Mount Washington Hillclimb - June 26-29 - Dreamer

[tedebayer]

Like many of you, I grew up watching Formula 1 (Grand Prix) and old days of Indy. I remember watching race drivers like Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti, Ginther, Senna, Rosberg (no ... his dad), Bob Tulius, Carroll Shelby, Mark Donahue ... my father and I spent many an hour watching Wide World of Sports. At the age of 7, I attended my first hillclimb at Chimney Rock and saw my first Ferrari. I still remember my head snap as it drove by and my jaw hanging open in awe. Each year, I read up in Road & Track on two other big hillclimbs... Pikes Peak and Mount Washington. It was a dream I discussed with my father and he never said "forget it kid. You're dreaming ", he just smiled. He understood a dream for a kid is important whether you ever reach it or not... and that was one of the things that made him a great dad.

So, with support from some great sponsors and my wife, I am heading out next Tuesday to run the Mount Washington Hillclimb in New Hampshire. I'll try to post up about the experience... and to be honest, it's an experience I almost gave up on several times. There is a lot more to getting there than you can imagine. You have to send in your resume, application and $800 entry fee in December and hope to be accepted in January... many more qualified than me were turned down. The rules and safety requirements meant new door bars, improvements on my cage (including welding all cage to chassis points), TWO 2.5 pound fire extinguishers, oil pressure switch that cuts off fuel pump if engine stalls, fire suppression system, monster bright KC Daylighter rally fog lamps, etc. I bought an enclosed trailer mainly to keep car protected. Add to all that a 16 hour trip up there and getting there a day early to do recons in Nate Wimbrow's miata... and then, the trip back.

The course is 7.6 miles long... about a mile is dirt and gravel and last 200-300 yards are usually fogged in or covered in clouds. The locals informed me that it rains 3 days out of 2 up there this time of year. Pikes Peak is a full 5 miles longer than Mt. Washington but in elevation, Pikes is a 4700 foot climb from bottom to top and Mt. Washington is a 4,500 foot. If you do the math, that means Mt. Washington is WAY more steep. The edges of the road go from woods and rock walls at the bottom up to ridge running with severe drop offs on edges at top... no guard rails. Pikes Peak has 156 corners, - 13 corners per mile. Mount Washington - 130 corners, or just under 18 corners per mile. So... why TWO fire extinguishers? "Well... this ain't SCCA." In OUR hillclimbs, you never leave the eye sight of a worker and we can shut down the hill in a skinny 10 seconds or less, top to bottom if needed. Up there, there are stretches of 200 yards with no course workers... and passing is allowed. You get 2 runs un-timed Friday and two untimed runs Saturday...assuming weather conditions allow it. Sunday you get two timed runs. As Porky Pig said "th-th-th-that's all, folks!"

I will try to post up some of what happens... hopefully blazing some trails that others from the south can follow. I have no expectations of winning my class... their rules put me in a class where my 1300 cc Hayabusa powered Lotus clone is up against cars with up to 800 HP... several tube frame chassis cars and drivers who have been running this event for years. I do look forward to shaking the hand of the Chief Steward... an old hero of mine, John Buffum. A famous Audi Quattro driver, John is the most successful U.S. rally driver ever, winning 11 national titles and 117 national championship events. I look forward to the drive home with car in one piece (sometimes THAT is a better trophy than any you could be awarded). And I look forward to topping the time of Carroll Shelby in 1956 when he drove a Ferrari 375 GP to overall win in 10 minutes 24.8 seconds. If I can do that, I can thank technology more than my driving skills but that's my goal. When we think of winning, we tend to think of a chrome plated piece of plastic mounted on a wood stand being awarded to the adulation of cheering crowds... but sometimes a BIG part of winning is being there.

Big thanks to John Finger of John Finger Mazda, Steve Hampton of Chap Racing, Tire Kingdom of Simpsonville, Fairview Cycles, Dagmar & TJ, our SEDIV hillclimbers and those who helped me get started. SCCA, sports cars and racing has been the source of much joy in my life. The relationships I made through it have lasted for many years and built many happy memories. The time sharing it with my son has been priceless. Thanks to all of you... you know who you are. Special thanks to Rob Martai and Jeremy Deitzel for advice and support. You guys REALLY helped more than you know.

This will be televised on August 2nd (week later) on NBC Sports but... with Pastrana running, I'm sure that will be FOCUS! Nevertheless, I will be rocking some CCR logos! LOL I'll try to write in along the way just to give you some flavor and feel for the event.

If you want more info... great article here... rallytakeover.kinja.com/americas-toughest-hillclimb-is-back-1024554934

For a great video... try this...
<- Jeremy Deitzel in the Evo he ran at Dragon with us!

