The 2020 running of the Mount Washington Hillclimb has been rescheduled to next year as a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Originally scheduled for for July 9-12, the ‘Climb to the Clouds’ has now been pushed back to July 8-11 2021.
The competition, organised by the Sports Car Club of New Hampshire and Subaru of America was to feature 80 cars climbing Mt. Washington Auto Road in Gorham, New Hampshire, plus displays of vintage road and rally cars.
“As much as we’d like to welcome competitors, volunteers, sponsors and spectators to the 2020 Subaru Mt. Washington Hillclimb July 9-12, 2020 as planned, we feel that as event organizers it’s the safe and prudent thing to do for everyone concerned to reschedule the Mt. Washington Hillclimb to July 8-11, 2021”, said Howard Roundy, event director for the Sports Car Club of New Hampshire.
“We’d like to thank the officials, competitors, volunteers, sponsors and spectators for their support and understanding as well as the management team at the Mt. Washington Auto Road and Bill Stokes, Motorsports Manager at Subaru of America, for their help and guidance in making this difficult decision.”
The ‘Climb to the Clouds’ was first held in 1904, making it one of the US’ oldest motorsport competitions – it even predates the Indianapolis 500 and Pikes Peak hillclimb. It ran sporadically until 1961, before going on an extended hiatus until 1990.
Photo: Ben Haulenbeek/Subaru Motorsports USA
Since then, again it has been run sporadically, with the most recent running occurring in 2017, when Travis Pastrana set the all-time record for the hillclimb with a time of 5 minutes 44.72 seconds on the 7.6-mile course in a 600 bhp version of his Subaru rally car.
“We at Subaru Motorsports USA, like all racing fans, are disappointed that the Mt. Washington Hillclimb has been postponed. But the most important consideration is the health and safety of the teams and fans,” said Bill Stokes, motorsports manager for Subaru of America.
“Since Travis Pastrana’s record-breaking win at the 2017 Hillclimb, our goal has been to return in 2020 to compete for another overall win and try to break that 2017 mark.
“We support the decision of the Mt. Washington Auto Road and the Sports Car Club of New Hampshire to postpone the event and look forward to returning in 2021 with our sights set on another all-time record up the mountain.”
