The annual PHA Awards Banquet was held Nov 9, 2024 at the Grantville Holiday Inn in Grantville PA, and it was a lot of fun as usual.  We had a really good turnout this year.  For those of you who could not make it, you were missed!

The PHA Critique Meeting was held before the banquet, and our members attend in person and remotely via Zoom.  If you want the detail, the meeting minutes are posted to the Current Schedule / Results page.  See also the Meetings link under the Policies menu if you want the minutes for the most recent meeting and prior ones.

To summarize, some of the longer discussions included a possible event at Pocono, and a proposal to replace the Street Prepared Solo classes that is the result of two years of research.  In addition, Eli Sharp discussed the results of the meeting survey, and how we made some changes to our meeting format based on the results. 

We made it through all topics on the agenda with time for a healthy discussion on each, and still adjourned by 4:00 PM.   It was good to hear from our zoom participants as well as our in person participants, especially on the Street Prepared class replacement proposal.  That proposal is linked on the Current Schedule / Results page as well if you want to take a look.

Nominations for the 4 officer positions — President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer — were opened, and all of our current officers indicated they were willing to run again for election next year.  The officers are:  President — Rich Rock, Vice President — Trevor Filipowicz, Secretary — Eli Sharp, and Treasurer — Grace Huntzinger.  No other nominations for the 4 positions were made, but nominations remain open until the next meeting, which is on Jan 18 at Giannotti’s (and via zoom).  A vote will also be held at the Jan meeting.  

Once the meeting was adjourned, I set up the PHA merchandise at registration.   New this year are hats in 8 different colors,  T-shirts in the color officially called Midnight by the vendor but colloquially known as Rich’s Color, and hoodies in 2 colors — purple and steel blue.  The hoodies are really bulky, and I’m pleased to report that enough of them sold that I’m down by one bin!  I’ll be bringing all of it to every event next season.

Melinda Axarlis and Charlie Norton ran registration, and did a fantastic job keeping track of everything. 

Donna Sumner did a great job with the 50/50 tickets.   I am always amused by the fact that you can purchase an arm’s length, and then choose whose arm is used to measure an arm’s length.  I always use Rich Rock, but Trevor is also a popular choice!

Before I write any more, I want to thank Dustin Axarlis for stepping up as the PHA Banquet Photographer.  Here he is with his brother Dillon and sister Jessica — they all race multiple cars along with their parents Mike and Melinda, most of which are Sciroccos or other VWs.  

Once registered, attendees enjoyed an hour of Hors d’Oeuvres, followed by a buffet dinner.   Matt Green provided the music — thank you Matt for another excellent job.

After dinner, it was time for the Awards part of the banquet.

(In the following set of award photos, the credit goes to Dustin Axarlis unless otherwise noted.)

The first set of awards was for the Hardcore Hillclimbers — someone who has worked and/or driven at every event. 

First up were the Double Hardcore Hillclimbers, which are those who worked and competed at every event.  This year’s Double Hardcore Hillclimbers were George Witman, Michael Robinson and Matthew Hoegg.

There were 18 Hardcore Hillclimbers in 2024, including the 3 Double HHs!  A complete list of these intrepid hillclimbers can be found on the Past Results page — see the 2024 Trophy Winners link.

Next up were the Class Championship Awards.  Congratulations to everyone who qualified for a year class end award!  See the 2024 Trophy Winners link on the Past Results page linked above for a list of class winners.  Also, please enjoy this gallery of award winners and cars in each class.

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The Lloyd Geib Award is based on position in class and on how many participated in that class.  10 points are awarded for yourself, plus 10 more for each driver that you beat in class.   This award is intended to showcase drivers who are winning against other similarly prepared cars.   Eric Johnson is the winner of the Lloyd Geib Award this year.

The Overall Award is based on overall finishing position.  100 points are awarded to the driver who finished first, 99 to the second, etc.  This award is intended to honor drivers who are consistently fast regardless of what class their car falls into.  Mike Robinson is the winner of the Overall Award this year.

The Molti Miglia Award, commonly known as the Mileage Award, goes to the driver who has driven the most miles in competition.  This award is intended to honor drivers who will race under any conditions (and also run a car reliable enough to take many runs).  Grace Huntzinger (that is me!) is the winner of the Mileage Award this year.

Congratulations to the winners, and please enjoy this gallery of the winners and their cars.

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Jim Rathman was our first Worker of the Year.  I am pretty sure every driver that has run Pagoda or Duryea Hillclimb knows who Jim is  from his signature “wave” at turn 5b.  I do have some bad news for our drivers, as the wave arm has apparently deteriorated enough to be unusable — I’m  sure some of you were wondering this past season about that (I know I was).  

Jim  worked the Weatherly events this year in addition to Reading,  and it was great to see this dedicated and very competent worker adding more events to his schedule.  It was also really fun hanging out with him at Keith Bower’s campfire in the evenings at Weatherly. 

For some reason, the only photos I have of Jim in action are him sticking his tongue out at me.   Let’s hope this is not his new “wave”  🙂

Congratulations to Jim — this award is long overdue!

