Fall Weatherly Hillclimb 2021 was held Sept 18-19, and I can’t believe I’m just now posting about it. I hope I remember all of the highlights!
First of all, we had fantastic weather – dry with highs in the 70’s. We had 99 entries, and 9 runs were offered.
Bryan Fritzler once again took FTD in his 73 Tui BH3 with a 49.464.
Kurt Eikenberg was 2nd with a 51.220 and Bob Gardner was 3rd with a 52.971. I’m still searching for a picture of Kurt’s car, but here is Bob’s.
Also, congrats to Dan Malave for making the top 10 for the first time with a 56.169.
Five new class records were set, with Dan Foley in SM with a 52.989, Matt Phillips in SMF with a 56.359, Tom Wuellette in T3 with a 61.290, Don Kennedy in Rally FI with a 61.789, and Bob Feist in INEX Spec with a 65.334. Complete results can be found on the Schedule/Results page of the PHA website.
Aside from the racing, we had an excellent band — NightWind — playing in the pit area on Friday night. Everyone I spoke to really enjoyed the music. They played a wide variety of songs from different eras, and all of it was done well. Personally, I was really impressed by their version of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me”, as that song is all vocals, and not too many bands even try. That was just a small example of what they played. Well done Weatherly! Please bring them back for next year!
In personal news, I did what I have been talking about all year. Yes, I finally entered and ran both of my Sciroccos. I managed to beat myself with the race/GT3 car over the street/FSP car, but only by a little over 2 seconds.
I was well off my fast time for the GT3 car at this event, and was disappointed with myself. I need to figure out how to get over whatever it is that is keeping me from driving the GT3 car to its potential. However, even though I hoped to be faster, I still had a great time racing the car up the hill. Even better, the car ran and shifted perfectly.
On the other hand, I really drove the FSP car well. There may be a little more time that I left out there, but not much. This car is my “baby”, my original Scirocco that I bought new, and I’m not willing to risk it. But I really felt like I pushed it to the limit and had a blast, finally driving this car as it was meant to be driven.
If I can work out the logistics of getting 2 cars to an event with a single car trailer, I would definitely do this again.
On a more serious note, I’m sure that most of you know that Bryan Fritzler, our FTD driver, was involved in a serious incident on Sunday. He is on the road to recovery.
Here are some random but awesome pictures. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed!
