By Collin Fat

The Virginia City Hillclimb is an annual time trial race on Nevada’s historic Highway 341, where street-legal sports cars race a 5.2-mile course with 21 turns and 1,200 feet of elevation gain, aiming to beat their own best time up the mountain from 5,000 to 6,200 feet. A hillclimb is a variant between a road course race, time trial and autocross all wrapped into one thrilling high-speed challenge. Like a time trial or autocross there is no wheel-to-wheel racing like on a road course or track. Cars are let onto the course one at a time with plenty of spacing between cars to avoid an accident and create a safer driving experience. The course on Hwy 341 featured many small challenging switch backs while providing several straights where speeds could easily reach 150 mph. dep Hwy 341 is a highway used mostly for trucking, and which is closed off to the public during the 2 days of the race.

Cars must be street legal to compete, and no slick racing tires are allowed in the competition. Each driver is timed and received 5 runs on Sunday when the race times counted. Most drivers arrived on Friday for the weekend event for tech inspection and a driver’s meeting. All were free to dine at any of the many local restaurants in and around the historic mining town of Virginia City. Saturday was a practice day that started early in the morning. There were 120 cars registered for the race and practice was divided into two groups, novices, and low intermediates and the advanced and veteran hillclimb racers. The race was sponsored by the Ferrari Club of America, Southwest region. All make and models of high-performance cars are allowed to compete. Outside of a small contingent of a dozen Ferraris, Porches were well represented with close to 20 cars while the rest of the field featured American muscle cars and Japanese pocket rockets. Whether you were driving a several hundred-thousand-dollar Ferrari or a 1990 Subaru WRX, the camaraderie was infectious. Leave your egos at home seemed to be the ethic.

I have had an interest in competing in a hillclimb for many years and have searched many times for events on the west coast. I think that other than the Pikes Peak race, there are only a handful of events still being run. The Virginia City Hillclimb has been running for over 50 years.

This was my first hillclimb and my first hillclimb race in my 2017 Ferrari 488 Spider. The car performed impeccably and without issue. After talking to a few of my Ferrari and Porsche friends who have run the race, I was advised to take it easy and run no more than 60%. The course has many miles of roadway with no barriers to prevent cars from going off the hillside and down a steep cliff! Not something I felt remotely comfortable with. I must say that I was quite apprehensive during Saturday’s practice runs. The race organizer provided all novices with an in-car instructor that was invaluable to my practice session and trying to learn the course. I was advised on braking points, exit strategy, and where I could let the car run full steam safely. After my 5 practice runs I felt somewhat ready for my timed runs on Sunday.

I arrived for my first hillclimb on Sunday morning. I had previously checked all my fluid levels and tire temperatures before I left Sacramento on Friday morning, but it never hurts to perform that again before my first run. Because of the physical restraints of the highway entrance my group of 60 cars was divided into two grids of 30 cars each. Approaching the starter and starting line, I made sure to check the setting on my car’s drive mode and off for my first timed run. I took it easy the first few turns and made sure my cold tires had time to get some heat before pushing it harder. Turns seemed to come quickly as I began to recognize each turn from my practice runs. I improved after each run on my way trying to break the 4-minute mark. My best time of the day did not beat 4 minutes, but I sure enjoyed trying. My biggest takeaway was to drive smoothly and within your limits.

The awards banquet followed the completion of the race and there was a lot of conversation going on as to who had the best times, how the fastest driver’s setup their cars, and discussion on which were the toughest turns to gauge. I met a lot of great car enthusiasts and hope to have a chance to compete in 2026. Quite possibly in my 2016 GT3RS?