reading 'Mountain Identifier'. There was a concrete slab set with a semi-circular metal plate that pointed out the mountains in the distance. Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington, Mt Rainier and Mt Hood were some that I can recall at the moment, why I didn't take any pictures is beyond me. Next time I come through there I will take pictures, I'm sure there will be a next time because out of all the hill climbs, Mary Hill offers the best over-all experience.
Next up: Are you kidding? There's more?
Last edited by saving4one; 11-05-2016 at 07:54 AM.
12-04-2014, 11:15 AM
