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The first annual Williamsport Hill Climb was held at Vallamont Hill, July 13 1907.
It was held as a feature of the opening of the Williamsport Automobile clubs permanent club house at Vallamont.
The course was 1 1/3 miles in length, with a grade running from 5 to 20%, with five sharp curves. An article in 1908 described it as one mile and a quarter in length, and "it's steepest point is but 14 per cent, but the sharp curves make climbing on it a great feat. One curve is in the shape of a hairpin and is exceedingly dangerous."
The second annual Hill climb at Vallamont was held June 6, 1908.
I could find no record of a Hill Climb in Williamsport in 1909. There was one held in Wilkes Barre that year.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 1908
The best description of the race that I could find was published in the Harrisburg Patriot News:
WILLIAMSPORT HILL CLIMB
Fourteen Events to Be Held on Vallamont Mt. on June 6
Fred. P. Brand, chairman of the Racing and Hill Climbing committee the Williamsport Automobile Club, issued entry blanks for the second annual hill climbing contest of the club on. the Vallamont Mountain Drive.
The course selected for the events is a part of one of the city boulevards. The course will be one mile in length, the grade varying from fourteen per cent at the start to eleven and one-half per. cent at the finish. The contest will begin at 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, June 6, and will be preceded by a parade of the contestants, visiting clubs, local club and automobile owners, headed by the mayor. The entry blank declares: "Visiting autoists will be amply repaid in coming to Williamsport, the Ideal City."
Fourteen events are scheduled for decision, As follows:
1-For owners exclusively;
2-White owners exclusively;
3--Electric, stock models, selling for $2,000 and less;
4-Stock cars selling for $1.251 to $2,000;
5-Buick owners exclusively;
6-stock cars selling for $3,501 and over;
7-Franklin owners exclusively;
8-stock cars selling for $1,250 and under;
9-free for all, entries limited to members of Williamsport Automobile Club;
10-stock cars selling for $2.001 to $2,500;
11- motor cycles less than six horsepower;
12-stock cars selling from $2,501 to $3,500;
13-free for all, stock cars, fully equipped according to catalogue specifications;
14-free for all, stripped and racing cars,
$100 club cup and trophy, must be won by entrant two consecutive years. Silver cups will be offered for each of the events, including a number of trophies that have been donated to the club.
Several articles about the hill climb mention this "hairpin curve". I'm told this is " where Vallamont turns left and Ravine Road goes straight up to the Williamsport Home."
At a practice run for the Hill Climb, held on June 4 1908, Harry Rantz went off the Vallamont Mountain Drive at the hairpin curve. Rantz, and his mechanic who was riding with him, were not reported as injured, but the car was damaged and they did not compete on June 6.
The car Rantz had been driving belonged to F.P. Brand, it was an Imperial, made in Williamsport Pa. The car was hastily repaired, and Harry Stevenson drove it in the climb.
The Imperial is the "only car successfully manufactured in Williamsport" .
See more here: https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-1908-imperial-runabout-manufactured.html
An article in Motor age, Volume 13, 1908, describe the results from the day:
"The hill climb of the Williamsport automobile club over Vallamont hill last Saturday afternoon furnished excitement galore to the drivers and spectators. The famous hairpin turn on this course claimed victim after victim, not alone in the actual competition, but in practice as well. Friday fully half a dozen cars went to the bad while trying to negotiate the tricky bend, while on Saturday as many more went off the course.
Only one serious accident resulted, however. A. A. Jones, winner of the less than $1000 class at Wilkes-Barre, lost control of his sport at the hairpin, and after skidding sadly the car bucked, through Jones out, ran over him and plunged through the rail and down the hill into the woods. Jones sustained several broken ribs, a badly lacerated elbow and possible internal injuries.
C. A. Ward, the Matheson driver who had such hard luck with his tires at the Wilkes Barre climb, and his first trial lowered the course record from 1:59 to 1:40 3/5 on his second attempt slipped attire and went over the bank on the hairpin, but jumped in time to escape serious injury. The Stevens-Duryea Driven by H. J Carton lost two of its wheels at the same place. H. Tucker’s Corbin Also lost a wheel there, But went to finish slowly on three wheel And a hub. An imperial and several other cars also went to bed at the hairpin were compelled to withdraw.
Besides the Matheson record time, the course was negotiated 4 times under the two-minute mark – twice by C. B. Brockway’s Imperial in 1:55 2/5 and 1:57; E.H. Zimmerman;’s model E. Jackson in 1:55, and F.P. Brand’s Imperial in 1:58 3/5.
In the event open only to Maxwell cars a model D was sent to the top in 2:00 flat. Other good times were those of M. Longstreth’s Maxwell, 2:02 1/5; C.B. Kaufman’s Ford, 2:03 3/5; J.H. Link’s Maxwel, 2:01 3/5 and Stevens-Duryea’s 2:02 4/5.
In event #2 for electrics F. G. Peck’s Babcock won in 3:12, harry Noll’s Pope Waverly requiring 5:15 to make the journey to the top of the hill. "
E.L. Sheffer was impressed by the Babcock Electric Car, in the climb, and requested permission to further test it after the event. He drove from Montoursville to Williamsport, making the drive in 7 minutes and 24 seconds, reaching speeds of 34 miles per an hour. "I did not think it possible for an electric carriage to reach such remarkable speed", he wrote.
A 1908 Postcard of Vallamont Drive
A Model E Jackson, driven by J.E. Robbins of Williamsport, won the climb. According to the Patriot-News that June, the Motor Vehicle Company received 4 orders for the car immediately following the Vallamont Climb, "traces all of the sales to the efficiency shown by the car as a hill climber, and for reliability"
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READ MORE
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Read more about Vallamont - a planned suburb of Williamsport that today has been absorbed by the city. It included Vallamont Park, and a monument to first director of the predecessor to the SPCA in Williamsport, Elizabeth Nice.
July 1907
A Model E Roadster set a new record for the Vallamont Mountain Climb, in 1908
[Advertisement in the Harrisburg newspaper]
June 1908
Motor World 1908
Thank you so much for this! This is great
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