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Mike Kamm
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
Bruce,
Welcome to our forum and thanks for the post. That's the first I've heard about cars blowing engines and hitting the trees. Can you share any stories there?
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3/18/2007, 12:30 pm
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Bruce T
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
I remember the 1st year my dad dragged me up there, we sat on some rocks in front of a newly built "A" frame house, right where Mongola Rd (Hill Climb Rd.) begins. At that time the starting line was about a half mile down Meenagha. In other words they started on Meenagha, barreled up the mountain and then made an almost impossible hairpin left on Mongola. Mongola is .6 miles long, contains three hairpins and had a flying finish across from the swimming pool (now completely filled with garbage).
At some point the Meenagha section was done away with, moving the starting line to the very bottom of Mongola. Anyway, there we sat on the rocks, watching what I now know were Porsche 356’s flying up the hill, I was amazed at how close they would come to the trees without hitting anything. My dad said, “Watch for Ray Black, He’s driving a corvette and he’s nuts”. He went by us with tires smoking around the hard left on Mongola but didn’t hit anything—yet.
Later we moved to the inside top of turn 2 on Mongola. You could see up the long straight to turn 3. Ray Black came around turn 2 sideways, tires screaming, it might of been “best time of the day” had he not kept his foot at full throttle, overcorrecting out of turn 2, weaving back and forth into the straight with more overcorrecting, followed by sideswiping a tree. It was really cool, my first racecar accident and all. I remember we walked up to the wreck so I could pick up a chunk of fiberglass as a souvenir!
I also remember a car blowing it’s engine at the start, with hot metal flying on the pavement. Looking back, I think it was an Allard.
The Ellenville Hill Climb was a two-day event but we only went on one of the two days. The other day I could actually hear the racecars take off from the start from my house, down in the village of Ellenville. I knew I wanted to do Hill Climbs some day and recently started to do just that. I raced in the Hershey Vintage Hill Climb in 2004 and 2006 and will do it again this May.
Bruce Turk
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3/18/2007, 3:44 pm
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Mike Kamm
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
Bruce Turk, RiK Rydant, and myself are preparing for a little tour of the original Ellenville Hill Climb course and surrounding areas. Bruce knows the area like the back of his hand and informs me that there are some great touring backroads in those parts. No date has been set yet, but we are planning a luncheon and spirited scenic drive with our historic cars. Nothing too formal, just a fun outing with club members and like minded enthusiasts. If you would like to join us let me know. Im thinking early June at this point, but I'll keep this board posted with info as the plan unfolds. So far we've got a Datsun, a Saab, and a Capri II. Has anyone else got a historic car in the barn that needs to stretch it's legs?
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4/20/2007, 10:33 pm
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Dave 48A
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
I would probably go if it was later in JUne. driving a Citroen. Sounds like fun and food too!
Dave
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4/21/2007, 9:25 am
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Mike Kamm
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
quote:
Bruce T wrote:My dad said, “Watch for Ray Black, He’s driving a corvette and he’s nuts”. He went by us with tires smoking around the hard left on Mongola but didn’t hit anything—yet.
Later we moved to the inside top of turn 2 on Mongola. You could see up the long straight to turn 3. Ray Black came around turn 2 sideways, tires screaming, it might of been “best time of the day” had he not kept his foot at full throttle, overcorrecting out of turn 2, weaving back and forth into the straight with more overcorrecting, followed by sideswiping a tree. It was really cool, my first racecar accident and all. I remember we walked up to the wreck so I could pick up a chunk of fiberglass as a souvenir!
Bruce Turk
Bruce,
What great story. Get this, I am reading Joel Rosen's column in the March 2007 issue of "Hemmings Muscle Car" magazine. He talks about belonging to the South Shore Sports Car Club and running a Corvette in the Ellenville Hill Climb.
