A test for young people

Jan 28, 2010 66 Replies

No, I don't. I've talked to two guys over the past two days who are about my age and who drove in the event. They both say it was actually in Empire, but one says it was called the Traverse City Hillclimb for a few years because it was a Traverse City club that sponsored the event.

Anyway, as one described it, it came back to me. The top of the hill ended at a military radar station. He described the road as the "old south hill road". He's a commercial photographer and says he has some photos of the event that he shot in '74.

It's vague in my mind because I followed someone else there, and probably because I was exhausted from having spent the previous day and night trying to get the carburetor jetting right for my new Racer Brown 3/4 cam. (I never got it right until a couple of weeks later. It was very frustrating.)

From what they told me, it continued into the '80s, at which point the cars got too fast and the road got too torn up. One guy in a Formula Atlantic spun and hit a tree going backwards, and almost died. That was the last race.

I can hardly imagine driving an FA on a public road. It's got to be ridiculously dangerous.

Mount Holiday was down for a couple years after the owner was killed running a tractor on the slope. A local group took it over as a non-profit and is doing great with it again. We (in the neighborhood) all contribute and it is great to see the kids walk by with their snowboards and skis in the evening.

Congrats on finishing the IceMan. It finishes at Timber Ridge (formerly Jellystone Park) now and last year was the largest in the nation with 4400 entries (someone said there was a glitch the included an extra 1500). I signed up two years ago, but sudden heart problems kept me from competing. Improved intelligence keeps me from doing so now.

I live 6 houses above the ski hill now.

Do you know the magic number?

It's all urban numbers. The basic CPI-U covers 87% of the US population. Non-metropolitan, non-farm numbers track the CPI pretty well; there is no significant, cumulative separation between those costs and urban costs.

In other words, the prices may be different, but the relationship between them is pretty stable. So an index number that measures trends, such as CPI, reflects the whole pattern across the country, over time. It may lag or lead one region or another by a quarter or so but prices don't spread apart or close up in the longer run.

If you noticed my other post, the old timers say it was Empire. But there's still something I'm not sure about: Why was it called the Traverse City Hillclimb? I'm sure it was. One guy said it was because a Traverse City club sponsored it in the early years. And he described the course, which sounds vaguely familiar -- although still vague. These guys started around 1970; I drove in the '68 event.

I still have a source or two to check out.

WAG, maybe it was Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive? See:

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What business is it of yours that they want to prevent big companies from putting everyone else out of business, then gouging the customers when there is no other choice?

I'm going to have to get back to some of the guys in the club in Traverse City and probe a little deeper. Some of them are older than me.

But I've driven on Pierce Stocking Drive, not many years ago, when we were vacationing in Charlevoix. My son was about 5 years old and he wanted to tumble down the dune. I wouldn't let him.

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