Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

Hillclimb at Virginia City

by Lisa Devlin

This was the 25th anniversary of the Hillclimb and it started out in fine style. The weather was even cooperative for the drive to the hill on Friday. The drive up was a bit slower and more uneventful than last year. (Read - we didn't all get pulled over by one very angry Highway Patrol officer and all get threatened with jail.) Friday evening once again ended with the barbecue in the parking lot and a walk downtown.

Saturday dawned bright and early and I went down to get teched and to help out with tech. By the time I got to registration all the good turns to work were taken, so we got stuck at Turn 17... From now on, I pre-tech! After tech, we all met at the end of town for the parade of participants. Once again, it was an absolutely incredible experience to watch all types of Ferrari's and Ford's lined up as tourists and locals crowded the side streets to watch us go by. Right before the parade we noticed gear oil all over the back skirt of the Mustang. It didn't seem like too much and the car was driving OK, so we figured we'd clean it off, run it and then check it out at the end of the day.

Saturday is practice only, and this year I was hoping to get four or five good runs in since they had repaved the road. This was just not destined to happen. My first run started off OK, but I caught up to the car ahead of me by Turn 7 (of 20). My second time up, I was adamant about them giving me more time between cars. They tried to send me off less than a minute behind the same car I had caught, so I stalled (not the engine). I didn't tighten my belts, or even put my gloves on until they had given me the green flag to go. It worked... Well, sort of...

Accelerate off the line into 1, middle of the road for 2 see the 2A and floor it, downshift and slow to about 75 as you see the 25 mph road sign, slide into and out of 4, feathering the throttle, put the right foot down through 5, at the road sign brake slightly and turn left into 6 uphill to 7 lift, turn right, floor it, shift to fourth for the long straight - check the gauges, everybody's happy - lift a bit to set the front to turn into the 25 mph turn doing 90... going into 10 brake and downshift to third... damn! I was trying to downshift to third and ended up in fifth. Rookie move!!!! Oh well, it was only practice. I figured I'd get a few more clean runs. No such luck. I caught the car in front of me on my next run and then was pulled off to work the course.

After the course closed, we decided to put the car up and check out the oil leak. Unfortunately, no one had jack stands. Did this stop us? Heck no! We backed the car up to a curb and crawled under. We found a slightly loose bolt on the diff housing, which we tightened up. All better, so we headed off to the banquet. Saturday night was the first banquet of the weekend. It was fun this year even though we didn't dance on the bars. (Guess you had to be there, huh Saroja?)

Sunday morning was another beautiful day. Perfect for driving. I made my first three runs with passengers to get everything warmed up. On my second run, my passenger had a radar gun to take my top speed. My average speed up the hill is about 75. I've been saying for years that I don't go much over 95, if I go over 95 at all, but no one believes me. Until now. I was clocked at a top speed of 92.3. I don't go very fast, I just don't slow down!

My next runs were for time. No passengers. The first run by myself, I accidentally found a new line through 2-2A. It felt uncomfortable at first, but I realized I was getting full throttle about 30 feet earlier than with the old line, so I worked with it. The first two runs felt pretty good working with this new line. The third run was one of those that just felt great. I was shifting perfectly, braking later, full throttle longer, the tires were happy... I was just in a groove. Then I caught up with him. Oh well, back down to the bottom of the hill, concentrate, stay in that "place," just go do it again. And I did. I managed to stay in the groove and did another run where everything worked. This run turned out to be my fast time of the day.

At the banquet that night, I found out I had turned a 3:54.26. While this is a full 3 seconds slower than my best time, the repaving of the road wreaked havoc on everyone's times. I ended up first in the ladies class and 12th overall (out of about 90). Not bad for a normally aspirated 123K mile engine with no modifications except for a K&N filter and Flowmasters.

To send a letter to Lisa, email to devlin@thunval.com

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