Great in car video of setting the 2005 Pagoda Hillclimb ITE record.

I just got back from the Pagoda Hillclimb, put on by the PA Hillclimb Association www.pahillclimb.org in Reading, PA.  The event was held on June, 25th and 26th 2005.

I participated in my only previous hillclimb in 1996. I drove my 1995 Ford Cobra R Mustang (1 of the 250, 351 powered cars) to a 1st in class. Back then I drove even more aggressive (not fast) than I do now and hill's just aren't the place for an undisciplined driver. Even though the car was very impressive I just never really did feel comfortable all weekend.

Now, 10 years later I have not only become a little more mature but I have also become a little less aggressive and a fair amount quicker. I have always understood that I would be quicker if I slowed down but until the last few years I just couldn't get my foot out of it soon enough. Anyway, this combined with owning an Audi Quattro, how could another hill not be in my future!

Back in January a very good friend of mine, who I met at my first SCCA solo event, Vince Gladfelter said "I bet we could set a class record with the Audi at Duryea Hillclimb.  With flashbacks of flying through trees at 100+ mph I reluctantly said "do you think".  A few beers and a lot of quattro conversation later I agreed to run his BMW 2002 at the Hershey Hillclimb in April and he would co-drive the Audi at Duryea in August.

The Pagoda Hillclimb actually use's a smaller portion of the same hill as Duryea. So even though Vince was out of town I figured Pagoada would be a great way to warm up for the big hill. 

I pulled in early Sat. morning and as I was getting the pit setup I ran into a lot of old friends, most of which hadn't seen the car before. That’s one great thing about these grassroots type of events; there is plenty of time to catch up with old friends. Once setup, it was time for the orientation walk up the course. I am not intimidated by much when it comes to 4 wheels but thinking I'm about to do 140mph up a narrow 2 lane road with 40+ ft. of rock on one side and 80ft tree lined cliffs on the other makes my stomach a little uneasy.

Hillclimbs always start with touring runs. These are non timed runs for everyone to get their game face on and get familiar with the course. After a few runs group 1 which I was in got staged and ready for the timed runs. On the first run up the hill I tried to take my time and feel out the course and the car. After the first run I was already thinking of where I could push the car harder (so much for being more mature). With some shock changes and more experience the time did drop on every run. You can see the entire official results here http://www.pahillclimb.org/results/2005/2005_pagoda.pdf

We have had a few suspension issues with the car all season. It’s a real shame because before we sent the shocks out to be dynoed the car was near perfect. I met Michael from JRZ USA last Fall at VIR and he convinced me to send the shocks to him to have them rebuilt and dynoed. This forum is not here to bad mouth or put down any other person or company but, if I am going to be of any help to others sometimes I may have to be brutally honest. My shocks were returned un-dynod, un-rebuilt, dirty, and leaking and with a $468.00 bill plus $19.00 shipping when we picked up and delivered the shocks (after several phone calls I still haven’t gotten my shipping charge back).  The car has had a severe push ever since the shocks have been reinstalled. Through out the Pagoda weekend I did manage to remove a lot of the push but it is still not back to where it should be. I am becoming more and more familiar with the whole rebound, compression, slow bump adjustments of the JRZ triple adjustables.  Each shock has a total of 28 settings with any number of combinations. It is amazing how 1 or 2 ticks of one shock can make a significant difference in handling. The only good thing about this problem is that it has forced me to become more educated on suspension setup. It’s amazing how much good information can be found on the internet. The one downside though is there isn’t much geared toward AWD. Here again Don Istook has been a great wealth of knowledge.

Back to Pagoda, while loading the trailer Sat. night and chatting with some other competitors I was asked what kind of times I ran. I responded by stating I really didn’t drive that hard and I figured that the times really wouldn’t be significant enough to check. Someone asked if I knew what my class record was and I responded with I have no idea. I am not always this lax about a race weekend. When it comes to road racing I am always on top of what a good competitive time and class records are. There is just something about the intimidation of hillclimbs that I feel I will be less competitive if I don’t worry about my times. As everyone became bored with my less than informative responses the conversation quickly changed.

We all had a few more beers, talked more racing and decided how we should probably head either home for some or back to the hotel for others. On the way down the hill in the tow vehicle I passed timing and scoring. With everybody’s talk I figured I should at least check my times. I almost fell over when I realized I was 4 seconds quicker than the previous Pagoda ITE record! I was within a few seconds of the Fastest Time of the Day (FTD). Keep in mind I was running with open-wheel formula cars! The following day I did take off another second and set the Pagoda Hillclimb at 58.283 seconds.