Here it is November, and the day after the awards banquet, and I still haven’t posted about Duryea, Shenandoah and Fall Weatherly.   Instead of  writing individual posts about these events, I am posting the “2024 Season in Review” article from the 2024 PHA Banquet program, and will include an extended section for each of these events to make up (hopefully) for my lack of posts.

Photo credits Left to Right (or Top to Bottom):  Eric Santiago, Ben Burkhart, Bob Helton

The 2024 PHA racing season is behind us, and what a great season it was!  From a personal perspective, Jefferson was really tough for me to return to after my incident there in 2023, and I was actually questioning my decision to resume racing. 

I’m pleased to report that once I made it to Spring Weatherly and left the start line to take my first run, I rediscovered my love of hillclimbing all over again.  While I wasn’t particularly fast at that event or any other, I had so much fun both on and off the race course that  I can’t wait until next season.  But enough about me…

Our first event was the Carlisle Import and Performance show, and we had a great display of 17 cars.  John Pitman, Gordon Wise, Charlie and Bill Norton, Mike Axarlis and many others worked tirelessly to greet our visitors, answer questions, and hand out literature.  The show itself had a record number of cars this year, and it was really fun to walk around and see them all!

Jefferson Time Attack was the first event in the seven event PHA Championship series, and was hosted by Blue Mountain Region (BMR).  We had 66 entries, and 14 class records were set.  It was a bit hot and humid, but perfect for racing and the track stayed dry the entire weekend. 

At one point on Sunday, the top 6 cars were separated by only .7 seconds.  Bill Feist had to work hard, but took FTD in his S1 2006 Stohr WF1 with a 72.292.  Michael Company was only .113 seconds behind in his P2 2008 Stohr with a 72.405.

At Spring Weatherly Hillclimb, hosted by the Weatherly Hillclimb Association, we had 85 entries, but only 2 records were set despite the ideal racing conditions.  It stayed dry all weekend and the temperatures were in the mid 70’s both days. 

Justin Reed ran with us for the first time at this event — he is from SC and some of us know him from running the Appalachian Hillclimb Series event.  Justin took FTD in his S2 DFkitcar Goblin with a 49.701.  Mark Aubuele, who has joined the “dark side” this year by running an open wheel car, finished second in his S2 Wolf GB08.  He was only .435 seconds behind Justin with a 50.136.

Pagoda Hillclimb was next, and is hosted by Blue Mountain Region.  While it remained dry, it was very hot all weekend, with the temperatures reaching over 100 F on Saturday.  In fact, it was so hot that this is the only event in 2024 that we didn’t build a camp fire in the pits at night. 

Mark Aubele took FTD in his S2 2012 Wolf GB08 with a 76.211.  Prior to Mark’s fastest run, he and Mike Robinson were separated by only .2 seconds.  But then Mark dropped 3 seconds and Mike (reasonably) backed off.  Mark’s fast time was a 76.211.

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 still managed to come in 2nd overall in his SMX 1999 Camaro with a 79.660.

Event number 4 was Giants Despair HC, hosted by the Giants Despair Hillclimb Association.  While it was really hot and the weather was unsettled the whole weekend, the course remained mostly dry, and we only had an occasional rain shower.   We had 104 timed entries and 6 course records were set.

The battle for FTD was insane.  It was between Heikki Rinta-Koski, Ron Moreck, Justin Reed and Mark Aubele, all running the same class (S2).  In the end, just over a second separated them, but Heikki took the win with a 39.695.  Ron was in 2nd (with a 40.054), followed by Justin (with a 40.384), and then Mark (with a 40.709).  This was Heikki and Justin’s first time at Giants Despair, and I hope we see more of them next year.

Polish Mountain HC should have been next, but unfortunately it has been cancelled indefinitely after losing most of the support from the local infrastructure.   I not only miss the event, but miss the wonderful group of people in the Western MD chapter of DC region who organized it.  They had a reunion on the start line this year on what would have been the date of the event, but I live too far away to have attended it.

Duryea Hillclimb was the fifth event in our seven event series, and was hosted by Blue Mountain Region.   We had 83 entries and 2 class records were set.  We had 9 timed runs, which is  unheard of for Duryea, and may even be a record!

The weather forecast was dismal for this event.  I’ve learned to take the forecast with a grain of salt, as it seems that the rain showers forecasted for the Reading area often miss the hill.  Unfortunately, the forecast was accurate for Saturday, and it rained off and on.  Every time the course looked promising, another shower would pop up.

