The 2022 Pagoda Hillclimb, hosted by Blue Mountain Region SCCA, was held June 25-26 in Reading Pennsylvania. While the temperatures were on the hot side, we had no precipitation all weekend, and the road was dry. In short, my car felt that running conditions were really good, although I personally would have preferred less humidity and a stronger breeze.
Mark Aubele once again took FTD in his 2003 Ford Mustang that he runs in Super Production Over (SPO). His fast time was 77.171, which was also good for a class record, beating his own record set in 2021, with a 78.309
Kurt Eikenberg came in second overall in his 1994 Cheetah SR1, with a 79.337, also good for first place in Special 1 (S1).
Coming in third place overall was Dermont Treanor with a 81.331. Dermont also runs in S1 in his 2018 Speedcar Extreme.
Michele Aubele is definitely learning her new car, a 2012 BMW 135i that she runs in Street Modified RWD (SMR), placing 8th overall with a 83.411. She beat her previous record set in 2021 (84.26), but Rick Johnson edged ahead in SMR in his 1979 Ford Mustang with an 82.745 – he was 5th overall.
Speaking of Rick Johnson, he gave up running his car on Sunday when there were timing problems, and instead manned the timing system to ensure the event continued to run smoothly. Thank you Rick!
Mike Robinson, who is co-driving Donna Robinson’s 2004 Chevrolet Corvette since his car is not ready, took a class record in Super Street Prepared (SSP) with a 82.762. He placed 6th overall. I didn’t get a picture of Mike driving, but here is Donna in her car.
There was another interesting battle in Street Modified FWD (SMF). Matt Phillips eventually took first place in his 2000 Honda Civic with an 83.047, which was also good for a class record (and put him in 7th place overall). However, Hunter Huffman, in his 1990 Honda Civic, also beat the class record with an 84.04, and placed 10th overall. Not too shabby!
To round out the rest of the top 10 overall drivers, there was Dave Cutchins in his 2011 Stohr F100 that he runs in Formula S (FS) , and he came in forth overall. Cameron Johnston in his 1995 Mazda Miata that he runs in Super Street Mod (SSM), who came in 9th with a 83.689.
From these blog posts, you might get the impression that we are all dead serious about times, class placement, records, etc., and nothing else. While the actual competition is very important, if you ask most drivers, that is not the only thing that keeps them coming back to PHA events. At the risk of sounding corny, it’s the “PHA Family”.
So for the next few events, I’m lining up some others like John Pitman of the Carlisle post fame to show the other part of these events that aren’t measured by times. You would not believe some discussions 🙂
Oh, and as far as how I did. Well I ran my GT3 Scirocco, and while my times weren’t great compared to overall, and are even pretty far off my best times there, I had a great time. Not only that, whatever clicked for me at Weatherly still clicked, and the car felt really comfortable and predictable. I had so much fun, and cannot wait to run the car again.
You should try it!
The photos in this post were mainly from Duncan Paul Daniel May, who took many more! Thank you Duncan for letting me borrow them. Look for him on facebook.