KNOX MOUNTAIN 2022

[bertvorgon]

Morning World!

Sorry to take so long, a family tragedy blindsided us a week ago, make sure you give your loved ones a big hug!

I have not yet heard what happened to the monster RX7, I will be at Specialty today so may find out.

KNOX MOUNTAIN 2022

The wall of jet black cloud came looming at us at 130 kph. The temperature gauge on the Honda dropped steadily from 8 C to 4, then 2. I said to Matt; “This is not going to be good!”

We left the house at 5:15, figuring any earlier would have had us waiting to get in, as the spectator gate did not open till 9.

Traffic was steady but not heavy hitting Hope, where we encountered our first look at the total devastation from the storm in November. The highway had been wiped out on one side, meaning we had to slow and proceed on a single two lane stretch. Every debris channel had major flows of logs and trees, now piled all along the creek channels. The power of what that water flow must have been like would have been something to see.

So much snow still in the mountains, all the way up the huge climb to the summit of the Coquihalla. We went through various rain showers.

As we passed the Briton Creek forest fire area from last year, we hit the first small snow storm, heavy but not sticking to the road. We went through that for about 10 miles.

Dropping down to Merritt had the clouds a bit brighter, but, as we climbed out of Merritt it did not look good heading to the Connector.
As we went past the Aspen Grove turn, where many of our spirited drives began, we headed up into his pending wall of blackness, starting with very heavy rain, which at 120 KMH did not take long to turn to snow as we headed higher. The car temp showed 1 C and I knew we were into a bad snow storm.

Yup, 5 minutes later it was full on blizzard, winding the speed back on the Honda, the left lane now impassable with 4” of heavy snow and slush. With the Pennask Summit ( 5,670 feet/1,728 M) still over 10 miles away, I knew this was going to slow us down till over the pass.

Sure enough, we came upon the lineup of traffic behind 2 snow plows, 8 vehicles ahead of us. The snow was blinding at some points. One guy passed me and then saw the error of his ways and pulled in front of me, looking all like he was going to lose control in a heartbeat. I was so glad I left the snow tires on the Honda.

After about 5 miles the plows pulled over at the top of a rise, looking like they had a mechanical problem with one of them.
Our line of traffic kept moving and even though the slow lane was tracked out and bare pavement, it still crept along at silly slow speed.

Finally, at a point where the left lane slush/snow was not too bad, the guy in front of me pulled out, as did I, giving him space should he lose it.

As we slowly went by the line up, it was seen what the problem was for our slow pace. The “leader” of the pack was a Honda Odyssey just like mine, with a young driver, Learner plate on the back, eyes like the proverbial fried egg look. That must have been so intimidating for them.

The hills and trees were spectacular in the winter cover, the fresh snow and of course a still very deep base, more than I have ever seen during the May Long weekend.

The snow storm let up as we started to drop altitude after the Summit, the temperature coming back to about 8C. The guy ahead of me plugged it back to 130 so I just stayed behind a ways and let him clear any radar.

We arrived in Kelowna about 9:30, very cloudy and quite cold. I fueled up the van so we could just book it out of town after Knox.

A few thoughts on the drive up: The scale of destruction of the highway is staggering, those major bridges wiped out. The scale of that pipeline project just blows me away, the amount of equipment along just the section is hard to grasp. They too suffered some damage and I’m sure more geotechnical stuff had to be done where the water washed away so much overburden. And, it will be decades for all the forest fire burn to re-grow as new forests. That area too will be a risk as the dead trees dry out in our changing weather.

Into the public area of the Hillclimb we went, the first runs had already started. We got there just as Cam’s brother came up to the line in his Porsche, then Cam next to run. Love the smell of race gas in the morning!

As it turned out, they were NOT letting anyone into the pits, so my pictures are limited. I must admit I felt kinda shut out after spending 14 years running this thing. Same at the top finish line. We used to be able to have spectators come and talk to the drivers and look at our cars. This year it was all blocked and taped off…WTF!

Matt and I headed up to do our hike and picture taking, the morning still very cool…great for a steep hike. We stopped at Turn 2 for some pics then basically booked it to the finish line, where we could not see the cars, all access being roped off..

I took a few as the cars crossed the line, then we had to cross country it to get to Turn 9, as they had the original trail blocked off, cripes.

I heard a friendly voice behind me at Turn 9, turning to see Peter Hedgecock, a long time 510 guy, come to watch. We talked and watched there for a bit, and then down to Turn 7 for lunch and watching the cars come up at top speed for the Turn 7 testicle tester.

