Maryhill Hillclimb — Apex Attack

One of my main goals of 2020 was to compete on track. I had already accomplished that with my GTA entry, and did pretty well.

But, there’s a road I’ve spotted from the highway many times on my trips down to Oregon, and that’s Maryhill road. It runs parallel to Highway 97 just north of the Washington/Oregon border, and it’s a gorgeous stretch of dark blacktop that contrasts itself beautifully against the barren grasslands it is laid upon.

The road was actually the first paved road in the state of Washington, built in 1911 as an experimental road by the contractor to prove they could build a real highway. For their efforts they were awarded a much larger job building some major Washingtonian highways.

I always daydreamed of ripping up that road, but once I found out it was privately owned, I thought it would never happen.

A few years later I was driving up Hwy 97 and while looking at the road I saw a full-on racecar ripping up the road. I was flabbergasted. We stopped at the pull out and watch for 10 minutes or so as a few cars ran up the road. It was obvious a hillclimb was occurring. When I got home a quick google search showed me the world of NW Hillclimb Association. They are a small non-profit who run about 6-7 hillclimbs in the PNW area. Mostly in Oregon, Washington, and California, they all looked like a good time, but their crown jewel was Maryhill.

Fast forward 4 years later, and I finally felt I had a car safe enough to attempt this. I kept a close eye on the NWHA’s website and emailed them if the Maryhill event would even happen. They responded it would and gave me a date registration would open. I signed right up the first day.

So, I started studying the course. Luckily our buddy Jared at Sector 1 Design had competed there a couple years ago (and crushed it, might I add), so I had a solid amount of footage to study. https://sectoronedesign.wordpress.com/tag/maryhill/

Jared had a very fast supercharged S2000 at the time (around 450whp), running on brand new Hoosiers, he was able to manage a 2:00 flat. Very impressive. I set my goals to what I thought would be an obtainable 2:08 on my worn A052s.

So, I loaded up on a very wet day in Western Washington. The weather called for 40% chance rain Saturday, and sunny Sunday at Maryhill. I was a little concerned, a wet hillclimb would be sketchy.

The drive over the Cascades wasn’t much better.

Luckily, the Eastern part of Washington is a huge rain shadow from the Cascades mountains. The Western half of Washington receives tons of moisture annually, and the Eastern half is almost desert. The mountains just scrape all the moisture out of storm systems passing by.

4 hours later, I got to the bottom of Maryhill and registered for the weekend and unloaded the car.

There were a few serious builds here. Many cars on Hoosier A7s as well. Maybe I was under-estimating the hill?

I went through tech inspection uneventfully, and attended a “first timer” drivers meeting. Basically they scare the crap out of you riding up the hill in the back of a pickup pointing out where others have gone off the road.

They succeeded. I was intimidated. An off on some parts of this track would certainly destroy your car, and possibly hurt yourself too. They’ve never had anyone get seriously hurt here, but PLENTY of cars have met their last mile. There were skid marks on a couple corners from the year before where a FRS, Miata, and Z car had all gone off. It did not look like a good time.

Also… if you have an off, you cut into everyone else’s runs. They have 45 cars registered to run, so things have to run smoothly for all drivers to get their 4 runs in each day. If you try to set a record your first run up and go off, you’re likely ruining your car, and everyone else’s day. They emphasized “start slow, build your pace” and it stuck with me.

As far as the course… it all looks the same! Many of the corners are blind and look familiar but aren’t when you’re half way through them. There’s 18 corners in total, so this was going to take a few runs to get used to.

I drove down to the nearby state park and dirtbagged it in my truck for the night. The next morning I woke up early knowing I was in the first run group and would be driving first thing. Made myself a big breakfast and got to the pits to check over the car and setup my suspension.

After a drivers meeting where they again emphasized staying on the road, we suited up for our first runs. They split the drivers into two run groups. Run group 1 would run in the morning Saturday, and group 2 in the Afternoon. On Sunday they would reverse it since afternoon runs were typically faster this time of year as the asphalt warmed up. When you weren’t running you had to work the course. They needed spotters on some corners and a starter/wheel chock guy for the launch. They sent a car every 30 seconds or so, so if there was an off or mechanical, everyone needed to know quickly to flag the other drivers on course.

I got ready, put on my HANS, and clicked in for my first run up the hill. I’ve never really launched my car before, so I went with the trusty “rev it to 4000 and drop the clutch.” To my surprise, it worked pretty well! Some wheelspin but it’s fun as hell. The first run was really a sighting run, I had no idea what gears to be in or what braking points to use besides what others had told me. I enjoyed it and coasted across the finish line with a 2:19.

Second run of the day I started picking up the pace and treated it more like a timed run, and shaved down to a 2:14.

Third run, I found a bit more time, down to a 2:13.

Then, I ended the morning with a 2:12. At this point I was driving pretty hard but I knew I was in the wrong gear in a few spots, and my braking could improve. I was sure I could drop a few seconds with more confidence and seat time. But, a 2:08 seemed very difficult, maybe I had underestimated this hill. If I could, I would do 50 laps a day up that hill, it’s so much fun.

I was definitely out of my comfort zone here, and a mistake could cost me my car, so being cautious as I built pace was critical. Small mistakes were made in a few spots that scared me. The road is just two lanes wide, narrower than any track I’ve been on, so even a small braking mistake can cause a wheel to go off, which can pull the rest of the car off a cliff into oblivion.