Here are a few paragraphs from that column:
My automotive career goes back to the late 1950's and early 60's. The first Corvette I ever owned was a 1958 model I got in 1961. The car was Inca Silver with a white cove. It had all of the heavy duty stuff on it like the brakes and suspension. I painted it red with a silver cove and when I got married with Judith, we went on our honeymoon in that car.
At the time I belonged to a car club and -this is no lie- it was called the South Shore Sports Car and Beer Drinkers Club, on Long Island, where we lived. We held our meetings at Lou's Bar in Atlantic beach. It was a well-known club and we did plenty of gymkahnas and hill climbs. We used to hold our gymkahnas on huge parking lots on Long Island and Roosevelt Field.
The weekend we got married, up near Ellenville, New york, we were staying at the Nevele Grand Resort and Country Club and my club was sponsoring a hill climb from the bottom of the hill to a Chinese restaurant at the top. When I was young in those days, I drove with my foot and not my head. I was flying up that hill and lost control of our '58 fuelie Corvette and hit a tree going about 110 mph. The tree won. In those days we didn't have roll cages, just a seat belt. Luckily, I was wearing that seat belt and it saved my life. The car did a triple roll and somehow landed on the tires. I got a lift back to the bottom of the hill and told Judith that I totaled our car. We needed a ride home because it was our only car. The whole family got on my case about having a Corvette as an everyday car.....
I was thinking maybe this was the wreck you saw that day way back when, but the names are different and perhaps wrecking Corvettes must have been somewhat common on the hill.
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5/25/2007, 9:00 pm
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Dave 48A
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
Hi, Looks like the drive is scheduled for June 9th I can't make it unless it's later in June any chance of moving the date to the 23rd or 30th? Sundays work for me too.
Dave
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5/27/2007, 10:48 am
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Mike Kamm
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Ellenville Hill Climb Revisit and Vintage car Tour June 9th, 2007
Yes our Vintage car tour will be on Saturday, June 9th. We will meet at RiK Rydant's historic Marbletown Farm on route 209 at 10:00 am. There will be a photoshoot there of all participants and their cars. RiK will give us a tour of his modest vintage car collection and 17th century farm.
I'd like to thank Bruce Turk who laid out and test drove the 65 mile historic car tour route for us this week. It starts out from RiK's Marbletown Farm, then over the Mohonk Mountain, then through Minnewaska and onto wonderful twisty backroads running parallel to 209 to Ellenville, followed by some "spirited" driving over the original Ellenville hill climb run. We will pause up at the top of the mountain for some reminiscing and photos. Then it's back on the road up to Cragsmoor, then down into Walker Valley and back to New Paltz through more twisty roads. We will finish up at the Gilded Otter in New Paltz for lunch. They have a brewery on site and reasonable lunch faire.
Please contact me at 518 674-0520 if interested in going along. There is no charge to go along with us. This is a free event. If you don't have a historic car, we may be able to get you a ride in someone else's. I am very happy to announce that former Ellenville Hill Climb participant, **** Vedder will be riding along with me in the Datsun.
You didn't think **** Vedder would miss an A.M.E.C. related event did you?
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5/27/2007, 11:26 am
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Mike Kamm
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
quote:
Dave 48A wrote:
Hi, Looks like the drive is scheduled for June 9th I can't make it unless it's later in June any chance of moving the date to the 23rd or 30th? Sundays work for me too.
Dave
I'm Sorry Dave,
Bruce and I worked out this date a few weeks ago as our weekends are pretty filled up too. Plus I'm going away in late June.
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5/28/2007, 8:58 am
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NYracefan
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
Heck, you guys will be right in my backyard just about!! I live like 15 minutes from the "Gilded Otter" in New Paltz, and most of the nature pictures you see from me are taken in the Minnewaska and Mohonk parks.
---
Jeff Nicol
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5/28/2007, 10:23 am
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Dave 48A
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Re: Historical - Ellenville Hill Climb
No problem Mike we can't make all the events. I will try and go to the next one if one happens.
Thanks,
Dave
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5/28/2007, 11:44 am
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