As I have done this, I know where the time..or lack thereof gets lost on this hill. It is intimidating and right away you can parse out those that have fast times are also fast through here, NO lifting. Let’s just say it took me 13 years to dig that deep at 105 MPH.

For a reason to be yet determined, Wouter never showed up in the RX7.

I like watching the cars here the best; you have TIME to see them, both coming up and of course going by. Quite a few cars again running like crap. I never understand the guys that show up with a non functional car. Sure, that racing Gods can bite any of us any time, but…..

The electric Cobra was interesting, so quiet and he did a very good time of 1:54:435

Cam in his Super 7 did a 1:57:556

Bob Boyer’s V-8 510 sounded good in some spots and then seemed to “load up” or misfire at times. The green Dodge was just plain fun to watch (2:14:528), beautiful car too. Bob did a 2:08:604 as his best time.

We left Peter to head to Turn 5, he had parked up behind Turn 8 and did not want to lose elevation.

At Turn 5 we set up in a good photo spot, Matt getting the best shots, pro that he is. I did a quick film of the cars coming down, so I will post that on my Vimeo account. I did the same at the bottom of the hill of the other group coming down, so you can see the field of cars.

FTD for the weekend was 1:39:989

Jon Haftner’s outright record of 1:37:065 is still train lengths away from anything I have see at Knox over the past years and it will take a very good driver and equipment to surpass that in my opinion. THAT IS INSANELY FAST!!!!

As the day was wandering on, we dropped off the back side of Turn 5 and cross-countryed it back to the start line. It was here we found out that we were not allowed into the pits AGAIN!

At that point I just went too bad, screw it, let’s head back. We drove away at 3:30 PM

The climb out of Kelowna was almost sunny and warmed to about 20C, nice. But, as we got back to the Pennask Summit, we ran into a bit more snow and crazy heavy rain. At least I had no one in front of me so basically could go at 100 KMH till the road dried out and back to 130.

The Coke had heavy rain in spots but at least traffic was light and thankfully, the Fraser Valley section had no issues, arriving back home at 7:00 PM.

Even with all traffic and weather issues, my barge of a Honda Odyssey got 30 MPG up and 30 MPG back, go figure.
If I go to watch next year, should Knox go again, I will only go if I know what the deal is to get into the pits, where meeting and greeting old friends is what it is about. There are some shorter drives I can do to just hike for 5 hours!

I must say I’m glad myself and others in the 510 scene ran when we did, it was just more of a social scene, no fear, public access that was NOT unsafe and was part of the whole Knox experience, to engage with fellow motor heads and the public, who loved to see the cars. There were many years we were allowed to bring a passenger down from the top, kids usually. They thought they had died and gone to heaven to ride in a race car. We sanitize too much at times in IMHO!

As we sat in Turn 5, talking and listening to the corner workers next to us, the tally of cars that have bit the bullet in Turn 5 just got longer and longer, some with some serious injuries. The amount of 510’s written off or crashed on this hill is long too, again making me think how lucky I was, as I tried to go faster.

Same with mechanical issues, I had a few things over the years but nothing that cost me a weekend…..but once…..I could not afford new race tires and went up on old slicks, which I turned to instant corded junk on my second run, costing me competitive time as I ran on my street tires. I thought my LSD had packed it in…scary!

Keith Law
May 27, 2022

[bertvorgon]

more.....

[bertvorgon]

More....

[bertvorgon]

More.....

[bertvorgon]

More....

[bertvorgon]

More.....

[bertvorgon]

And last.....

[bertvorgon]

A nice picture of my son, the professional photographer, my partner on many a road trip and adventure!

I was taking a picture of him as he took one of me.

[gooned]

Keith, so sorry to hear about a loved one.


Thanks for the trip report, lots of photos, so glad I didn’t try to take the M up with that snow...woulda been ugly on the Sport plus Michelin’s.

Like so many things we did back when, looking back how good it was, we were so lucky to be involved when we were.

[bertvorgon]

I amended the FTD time ( 1:39:989), I guess I saw some preliminary numbers before final, official times posted.

That put's John's time within reach but still aways away, 2 seconds is a LONG time here.

[icehouse]

Sucks you couldn't go in the pits! I love checking out racecars.

[Byron510]

Cool that you made it up there Keith.
It's been years since I've been at Knox. Let's hope the organizers loosen up on the pit access. I agree with you and Jeff. The machinery is nice to look at, but also the social aspect is the most important piece.

Byron