THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BY BILL PICKETT
This weekend’s Newport Antique Auto Hill Climb is more than a friendly competition. Bill Pickett has more.
It is a chance for old friends to reunite. Bruce Atkinson of Monrovia, Indiana is one of the drivers….
{AUDIO: “I’ve been here fifty-five years. I’ve been here longer than anybody else in (the) competition.” Pickett asks: “How has it changed over the years?” – Atkinson replies: “Bigger crowd. And, oh there are more cars too, but mainly just bigger crowd.”}
Atkinson met long-time friend Gerald Hidy of Batavia, Iowa in Newport earlier this week. Hidy…who is better known at “Skeeter”…has been making runs up the famed Newport Hill since 2005. He describes his vehicle…
{AUDIO: “This is a 1926 Speedster, which is a modified stock Model-T. It’s got a homemade body on it, and the engine has been old-school hopped up.”}
HIDY was asked how he has fared in the competition over the years….
{AUDIO: {In my class I got a third-place trophy once. Typically, I’m in the top ten. There are cars here that are lighter. There are cars here that have more engine refinements than mine. So, I’m happy to just come over and keep everybody honest.”}
Atkinson says there are certain things that keep the crowds coming back to Newport each fall…
{AUDIO: “Just the uniqueness of it. There’s not anything else around like it. Nobody has a hill like this. So we just keep coming back.”
You may have seen some of the antique autos running around the back roads of Vermillion County, Indiana last week. Forty-eight of them turned out for a Model-T Covered Bridge Tour in Rockville. They traveled 350 miles around the county over four days.
