Central City Hill Climb: 8 Miles of Open Road Heaven [Gallery]
Colorado is known for hill climbs, and one of its newest, hosted by PIT Rally, just celebrated its third year. The Central City Hill Climb course consists of a closed public road that covers 8 miles with 23 turns and 2,500 feet of elevation change. Sure, it’s not quite Pikes Peak, but the Central City Hill Climb provides plenty of bang.
Currently, the event has two classes, competition and touring. The vast majority of participants fall into the touring class, which only requires a helmet, a driver’s license and for your vehicle to pass inspection.
Touring class is set up as lead / follow, with small groups of cars led by coaches from Go 4 It racing school. There is no passing, unless you’re waved past.
This didn’t impact the action, some of the fastest cars were still hitting in the 160 mph range.
Many of the drivers I talked with were drawn to the hill climb because it allowed them to go all out on a public road. One joked that it made it hard to drive on the road the other 364 days of the year! The event has also helped inspire careers; one driver stepped into racing for the first time last year and has since been pushing to race at the next level.
Beyond the hill climb, the event does an amazing job of offering something for everyone. To kick off the day this year they held a 4-lane wide parade with 300-400 cars which anyone can participate in. In addition to the hill climb action, the town of Central City fills with vendors and a car show.
To wrap a great day up with a cherry on top, the day ends with the Touge 2K, where drifters put on a show on a shortened section of the highway.
It takes a special place to host such an event, and from organizers to participants, everyone was grateful for how supportive Central City has been towards this event – the Central City Hill Climb is sure to continue raising the heights for racers for years to come.