Yes, the parking lots for the bottom and top of the hill are gravel. Yes, I cringed everytime I had to drive onto them with hot tires and throw rocks all over. But, that’s racing. It was time for lunch break, so I walked around the pits and snapped a few iphone pics of the cooler cars there.

A sweet E30 built for Lucky Dog endurance series. This car was loud and pretty quick on Hoosiers.

A home made go kart with a boxer motor from a Subaru. Had to be soooo light. Unfortunately it did Subaru things on the first run up and sounded like a bad rod knock. She was put on the trailer for the weekend.

I saw this FRS coming out of an enclosed trailer and didn’t think much about it until I heard it creep over for tech inspection. It was obvious it had straight cut gears, so I looked into it a bit more.

Yup, full on racecar. Actually, a rally car. This had it all, turbo kit (370whp), sequential trans, full cage and fire system, and all the chassis lightening. The owner was a really cool guy, he hadn’t driven it in a few years and was just checking the event out. He was given some yoko slicks and tossed them on. He was still running the rally suspension… no sway bars and VERY soft springs. His body roll was awesome.

There were a couple cool Z cars there. This one was owned by a guy named Ron. He had quite a retirement setup. He and his wife resided in Montana and every summer they took long road trips all over the western US in their motorhome and trailered this car to check hillclimbs and tracks. After this hillclimb he was heading to ORP, Sonoma, and Thunderhill. Ron also autocrosses in Montana with our best MR2 friend, Alex Wilhelm. Racing is a small world. These are my retirement goals, Ron!

Ron wasn’t messing around. The Z had a rebuilt race S motor, BBK, and other mods.

Well, here’s a 90k or so STI. 600ish whp, sequential trans, full suspension, and Hoosiers. Full on hillclimber. The woman driving it was also very friendly, and told me I should really come to more of these… I might take her up on that. Jen was the fastest woman up the hill, Queen of the Mountain with a 2:04.

As you can see, big huge slicks were pretty commonplace. Maybe I oughta ask Santa for some A7s?

Anyways, for the afternoon I was put to work while the other run group went. My job was wheel chock guy. At the standing start, I would hold a wheel chock behind the rear tire so the driver could focus on their launch and not roll backwards. It was a fun job watching everyone take off, but I didn’t get to see much of the course. There was a Tesla model 3 rocking some Hoosiers, the launch that thing had was insane. By far the most impressive I saw. Being busy the whole time I couldn’t snap any pics.

The PM run group didn’t have the best luck, a slew of timing issues and a mechanical issue left a lot of oil on the course. In the end they all only got 3 runs before dusk was setting in. It was decided tomorrow morning they would get their 4 runs and we would get 3 in the PM (if things went smoothly).

I treated myself to a gigantic burrito back at the campsite and watched my gopro a bunch to see where I could pick up 4 more seconds. It was going to be tough. I hit the truck bed early and enjoyed a night interrupted by passing trains every 45 minutes.

Regardless, I woke up the next morning excited. The weather was sunny and expected to get warmer, which meant warmer surface temps, faster times. I picked a corner worker station and settled in for about 4 hours of watching cars race by.

No doubt it’s a beautiful road in a gorgeous part of the state. The morning runs went fairly smoothly, but one CRX did have an off and we had a front seat to it. Luckily it was a fairly flat part of the track to have it. He got towed back onto the road and was able to drive the car all the way up. About a 20 minute delay. Everyone got their 4 runs in and we broke for lunch.

All the dirt road driving between runs was showing, my car was real dirty. But that didn’t matter, it was time to race.

My first run up was a refresher, but things still felt good. I knew I had to make them count, we were only getting 3 tries today. The pace felt good, and I crossed the line and saw a 2:12 on the board. Already on pace with yesterday!

I lined up for my second run, and over launched the car a bit, it was fun getting loose, but that costs time! I drove the car fairly hard trying to stay in 2nd longer on some turns, and it was faster! 2:11! I felt like I had driven the car pretty hard at this point, and wasn’t sure there was much left in myself to go faster. The car had more in it, but the driver is what settles things out here… don’t forget, a mistake could cost me!

I lined up for the last run ready to give her hell.

I crossed the finish, and realized I can’t remember the run at all. I was so in focus the whole time. I really felt like I was at 10/10ths. A very ZEN feeling.

Watching the video, the GoPro stabilization really dulls the raw experience of that run. My hands were all over the place, and not seen due to my placement of the mount… my bad. It’s apparently time to upgrade to the MRS steering rack pinion. Winter mods!

When I saw the 2:09 on the board, I was really excited. I’m proud of a 2:09 on some tired street tires, even if they are A052s. I wonder how much time some sticker Hoosiers would cut? Overall the car ran flawlessly all weekend, and I got a chance to really dial in the suspension for a course like this (and took notes of it). I definitely can tell where a real LSD would help, both in braking and corner exit.

Seeing the results. I placed 13/45 entries. I can’t be certain, but I think I was top 3 of entries on street tires, not bad for a first timer!

Overall, this event was awesome, definitely the best way to cap my season. I was way out of my comfort zone and I learned a lot. These hillclimbs are way closer to an autocross than a track day. Maybe I should enter some autocrosses?

The “King of the Hill” was a very good driver in a very well prepped C6 corvette (with a hog ass cam) and Hoosiers (see a trend here?) who ran a stupid fast 1:58.

I think I’ll be back here next year, I really want some more runs at the hill.