The Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 was held June 10-11 on the roads leading to the historic Hotel Hershey in Pennsylvania. Staged in conjunction with The Elegance at Hershey Concours, the two-day Grand Ascent, a revival of the Hershey Hill Climb, featured more than 40 vintage cars racing against the clock.
The Grand Ascent at Hershey is a Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA)-sanctioned hill climb exhibition in the European tradition, where drivers piloted race cars up the historic back road to the Hotel Hershey. Modeled on similar events such as England’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and paying homage to long standing events such as Mount Equinox, the Grand Ascent relived the excitement of race cars storming up hill to test the mettle of the driver and the machine.
The Grand Ascent is a challenging hill climb. The narrow roadway is shaded with a canopy of mature trees that render the course almost tunnel-like. It is a very technical course narrow in width, rising 200 feet in a mere 0.7 of a mile with demanding twists and turns throughout its length.
Notable and interesting entrants in the 2016 running of the Grand Ascent at Hershey included the 1912 Mercedes Grand Prix; 1923 Alfa Romeo RL Targa Florio; 1924 Bentley 3-Litre; 1927 Bugatti Type 37; 1948 Talbot-Lago T26C; 1952 Cunningham C3 Coupe and 1952 Allard J2X; among of host of specials. The agile 1958 Lotus 7 of Graham Long was the quickest entrant at the 4th annual VSCCA event led by David L. George.
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Similar to 2014 and 2015, Sports Car Digest also documented the 2016 Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey, with photographer Michael DiPleco offering the following pictures capturing the historic race cars challenging the hill climb. We split up Michael’s images into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, while the second gallery can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs.
Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Five
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Six
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Seven
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eight
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Nine
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Grand Ascent Hill Climb at Hershey 2016 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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[Source: Elegance at Hershey; photos: Michael DiPleco]
I ran Hershey back in the 60’s. It had a big bump near the end of the fast beginning section. I wonder if it is still there. The photos look like the surface is now much smoother that it used to be,
its is still there very much so !
I believe that you will find that the “03” Corvette that is repeatedly labeled as a 1957 Corvette is, in reality, a 1955 Corvette chassis rebodied as a 1956 and as such, finished the 12 Hours of Sebring race in 1956 and numerous SCCA races in the summer of 1956. It would have been interesting to see the owner’s names.