Racing the Lands End Hill Climb

For many years, I have wanted to get out and take photos at a Colorado Hill Climb Association event. Somehow I just couldn’t manage to fit it into the schedule until this year. This year was a bit different however. After a topsy-turvy Pikes Peak experience, I was ready to get in a car again.  This time I got into the car with Roger Matthews and Wild Hare Racing. We raced in the 2wd Rally class to a second place finish, (yeah, I know, I know, there were only two cars in class), finishing behind Dave and Allison Kern as they christened their BMW Compact with its first race.

Let me tell you something about CHCA and Lands End. This was my first experience with both and wow, they really have their stuff together. Timing, communication, organization and everything, all seemed to work well. The road is a great dirt/gravel road with a lot of challenging corners, exposure and this year, the fall colors were just spectacular. This year, the Lands End Hill Climb was about 8 miles long, the race stopped short of the summit of the road however. They haven’t run the upper portion for a number of years, but rumors were circulating that this could change. Add another 4 miles to the race and you have a race that is equivalent in length to Pikes Peak. Though the road doesn’t go to 14K ft, it is a great road, with very good spectator areas. Not only that but yeah, there were a great number of competitors there too from open-wheel to quads.  It was a great field!

Unfortunately after this year’s Pikes Peak experience, I managed to destroy the remaining GoPros that I had. So I didn’t have anything to set up on the car. Fortunately Roger had a flip camera, the Kerns had their cameras, and several of the other rally guys had cameras on their cars. I grabbed all the video before we left and I finally had a chance to throw it all together. Our favorite Photographer, Joel Yust was on the hill that day too so enjoy some video from the cars and some photos from the outside!

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