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Chuck Christ Weathers the 2003 Hershey Vintage Hillclimb

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- Charles Christ
- Steve Church
- Stefan Vapaa
- Mary Anne Fieux
- Randy Cook
- Ed Diehl
- George Vapaa
- Jon Ewing
- William Harding
- Chris Moberg

VSRG Saabs

- 1960 93F
- 1973 97 Sonett III
- 1968 97 Sonett V4
- 1964 Quantum Formula SAAB
- 1967 Brand'X' Sports Racer
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- Tom Cox
- Chip Lamb
- Sune Nilsson
- Laura Briggs
- Don Wollum

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Last Updated: Mar 26, 2006

5/15/2003

Chuck remembers, and won't soon forget, the 2003 Hershey Vintage Hillclimb event, with these comments:

The Hershey Vintage Hillclimb was great fun!

Friday’s arrival got us a first and third place in the tech line. Rains were threatening and we wanted to get the 93 and Brand X through, on the trailers, and down in the paddock area as soon as possible! We got down in the paddock, got unloaded and unhooked our trailers just as it began to rain! We should have known this was going to be a serious storm as we saw animals pairing up looking for an ark! Heavy rains through the night turned the paddock into a nasty place to be if you chose low ground. We got high ground being first into the paddock Friday night, and boy were we glad!

Saturday we witnessed nothing less than 2 Hummers, a Jeep CJ, and a beautiful diesel ‘rollback’ sink up to their axles hopelessly! The only effective vehicle that pulled all of these out of the mud was a WW2 vintage deuce-and-a-half AWD truck! It was an all day activity sitting in the van watching the towing festivities! We opted to not take advantage of the two or three runs offered in Saturday’s rain. So, we sat out for the day as the course is incredibly narrow and extremely tight up at the top.

Sunday’s sunrise brought blue skies and dry course conditions. We launched our assault on the hill! Joe Foering drove my 93F, and I was piloting my H-mod sports racer (Brand X). Two touring runs followed by four timed runs through the day went right up to just after 4pm.

A timer malfunction on my second run resulted in no time for me. This might be a good thing -- The sports racer gets a bit loose in the tail in the corners. I was told you can not hang the tail of a mid-engine car out or it will spin. Well, somehow I was able to do it, resulting in some very special attitudes coming out of the corners. On my second run it got me two wheels off into the dirt and narrowly missing a tree by about 6 inches away from my elbow!

Joe, on the other hand, had two deer run across in front of him just off the throttle after crossing the finish line. So, we both had some anxious moments!

This was the second running of this event since it's close in the early 70's. It’s only open to pre-1972 vehicles, and just over 70 contestants tried their hand at this very challenging course. We had a great time! Personally, I’m planning on attending the event next year.

By the way, this event was my father's last competition event before retiring in 1968. He drove the sports racer at this event. It was quite an honor to be driving my father's car at Hershey 35 years later!

Chuck

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