The second  worker of the year award went to Ellen Whisler, one of the recipients of the Hardcore Hillclimber award.  She has worked every event this year, and has cheerfully allowed herself to be placed in whatever place needed her, and worked in whatever capacity was needed. 

When working the start line, she went above and beyond to let the drivers sitting in line know what was going on, and how long the delay was expected to be whenever there was an incident.  At turn around, she not only brought water to the drivers, she let everyone know when to start getting ready, which contributed to much smoother run group transitions.    And when working a corner, Ellen was exceptional in all she did.

Congratulations to Ellen!

Following the Worker of the year Awards,  two very worthy PHA members were inducted into the PHA Hall of Fame — Michael S Robinson and David Sekella. 

Mike Robinson started out in 1988 as a worker, and began driving in 2004.  He quickly became a driver to watch, joining the Duryea under 2 minute club in 2015.  He has consistently run under 2 minutes since then regardless of which car he drives. 

But his driving record is only part of the reason he was inducted.  His other contributions to the PHA include Chief of Novice and Tech, his work to update the rules, and his role as an ambassador for the PHA.  To read more, please see the write-up on the PHA Hall of Fame page on this website. 

David Sekella was an active part of the Reading hillclimbs for years, starting out as one of the JC’s  running the many concession stands that used to pepper the hill.  He also helped with the set up and tear down.  

When he aged out of the JC’s, Dave became an active member of BMR, eventually becoming RE, and for several years was the chairman of the Reading Hillclimbs.  He was instrumental in resurrecting the Pagaoda Hillclimb, which was brought back in 1990. 

To read more, place see the write-up on the PHA Hall of Fame page on this website.  

When accepting his award from Wil Sekella (his son), I was amused to hear David complain that Wil made him pay his own banquet entry fee. 

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He said that it was an almost impossible task to pick just a few people  for this award — he could name 10 or 20 each year.  He uses the criteria of contributing to more than a member’s region’s events to help narrow it down, but it is still a really hard decision for him. 

All I can say is that I’m glad I don’t have to make the choice! 

This year, Rich presented 4 Outstanding Contribution Awards.

First up was Ursula Whisler

Ursula has been instrumental with Timing & Scoring, and has worked every event this year.   That doesn’t even begin to describe what she does…

Ursula is the person who is there at  oh dark hundred to help with timing setup every morning.  She helps with timing all day, and then hangs around to help with tear down.  Each one of these is a ton of work, but she cheerfully helps with whatever she is needed for. 

Ursula is very dedicated and always very happy to help, and her Outstanding Contribution award is well deserved.

Next was Crystal Hoegg

Crystal has been doing a fantastic job with Registration at Weatherly the last year or two, and this year is no exception.  But with Judy retiring, she has been taking on more and more responsibility for Weatherly HC, and is doing a really good job.

She also has been acting as registrar for Giants Despair HC and has been helping them in whatever capacity they need her for.   

Another well deserved Outstanding Contribution award!

The last two recipients of the Outstanding Contribution award were Mike Robinson and Jason Fraley for their work with the PHA novice program.

The novice program is really important, as it is one of the first impressions for a new driver at our events, and a good or bad experience can make it or break it.    Mike & Jason have taken our program and really expanded on it.  

First of all, they spend a lot of time between events talking to potential competitors, helping them understand what they need in order to compete, etc.  At events, they put a lot of work into the novice instruction as well as helping novices on an  individual basis. 

In addition, they are the face of the PHA to many new to hillclimbing.  Not only that, they are great ambassadors, and the program has caught the attention of other organizations. 

You know how they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?  Appalachian Hillclimb Association was so impressed by Mike & Jason’s work that they have adopted a very similar novice program.   Snowshoe HC this year requested Jason to run their novice program.  

Last, Mike & Jason made the “Friday Night Novice Meeting and Course Instruction” plan happen this year starting with Giants Despair HC.   Novices now have the benefit of more course instruction since they are not under any time constraints on Fri night as they would be on Sat morning. 

In addition, the novice touring runs now start before the driver’s meeting on Sat morning, meaning we start timed runs close to 9 AM instead of losing an hour to the touring runs.  Thanks to this innovation,  we may have all gotten an extra timed run from Giants on this past season.

This is another well deserved award! 

Last but not least, there was one more award chosen by PHA President Rich Rock. The Overhaul Award….

Rich said he hoped he never had to award it again 🙂    But congratulations (I guess?) to Joe Tavaglione.

It was really impressive to see this car go from being upside down at Duryea to competing at Fall Weatherly two events later.   Not only that, the car looked surprisingly good at Fall Weatherly.  So actually,  congratulations to Joe and team for getting the car back to hillclimb ready!

Once the awards portion of the banquet was over, we continued to hang out and talk with our friends, enjoy the music provided by Matt Green, and watch the event slide show.  We also had some photos provided by a former resident of Weatherly from the hillclimb in the 1970s that were on display.

Some of us went to the hotel bar after the banquet ended. 

As per tradition, here we all are after the bar closed — the Last Ones Standing:

It was so good to see everyone, and I can’t wait for next season!