The 2022 Giants Despair Hillclimb was held July 9-10 in Laurel Run, PA.  The weekend was dry, a little on the warm side, but quite pleasant for the most part.

Mark Aubele once again took FTD with a 41.718 — so far, he has made FTD at all PHA events this year.  Mark runs a 2003 Ford Mustang (with LS swap) in Super Production Over (SPO) .

Mark also beat his previous SPO class record, which was a 42.128 set in 2021. 

Bill Feist came in second overall, with a 43.430 in his 2006 Stohr F1000.  Bill was instrumental in making this event happen, along with Brian Halecki and the other members of the Giants Despair Hillclimb Association.

There were two other class records set at event.  Hunter Huffman took the record in Street Mod FWD (SMF) with a 46.247, beating the record set by Matt Phillips in 2021 (47.360).  He also came in tenth overall.

In Street Mod RWD (SMR), there was a fierce battle between Michele Aubele and Eric Johnson, with both beating the 2021 record set by Eric Johnson (46.712).  Michele ultimately prevailed with a 45.307, .117 seconds faster than Eric Johnson, who ran a 45.424.  Overall, Michele placed 6th (and was the fastest woman), and Eric placed 7th.

The rest of the top 10 drivers were:

Ray Kochin placed 3rd in his 1980 Chevrolet Modified (01 S3) with a 43.995
Darryl Danko placed 4th in his Stohr (5X P2) with a 44.313
Kurt Eikenburg placed 5th in his 1994 Cheetah SR1 (08 S1) with a 44.336
George Bowland placed 8th in his 2003 Purpose-built V BB (11 S1) with a 45.706
Dave Cutchins placed 9th in his 2011 Stohr F-1000 (94 FS) with a 46.059

But times don’t tell the complete story of our events, so I’m going to try something a little different in this post, and that is going to make it very long. 

First of all, we had 91 timed entries, and I count 17 novices in this picture of the on-hill novice instruction class on Saturday!  Mike Robinson and Jason Fraley are our novice instructors.

I want to also mention our two newest female drivers — Denise Devine and Dianne Wilson.  Denise started running with us at Fall Weatherly 2021, and has been at most of the 2022 events so far.  At this event, she ran a 50.262 in her 1995 Howe Modified car (S3) , and was 36th overall, missing the “coveted” under 50 second time by just .262 seconds.   Unfortunately she blew the motor on her last run, so never got that one last chance to try to improve her time.

Dianne Wilson ran a 68.376 in a 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500SL (SSP) at her first time at Giants.  She also ran Spring Weatherly this year.

One thing that has been lacking in posts on this blog is pictures and stories about our workers.  I hope to rectify that in future posts, as the workers are just as big of a part of the events as the drivers.

This time,  there were a couple of great pictures taken of some of the event organizers and pit area workers.  John Tumulo, our tireless starter.  Phaedra Long, who is the event co-chair with Matt Rowe.  Matt Rowe, seen with Natalie Green and Tony Oswald.  Donna Sumner. 

Many of us camp at these events, and this year’s Giants was no exception.  The camping area was in amazing shape thanks to the Giants Despair Hillclimb Association, and Brian Halecki in particular. 

There was also this amazing tow vehicle, driven by Doug Wyatt, who ran his 2013 Fiat 500 Turbo in SMF.  This was his first PHA event, and he came to PA all the way from Michigan.

For those of us who camped, the conversation around the campfires this year did not disappoint.  First, there was the realization that some were drinking the “scrapple of wine”.  Apparently it was a blend of a large number of different grapes that somehow worked together. 

Then we learned that after consuming asparagus, one’s pee smells like rotten eggs, but only some people can smell it.  This required a google search and a report on the studies (note the plural) done on the topic by Rich Rock.  Not that Rich participated in the studies, he only reported on them!

The conversation became a little classier after that as we watched Pokey, Joe Whitely’s dog, chase his lighted Frisbee.  I’m almost convinced that we could solve all the world’s problems if we only had enough time before the racing started in the morning!

Despite the campfires and late night “philosophical” discussions, we were all up and ready to race each day, with some really impressive times being run.  For one thing, 35 drivers ran under 50 seconds, which is quite amazing, especially to me and my car (under 60 for me is quite the accomplishment)!  Congratulations to everyone for excellent driving! 

As far as I’m concerned, I was a little disappointed with my times, but still felt like I drove well, and definitely had a lot of fun.  With my newfound confidence in the car, I was hoping to get under 60 seconds, which I know is doable, but only ran a 63.221. I did take some video, so am going to try to figure out what I’m doing differently from past years.

Most of the pictures from this post were from Brian Murray or Sherwin Pacquette  and posted on the PHA Facebook page — see the pictures on the PHA Facebook page for more details.  Wayne Domkowski also took some amazing pictures, so please contact him if you want prints , etc. 

Don McLaughlin also contributed to the photos in this post, and his full set of photos, well worth viewing, can be found on his Flickr album:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcdallion/albums/72177720300456407/with/52208105303/

Here are some more interesting pictures:

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