Duryea Hillclimb was held August 16-17 in Reading, PA. This SCCA sanctioned event was hosted by Blue Mountain Region and was the fifth event in the eight event 2025 PHA Championship Series.
The weather forecast was for rain here and there, but it kept changing. Fortunately, we only had rain Friday night, and then again around 4 AM Saturday. The course was a bit damp for first runs Saturday morning for both run groups, but dried up after that, and we had good run conditions the rest of the weekend.
Ron Moreck holds the course record at 102.534, set in 2023. Unfortunately, his car broke Saturday before he could even complete a run, so didn’t get a chance to see if he could beat his fast time from 2023. Ron was able to borrow a car from a friend, and ran it on Sunday, but I’ll get to that later.
Mike Robinson ran FTD, with a 110.101 in his 1999 Chevrolet Camaro that he runs in Outlaw (0). That is a really fast time for a door car, and only .101 seconds from the 110 elusive time. Congratulations Mike!
The competition for FTD was actually a bit nail-biting going into Sunday!
By the end of the day Saturday, Mike Robinson had FTD. But in 2nd place overall was Colin Bombara, with a 110.698, in his 2000 Subaru Impreza RSTi, that he also runs in Outlaw (0). Colin was only about a half second slower than Mike, and his car was fully capable of making up that time.
In the meantime, Kenneth Company brought Bill Feist’s #99 car to Duryea for Ron Moreck to run on Sunday — a 2008 Stohr F1000 that is classed in Formula S (FS) that was also capable of beating Mike’s fast time.
On Sunday, while Ron did manage to set an FS class record by 1.001 seconds, his time of 113.247 was not good enough to take FTD, and he finished in 3rd place overall. It was still some pretty impressive driving, given that he was unfamiliar with the car and only had one day to do anything with it.
Colin Bombara had car issues, and did not run well again after his Saturday fast time, but he still remained in 2nd place overall.
This event had 15 drivers under 2 minutes! Of special note are Bryan Dion, who ran a 119.363 in his 2007 VW GTI, and Tim Lewis, who ran a 119.982 in his 2007 Honda Civic. Both cars run in Sport Max (SX). Bryan and Tim are the 3rd and 4th drivers in FWD cars to run under 2 minutes (first was Matt Phillips, and second was Hunter Huffman). Congratulations to Bryan and Tim!
We had a bunch of NEHA (New England Hillclimb Association) drivers come down for this event. They all ran really fast times! Patrick Martin deserves special mention, as he only missed running in the “under 2 minute club” by .824 seconds.
From AHS (Appalachian Hillclimb Series), we had Dillon Broyles run Duryea for the first time in his 2003 Chevrolet Corvette in Super Modified (SM). He ran a 113.326 and came in fourth overall.
It was really cool to welcome drivers from the entire east coast hillclimb groups — NEHA and AHS! And the campfire Friday night was a lot of fun with everyone represented. I hope we can continue to do this at all of the events put on by all three groups!
On a slightly different subject, reminding us of the event’s history, the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles brought a beautifully restored 1907 Duryea Buggyaut to display at the event on Saturday. The car was built in Reading, PA, and had a two cylinder, 12 Horsepower air cooled engine.
Charles Duryea used the hillclimb road to test drive his cars. Actually, it was his daughter Rhea who did most of the test driving, making her the first holder of the Duryea Hillclimb FTD record. I wish I could have met her!
The Boyertown Museum has this car and more on display, and is well worth checking out: https://boyertownmuseum.org/
As far as how I did. Well, I’m faster than I was last year by quite a bit, so I was quite happy with my times. But Don McLaughlin was still about a second faster than me.
All I know is that I have a really fun time flinging my car around the turns. Maybe I’ll catch Don next time!