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Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 3:35 pm
by Gazornan
First - I'm Brad Gates, a long-time autocrosser, roadracer and hillclimber, but I have never been to an ETR event. I live in WNC, and have run with CCR and with Highlands SCC.

I was recently contacted by a non-profit tourism group, with a focus on the areas struggling from the decline of the coal industry. We have been working together on a couple of projects.

Long story short, we have a spot perfectly suited to hosting a hillclimb. I plan to pitch this to SEDIV, but it is within the ETR. A discussion with Marcus led me here.

The venue is 65 miles from Knoxville, near Cumberland Gap. It will support a 1.8 - 2.4 mile hillclimb on a 2 lane road, with very good pavement. It is within 1 mile of a smaller town, and 10 miles of substantial lodging. The venue will support spectators, and is appropriate for even the fastest race cars. The Tourism Board is behind the proposed event, and highly motivated to provide infrastructure (emergency vehicles, spectator transport, site security) as well as live music. Hopefully, SCCA will be willing to be the sanctioning body. That mostly leaves workers and participants. I think we can draw plenty of participants, but we would love to have as many ETR members compete as possible. This is considered a "novice" event, and can be run on a free novice license. Typically, workers are treated well, and get to see the action from the best locations. I wanted to see if you all were interested in being a part of this before going too far down the path of involving SEDIV. I'll let you discuss it, and I hope I can provide answers to any questions you have. Preliminary discussion leans toward holding the event sometime in the first few weekends of October.

Thanks!
Brad

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:03 pm
by jcox07
We have a club meeting tonight at Sam and Andy's in Farragut at 7pm and will discuss this there, if you are able to attend the meeting please do so, if not we will get back to you with any questions or issues on the event. Thanks JY

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:26 pm
by flier129
Brad lives in Western NC so he can't make the meeting tonight :P

Brad is good people, he's a stand up guy!

I'd do my best to participate in this event as well :)

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 5:01 pm
by steverife
Is it the run up to the Pinnacle?

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:22 pm
by MARKP
Sounds like a great opportunity! It's rare that we have someone contacting us to come run an event at their site instead of begging for a site.

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:13 pm
by Teufelshund
What are the safety requirements for the cars? Cage/roll bar, harnesses, etc.

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:31 pm
by TedV
the SCCA Time trial safety main page https://timetrials.scca.com/pages/safety

or for teh whole thing https://timetrials.scca.com/pages/full-safety-rules

might depend on what the hill is classed as to what safety level of prep is needed

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:56 pm
by Teufelshund
Thanks Ted

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:32 am
by ConeEater
You get a good hillclimb event going on and I bet some from PA hillclimb assoc. will be interested in making it. I know a bunch of those crazy SOBs.

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:30 am
by flier129
Did you guys figure out any questions from the meeting to relay to Brad?

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 8:34 am
by TedV
Does anyone answer their messages ?

:: edit :: and now, messages replied to :rockon:

Re: Potential Hillclimb in ETR

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:04 pm
by Gazornan
Sorry for the delayed response. I just did respond to the private message.

There is currently a separate rule set for hillclimbs, since SCCA National was never really sure where to put the sport. It closely follows Time Trials. I'm not sure if I can upload those rules to this site, or not? For the time being, you can see them on either the Chasing the Dragon Hillclimbers Facebook group, under FILES; or the Touge to Hillclimb Facebook group under FILES.

The Chasing the Dragon Hillclimbers group is a general discussion group, with lots of information. The Touge to Hillclimb group was created to get people to and through their first hillclimb, without weeding through a bunch of other discussion.

The intended location is Pine Mountain State Park, beginning at the Laurel Cove Amphitheater, and terminating just below Chained Rock Road. The Dragon Hillclimb is considered a novice event, and would be the ideal place to get your foot in the door. Due to the lack of guardrails, the hillclimb might night be considered a Novice event by the SCCA.

I started in motorsport in Autocross many years ago, and ran my first hillclimb when my local club was host to the event (2020 is the 35th year of that event). I went on to road racing, and continued to autocross, but nothing else ever matched hillclimb, for me. I was once talking to Formula Atlantic National Champion, and he agreed that he felt more excitement, and got more joy out of a hillclimb than he did road racing. It's all the focus of trying to make a perfect autocross run, but longer, faster, and in a "natural" environment.

I hope we can make this go! I feel like it has the potential to be the premier hillclimb of the eastern half of the country.

Brad