Pagoda 2024

Pagoda Hillclimb 2024 was held June 22-23, 2024 in Reading, PA. It was the third event in the seven event 2024 PHA Championship Series.

Mark Aubele had FTD in his 2012 Wolf GB08 that he runs in S2 (Special 2) with a 76.211.

Prior to his fastest run, Mark Aublele and Mike Robinson were separated by about 2/10 second for FTD. But then Mark dropped a whopping 3 seconds, and Mike (reasonably) backed off. Mike has just gotten his Camaro back out to the hills after last running it in 2019 (although it did make a brief appearance in 2021 before the engine blew), and was more interested in dialing in the car.

Mike Robinson still managed to keep second place with a 79.660. in his 1999 Camaro that he runs in SMX (Street Mod Extreme). It is really good to see this car back!

For the rest of the top 10:

Dave Cutchins was 3rd overall in his 2011 Stohr F1000 that he runs in Formula S (FS) with an 82.404

Bryan Fritzler was 4th overall in his 2003 Fritzler Corsair that he runs in Prototype 1 (P1) with an 83.736.
Michael Radjavitch Jr was 5th overall in his 2018 Subaru WRX STI that he runs in Street Modified (SM) with an 84.702.
Bryan Dion was 6th overall in his 2007 VW GTI that he runs in Street Modified FWD (SMF) with an 84.840.

Tracy Gaudu was 7th overall in her 2008 Chevrolet C6Z06 that she runs in Street Modified Extreme (SMX) with an 85.252.
Eric Johnson was 8th overall in his 1979 Ford Mustang that he runs in Street Modified RWD (SMR) with an 85.291.
Michele Aubele was 9th overall in her 2012 BMW 135i that she runs in Street Modified RWD (SMR) with an 85.942.

Geoff Craig was 10th overall in his 1990 Ford Mustang that he runs in American Sedan (AS) with an 86.709.

We don’t normally crown a “king” and a “queen” of the hill at most PHA events, and just talk about FTD. And while I agree that we are all competing on our own merit regardless of gender, I still want to give a shout out to Tracy Gaudu and Michele Aubele, who placed 7th and 9th overall, respectively. There were only eight women competing in this event, so I personally find it inspiring that 25% of us placed in the top ten!

Tracy Gaudu is from Tennessee and has been running our full hillclimb series this season. She has tough competition in SMX now that Mike Robinson is back in his Camaro.

Michele Aubele has been running with PHA for a while, and she keeps getting faster and faster. She also faces tough competition in SMR against Rick Johnson, but is holding her own, and they trade first place back and forth regularly at every event.

The weekend itself was really hot. It hit over 100 degrees on Saturday, and wasn’t much cooler on Sunday. Despite the temperature, a weekend spent hillclimbing is still better than one on the couch in AC!

Personally, I met my goal, even if I’m still ridiculously slow. I took every run and I had fun!

Normally I’d say that a weekend wasn’t complete without a campfire picture, but it was too hot to even think about a campfire. So please enjoy this picture of the tower instead.