Spring Weatherly Hillclimb 2024 was held June 8-9 , 2024 in Weatherly, PA.  It was the second event in the seven event 2024 PHA Championship Series.

We had 85 timed entries, but only 2 records were set despite the ideal racing conditions.  The temperatures were in the mid 70’s both days.  Even better, it stayed dry all weekend!

Justin Reed took FTD in his DFkitcar Goblin in Special 2 (S2), running a 49.701.  Justin ran with us for the first time at this event, and some of us know him from running the Appalachian Hillclimb Series events.  Congratulations to Justin, and I hope he makes the trek north again!

Mark Aubele was second overall in his Wolf GB08, running only .435 seconds behind Justin, with a 50.136. Mark has joined the “dark side” this year, and is running an open wheel car instead of one of the insanely fast door slammers that he has built over the years.

Bill Feist was third overall in his Formula S (FS) Stohr F1000 with a 51.091.

The two class records set were in Street Mod RWD (SMR) and INEX Spec.

In SMR, Eric Johnson beat his own class record set at 2023 Spring Weatherly by 1.118 seconds, running a 54.635. Eric races a 1979 Ford Mustang.

In INEX Spec, Michael Hunter also beat his own class record set at 2023 Fall Weatherly) by 0.147 seconds, running a 59.719. Michael runs an INEX Legend car.

For the rest of the top ten overall times, they were all set by cars running in Special 1 (S1).  This class had 10 entries, and  the spread of times between first and last in class was a little over 5 seconds.

With the exception of George Bowland, all of the cars in S1 were CrossKarts.  Let’s talk about George first.

George Bowland ran his Purpose-built BBR Special in S1, and placed 5th in class with a 53.155 (1.9 seconds out of first), and was 8th overall.  Note that George Bowland still holds the hill record of 47.592, which he set at 2012 Spring Weatherly with his BBR Shark.   

So onto the CrossKarts…

These cars are incredibly fast and maneuverable, and look like a blast to drive!  There were five  CrossKarts running in Special 1 (S1), and all but one had a co-driver, so there was  a total of 9 drivers in CrossKarts.  

Congratulations to Chris Duplessis (51.255, 4th overall), Dermont Treanor (51.657, 5th overall), Leon Jordan (51.732, 6th overall), Raymond Kochin (52.384, 7th overall), Sean McMeel (53.499,  9th overall), and Edward Smith (53.503, 10th overall).  Apologies to Edward Smith, as I couldn’t find a photo that I could definitely say was him.

So yes, you read that right.  Ray Kochin was one of the CrossKart co-drivers.  He ran a 52.384, and was only 0.652 seconds behind the car owner.  He also beat himself in his Special 3 (S3) Chevrolet Modified “General Lee” — he ran a 53.759 in the General Lee.

Here are some of my favorite random photos from the weekend:

A hillclimb weekend wouldn’t be complete without a campfire!  There were several, and many good conversations  were had on Friday and Saturday evenings.

I am sure that there were many other interesting stories throughout the entire weekend, but I was a bit self centered, so my apologies for not noticing them. 

I drove terribly at the first event in the series (Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point).  I was 30 seconds off my normal time and came in as STD (slowest time of the day – eh, perhaps I need a different acronym 😉 ) by quite a bit.  My awful times were not only due to my distrust of the car but also to my distrust of myself.   While I did enjoy the racing at the second day at that event, I couldn’t push myself to do anything more than touring runs.  

Quite frankly, going into Spring Weatherly, I was questioning myself on whether I should continue.

Don’t worry.  As soon as I took off from the line on the first run of the day, a switch flipped, and I rediscovered my love of hillclimbing!

I had shifting issues all weekend — when I took off from the line, I could be in 1st, 3rd or even reverse (so I took off gingerly 🙂 ).  Second gear was pretty much unobtainable, although sometimes it was there when I wanted it.  There were times I came to a  dead stop on the hill trying to find a gear, and there were times that each gear was there when I wanted it. 

You might ask:   How could you possibly have had fun?!

Well yes, the shifting issues were frustrating.  But when the car actually allowed me to shift when I wanted to, it behaved perfectly, and I had so much fun flinging it around the turns.  I’m sure I will have slow times for a while even after my shifter is fixed, but I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

To see some more photos of the event, check out the following:

Ben Burkhart:  https://benburkhart.smugmug.com/Hill-Climb/2024-Spring-Weatherly-Hillclimb/Saturday

Don McLaughlin:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcdallion/albums/72177720317775484

Tyler Powers:  https://motorsport.dewitphotography.com/Weatherly-Hillclimb-Spring-2024