End
The
Road
Chimney Rock Park will
hold its 50th and final
I Idle limb race later this
month, and plenty of
people are going to
miss it.
for 362 days a year. Chimney Rock
Park flourishes as a beautiful
nature preserve alive with birds,
(lowers and wildlife — a perfect place
(or a quiet Sunday afternoon drive. The
other three days, snarling, fire-breath-
ing monsters take over, and the park
becomes home of the Chimney Rock
llillcliinh, a grueling event pitting
courageous sports car drivers and thcii
machines against the winding. 2.7-mile
mountain road.
On April 28 through 30. members of
the Sports Ca r Club of America will till
Hickory Nut Gorge for the 50th and
final time with the sights, sounds and
smells of sports car racing. More than
just a contest of speed up the mountain,
the race has become a rite of spring for
drivers, crews and spectators In the pit
area where Triumphs and MG* keep
company with Toyotas and Ma/das.
friends gather to swap tales of thcii rac¬
ing adventures and to bask in the
ambiance that is the Chimney Rock I fill
climb. Up around turn five’s wicked left-
right turn combination, fans spread
their picnics under trees and cheer for
their favorite drivers.
For the drivers, it's a race of speed and
concentration on a tight course (till o(
turns. If you don’t stav straight, it’s said
that there’s nowhere to go but “ovet the
side or into the rocks." They've been
lighting that battle here since April
1950. There have been several years
when both spring and fall Hilh limbs
were held, which explains why the year
Iv math doesn't add up.
The scene hasn’t changed much since
the first Hillclimb. Sure, the cars have
changed drastically” you probably won't
see a Jaguar or a Siata double-clutching
its way to the top. .And the people have
changed. This year's expected 120
entries far outnumber the -10 or mi who
struggled uphill back then. But the feel¬
ing of a fun, family event remains.
Drivers willingly share spare parts to
help a competitor and lunchtime looks
and feels like an old-time politick sup¬
per at church.
This year’s Hillclimb will be even
more special. For the first time, nearly
all of the 16 men who have earned the
title "King of the Hill" for being a win¬
ner of the race arc returning to the park
(or a reunion. .Among the honorces is
Phil Sty les, of Burnsville, who piloted his
home-built, fiberglass Glasspar Special
all the way from the entrance gate to the
upper parking lot in the spring of 1956
to take the first checkered (lag in the
race's history.
The concern you have as a di iver (in
the Hillclimb) is going off that moun¬
tain." says Styles, now 65 and retired.
“When I was racing, you could go 100
mph at Chimney Rock. You’d be squir-
relly all the time, hardly ever straight.
There are a lot of turns, and you’re look¬
ing at the banks most of the time instead
of looking straight ahead."
Styles remembers the race being
much more difficult in the old days
when drivers raced all the way from the
bottom to the top. Today, the race is
half that long but still dangerous. Styles
continues to have vivid tucmoi ies of his
only crash in his many year s o( compet¬
ing on the course.
“My steering broke down, and I didn't
have anything to do but put on the
brakes and pray," he recalls of a wreck
in 1960. “I hit a tree and wiped out com¬
pletely. Luckily, 1 only had a broken
nose and a cut or two on my face."
Asked if he’d consider strapping on
the helmet and getting behind the
wheel again for the final Hillclimb.
Styles says. “I think old Richard Petty
could tell you that's a young man's
sport."
The celebration of the 50th I lillclimb
took on an added special meaning last
November when park officials
announced that it would also Ik* the last
Chimney Rock Hillclimb. The park has
plans to make some major additions and
renovations in the next year, and those
planned changes in landscape will make
it logisticallv impossible to host the race
anymore. As a result, park officials
thought the 50th annivcrsaiyof the I lill¬
climb woidd be a good sentimental
place in time to say goodbye to the
event.
"It was a very difficult decision for us
to make," says Mary Jaeger '-Gale, mar¬
keting director for Chimney Rock Park.
"It has definitely become a part of our
tradition. The Hillclimb has always
kicked off the tourist season for us. What
has happened is that the park has grown
so much in the number of tourists we
draw each year, and most of them come
The Statc/Apnl 1995
22