By the end of the day Saturday, Heikki Rinta-Koski,  Mike Robinson and Jason Fraley were in the top 3 overall, and the only ones to go under 2 minutes.

It was predicted to be another washout on Sunday, so many people left at the end of the day on Saturday, including Ron Moreck.  But on Sunday morning, we woke up to better road conditions than we had all weekend, and times were dropping fast.  There was a brief shower after lunch and the road never completely dried out, but many went on to improve their times.  The weekend ended with Heikki in first place, with a 107.339!

Congratulations to Jason Fraley who placed 2nd overall with a 112.870, and also joined the under 2 minute club this year.

Aaron Yeager also joined the under 2 minute club this year for the first time, running a 119.236, which was good for 11th overall.

Jason and Mike continued the new novice format introduced at Giants Despair,  and the novice meeting and course instruction was held Fri night instead of Saturday morning.   The novice touring runs were off at 8:15 (before the drivers meeting), and the first timed run of the day was at 9.  What a great job  by everyone — from the novices being ready in time, the corner workers being in place, and everyone else who worked to get things ready in time. 

The new novice meeting format definitely contributed to more runs being offered.  In addition, it allows the novice instructors more time for the course instruction on Friday night, as they are no longer constrained by the event start time.  Great job to Jason Fraley and Mike Robinson for coming up with this idea!

Another thing that happened at Duryea was a cat rescue.  Loud meowing was heard near the start line, and the start line workers found that a cat had somehow become trapped in the storm drain.   While the cat was likely grateful for the rescue, it chose not to stick around.

Cats, man!

Shenadoah Track Sprint was the sixth event, and was hosted by Blue Mountain region.  We had 69 entries with 10 class records set.   The track remained dry all weekend, although the weather forecast for Sunday was threatening enough that several people left Saturday, including, yes, you guessed it, Ron Moreck.

The battle for FTD was between Mark Aubele and Bill Feist.  They were trading it back and forth pretty much all weekend, but Bill dropped more than a second on his last run, and he got the win.  Bill’s time was 84.967 in his S1 2006 Stohr WF1.  Mark was .586 seconds behind him with an 85.553.

Due to the rising costs of track rental at Summit Point Motorsports Park, this event almost didn’t happen.  While 69 entries was not bad (and some of them were two car drivers), it wasn’t enough for the event to break even.  However, thanks to generous donations from the following individuals, associations and regions, BMR was able to hold this event:  

George Bowland, Gibby Bozicevich & Kris Reid, Darryl Danko, Kurt Eikenberg, Bill Feist, Giants Despair Hillclimb Association, Keith Gerhard, Grace Huntzinger,  Patty Johnson, Nancy Lewis, Ron Moreck, Philly Region SCCA, Michael Robinson, James Swift.  

Thank you everyone!

Weatherly Hillclimb was the seventh and final event in the PHA Championship Series, hosted by the Weatherly Hillclimb Association.  We had 109 entries and 5 class records were set.  The weather was perfect temperature wise, and the course stayed dry.

Ron Moreck had FTD for most of the weekend.  He ran 48.866 on his first run in his S1 Norma M20.  Unfortunately, Ron had car issues all weekend, and was only able to take one more timed run. 

I was pitted next to him and was very amused by his T-Shirt after all the roasting he’s been getting about leaving early due to rain this season.

Despite his car trouble, Ron was able to keep his FTD status until Mark Aubele dropped almost a second on his last run.  I’m not sure where Mark pulled it from, but he ran a 48.632 in his S1 Wolf GB08 — .234 seconds faster than Ron, and dropping over 3/4 second from his previous fast time of 49.447.  Mark’s time was good for FTD and a new S1 class record.   He certainly had to work for it, and congratulations are in order!

And while that’s a wrap for the 2024 season, I wanted to mention that what I love most about PHA events is the people.  The racing is really fun, and I’m sure it is really fun to be competing for FTD or even top 10. 

But I’ve never run a car that would be capable of competing at that level.  Even when I was at my best, I was never more than a good driver, just like the average drivers at all of our events — better than some, worse than others.  All I know is that it an amazing experience to drive a car at whatever limit you are willing to push it to, flinging it around turn after turn. 

But even that would pale after awhile, and it is really the camaraderie is what keeps me coming back.   It is hard to explain — you need to come to an event and experience it for yourself!

This article can’t be complete without a campfire picture!

Have a good off season everyone, and see you in 2025!