The Newport Antique Auto Hill Climb is celebrating 50 years of climbing the famed hill in that community this weekend (September 29th through October 1st, 2017) Dean Kennedy of Clinton has been working at the starting line the past 37 years as a scorekeeper. He says the small town is expecting upwards to 150,000 visitors this weekend to watch the cars challenge the hill.
‘’The hill is 1800 feet long, and it’s 140 foot high by the time you get to the top of the hill. And we have cars right now that are running in the low 20s up the hill. I’ve been told by some of the flat head V8 that they go like 85-miles an hour by the time they hit the top of the hill,’’ said Kennedy.
And Kennedy (shown here) notes the event has been growing over the years.
‘’The first year that I did the line out here lining up the cars was in 1980, and we ran 52 or 56 cars over the hill and we had 15,000 people and I thought we had a big event. Now it’s grown and we have 300 cars that go over the hill and we have 500 to 600 show cars in addition to that,’’ said Kennedy during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.
A car show and dance is planned this evening (Friday, September 29, 2017) in Newport. Then cars will start runs up the hill on Saturday. ‘’Saturday is practice runs between 10 and noon, and then we break until 1 o’clock, and then we run from 1 til 4 or 4:30 – and then the parade starts at 5 o’clock.’’
Saturday is only practice runs. The real competition is on Sunday.
The discontinued model class includes vehicles from 1955 or older. Another class features vehicles from 1942 and older. Modified T’s also run the hill along with motorcycles from 1952 or older, according to Kennedy. The event is sponsored by the Newport Lions Club.