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[illbebetter]

Best of luck Ted.

[George Bugg]

Congratulations!! Go get 'em!

[belcher]

Have fun Ted. I have driven (not raced) both Mt. Washington and Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is like going through Kansas on the interstate compared to Mt. Wash. My wife at the time put finger dents in the arm rest of the van. Find on of the tourist van drivers to show you the road. They know it better than anybody.

[tedebayer]

Got in last night about 2 AM from 18 hour drive... long haul. I'll try to collect some thoughts, post some pictures and some video. Learned a lot, had a blast ... need some sleep right now. LOL

[Steve Eckerich]

Wake up sleepy head and give us a report.

[tedebayer]

Wow... brains still a little foggy but here goes. Nate Wimbrow is a friend from Clemson Club who lives in Rochester, NH now. He agreed to crew and help me over the weekend. We arrived, registered, tech'ed set up tent/ trailer and he took me for a drive up the mountain in his Miata. This was the first trip up the mountain ever... and while the rock edges concerned me and the dirt looked a bit sketchy... the sides of the road did not bother me that bad. That's because it was clouded/fogged in.... edges of road were all white. All the maps I had studied and videos I had watched really were no help at all... this was reactive driving while looking as far ahead as possible.

Met a lot of drivers from different parts of the US and some from overseas. Paul Gilbin, the event manager was most hospitable! He showed me around, introduced me to many of the staff, answered questions about structure and safety...great guy. Had a nice Thursday evening, with some "Lobstah"... and got some sleep for Lower half runs on Friday Morning.

The lower half is a lot like Dragon... except no guard rails, lumps in pavement and extreme elevation. Trees, boulders... switch backs. The first sweeper begins up hill suddenly and many pro-rally drivers had to gear down halfway up. AS the elevation begins there, there is a big hump in the asphalt. You can go to the side of it, straddle it (if you have clearance) but if you hit it... you'll know it. I caught the edge of it twice and it tossed my car up in the air. A driver in a dirt modified car hit it head on at speed and went up embankment, crossed over the road and went in tot he woods Sunday afternoon. When I say "tossed me up in the air" ... let me explain. I brought a gun to a knife fight. My car weighs about 930 pounds... springs on all corners are about 200. That's pretty soft on 18-20 pound RA1s (that reads dead on according to pyrometer at every track I have run with the car.) Well, the next lightest car there weighed about 2300 pounds... and many of the cars at spring rates of 80 to 100 pounds. I can only presume these were found by unscrewing old Bic pens and using the springs in them. When the front hit a bump it went up... when the back the bump it went up... the wheels began to spin in air when it was light and chirped when it landed back on asphalt. If the pavement was uneven one chirped and then the other chirped yanking the wheel left and then right. I made my two runs at good pace on lower half... and that was Friday morning.

The upper half of the course is different than the bottom. Red exclamation point signs inform you of sever drop offs and rocks on edges are sharper. There are less and less trees until you get about 2/3s of the way up to where road switches to dirt and gravel. The dirt was hard packed for my first run but the clear sunny skies let you see the drop offs VERY clearly. It was a LONG LONG way down... there are areas where the drop off is 1 foot out for 1 foot down but the angle is such that on the road, it looks completely sheer... like a cliff. There are other areas where the drop offs were 2000 to 3000 feet...and we were constantly reminded to stay away from edge and the rocks on inside edge that will spit you back off edge. The last portion is a windy road with deep gulleys... a lot of broken asphalt on edges. At this point, there are no trees... just elevation and boulders. The boulders are covered with a lime green lichen and black moss ... speckles the rocks to where the whole place looks like the surface of Mars. The view from up there is incredible.Absolutely gorgeous. So many mountain ranges. We had clear weather ... no clouds. I am responsible for this as, in my preparations for this event, I went to a great deal of trouble to mount KC Hi-lighter fog lamps which I never even turned on. As we were headed down the mountain after the first run ... inching along at 10-15 mph, I noticed my temp gauge climbing. I wasn't getting enough cool air and could not go faster.I skipped last run and let it cool down and took it easy back down hill... keeping it cool. At base camp, we found out the thermostat for my electric fan had died. Nate made some jumpers, we disconnected the fog lamps and PRESTO... the fog lamp switch was suddenly a electric fan switch. That was great except... I had one run on the upper portion... and had seen it a total of 2 times. And Sunday, we would race from bottom to top. Saturday night, I did a lot of thinking about whether I really wanted to run. My goal was to finish the hillclimb with a time better than Carroll Shelby 10 mins. 41 Seconds...and I decided I could do that but I would do it in one run and call it a day. It was not worth risking my car to go faster.

