Hillclimbing
It is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, since the first known hillclimb at La Turbie near Nice, France, took place as long ago as 31 January 1897.
[1] Hillclimbs in continental Europe are usually held on courses which are several kilometres long, taking advantage of the available hills and mountains including the Alps.
Notable champions from this period include Pierre Maublanc (1967 and 1968), Daniel Rouveyran (1969), Hervé Bayard (1970) and Jimmy Mieusset (1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974).
Germany has a long hillclimbing tradition, with some manufacturers of cars or motorcycles entering factory teams until ″Bergrennen″ became amateur events in the 1970s.
Thus, the probably most famous event, the Freiburg-Schauinsland race in the Black Forest, is not a competition anymore like almost 100 years ago, when the fourth International Schauinsland hillclimb at Freiburg was held on August 5, 1928: "A car made the fastest time of the day, Heusser's Bugatti putting up 74.009 km/h, the fastest motorcycle being Stegmann's DKW at 69.6 km/h."
[2] In the 1930s, during the era of the famous "Silver Arrows" from Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, Hans Stuck (1900–1978) dominated European hillclimbing, which earned him the nickname "Bergkönig" or "King of the Mountains".
The high-powered supercharged Grand Prix cars were often modified to use twin rear tyres, like trucks, to provide better traction.
In the 2023 calendar, Schottenring, Wolsfeld, Iberg near Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Homburg, Saarland, Hauenstein near Hausen, Rhön-Grabfeld, Eichenbühl, Mickhausen are the events in Germany.
Hillclimbing in Italy became famous in the 1970s, early 1980s, between 1994 and 2000 and at the end of the 2000s, especially in the last two periods thanks to TV services, magazines and live Internet commentaries.
Falperra International Hill Climb is the most popular and famous hillclimb, being held since 1927, most of the editions as part of the European Championship.
A record of the Feleac was set by famous German racer Hans Stuck in 1938, driving a 600 bhp (450 kW) Auto Union Grand Prix car.
[citation needed] In recent decades, the course was widened in order to be suitable for intense traffic and therefore is considered inappropriate for auto racing.
On July 27, 1969, a very talented Mexican driver, Moisés Solana, died in the "Hill Climb Valle de Bravo-Bosencheve".
Hillclimbing in Australia dates back to the early 1900s, and was most prevalent in the city of Melbourne, at locations such as Templestowe, Heidelberg and Rob Roy.
The course at Rob Roy hosts race meets regularly, including rounds of the Victorian Hillclimb Championships.
Current champion is 2 time winner and only female competitor to take the title in the history of the climb, Stacey Heaney on a 1971 Yamaha XS650.
The driver with the greatest number of "Race to the Sky" outright wins (8) is Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, driving his custom built Suzuki Escudo hillclimb special vehicle.
The King of the Hill Challenge (limited to 84 entries), for standard production and unrestricted cars in various classes, takes place over the weekend.
The event held in Kiambu County in October 20, 2013 brought together over 15 high performance cars to compete in a timed race on the 18-kilometre (11 mi) Kiambu-Ndumberi road.