Sunday morning, the crowd poured in. Beautiful day! The presentation of flags included national anthem of Canada and US. The announcer introduced us individually and we shook hands with Subaru Corporate officials, sponsors and local celebs. Then it was a hurry to the cars to get morning runs. Waiting in he car for your run on that course is intimidating... you hear your breathing, you hear cars launching... waiting... thinking of course. They pull you up to the line and they hold you there for a sufficient gap. When the traffic light goes green, you go. The first sweeper I was flying... car felt good, avoided the hump and continued up. I could see crowd on sides of road peripherally but all were out of harms way. Many times I lifted when I should have stayed to the floor but I wasn't sure... I had not seen the course enough to KNOW. I pushed it on lower half because I knew I was going to lose time on upper half. About the time I hit the dirt I heard/saw the NBC sports chopper to my left. HE rode beside me close enough to annoy... guess he was hoping for some uber-cool wreck footage. The Westfield is an awesome car... the Hayabusa motor creates so much torque... but the car is so light, the wheels spin easy... especially on dirt. Especially on dirt that had been freshly plowed by Pro Rally drivers. LOL Twice, tires spun on me so I had to ease on and off throttle. Felt awesome to pull off that dirt but with tires dirty, it's easy to jump on it and pay a price. The rest of the course up is scary at speed... the edges of the road to your right drop off to nothing... on the left is a 2 foot deep gully created by water run off from the top. One guy dropped a wheel in and he told me his car dug in to a stop at 50. Broke A arm and wheel. I got too close to gully twice... on the video ... I hit one edge and just missed another. At that point, you think it's almost over... and you look up and there is more 3/4 mile of elevation and high speed to the top. Seeing the checkered flags and slowing down and parking felt awesome. I got to talk with Travis Pastrana for a couple of minutes... really great guy. Vintage car drivers were a riot... and the rally guys... unbelievable nerves on those guys... not to mention their metallic spheres of courage. When I got back down hill to base, I grabbed cell to call Dagmar and tell her about the run. After I told her about it, she had to share the news a good friend of mine in Germany had passed away suddenly. 50 years old, a wife and two teens daughters. Really sad. It gave me an interesting perspective... to take a chance like Mt. Washington at 56 and have a friend pass so suddenly. I knew my decision to call it a weekend after one run was the right one.

What did I learn? A few things I will pass on : 1. Live Free or Die - New Hampshire's motto. They don't require seat belts, motorcycle helmets and and they don't allow frivolous law suits. You get yourself killed up here... that's your problem. Don't expect that all will be safe because your "government is here to protect you." This is not SCCA. Workers were 300 yards apart in some areas and we carried 2 fire extinguishers because "you might have to put yourself out." 2. Soft suspension... it's a must. You have no chance of being competitive without it. Ride height is smart too because if you bottom out, you will get tossed around a lot. Cars don't steer well while in air. 3. MOST important thing - know the course. Nothing rewards experience like a hillclimb. Go up and drive it many many times... My 3rd trip to the top EVER was was at speed and my fastest run for time. No map, no video can convey elevation and views for landmarks. It is too much to memorize even in person in 3D. Sprongl , a past overall record holder in a monster Audi, lives nearby and drives it many times WEEKLY according to one of the event staff. 4. Wonderful people, great volunteers, awesome band and social Saturday night. The people up there were great hosts and we made many new friends. It is beautiful country up there... and the people make it even better.

So... will I run it again? Not in a Westfield Megabusa. Running this was hill was a dream, something I never thought I'd do. I got to run one of the greatest hillclimbs in the US... filled with history and an event that began in 1904. It won't be held again for 4 years... I will remember that feeling of flying up that hill for the rest of my life. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement from SCCA CCR Members and our Dragon Hillclimbers. Special thanks to George Bowland, John Finger, Steve Eckerich, Ray and Sheila... Steve Hampton of Chap Racing, Mike at Fairview Cycles of Fountain Inn, SC, Tire Kingdom and of course, Dagmar and TJ. I really was glad to be back home to see them again. Life is short... enjoy it to the MAX... but appreciate it while you do.

SWCCCR meeting July 10th, I'll be showing pictures and videos and a little more info on the climb. Thanks for reading along.
Ted

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[tedebayer]

here's the VIDEO. NOT a how to video... just a view from the cockpit.

Thanks

[yellow CR]

I've hiked and camped up there before, and been on that road. Glad to hear you and the Busa made it back in one piece from your weekend of craziness. Nice job!