What Makes Hillclimb Racing So Intense

One car, one road, one stopwatch. No pack, no drafting, no warm-up lap. Just a brutal uphill sprint where the driver has to trust his instinct, trust the car and commit before the road starts collecting its due.

That format is why hillclimbs keep their grip on enthusiasts. They compress everything into an explosive short burst, power, bravery, precision and mechanical absurdity, into a run that can last under a minute or stretch to nearly 20 km of relentless turns. Some are historic drives up public roads. Others are temporary celebrations of speed. All of them are self-competitive by design. If you lift, you lose.

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No excuses

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb runs on the Pikes Peak Highway in Colorado, above Colorado Springs, and has been on the calendar since 1916. It starts at 2 862 metres and finishes at over 4 300 metres, with 156 turns between those two points and enough altitude change to embarrass naturally aspirated engines. The route is 19,99 km long, which makes it the endurance event of this group as much as a sprint.

The course has changed over the years, from full gravel, to a mix of sealed pavement and dirt to now being completely tarred, Pikes Peak has presented a challenge like few others. It has produced cinematic moments, such as the award-winning Climb Dance video featuring Ari Vatanen. Romain Dumas owns the outright record in an EV, a 7 min 57,148 sec in the Volkswagen ID.R in 2018. That run was a major benchmark because it showed exactly what electric power does when the air gets really thin.

Back to Blighty

Shelsley Walsh is the opposite in scale to Pikes Peak but no less demanding. Hidden in Worcestershire, England, it first ran in 1905 and remains the world’s oldest motorsport venue still using its original course. The climb is just one kilometre, but that length is almost beside the point. Shelsley is all about placement, momentum and the two famous bends known as the Bottom S and the Top S. Will Hall reset the outright record with a 22,33-second blast in a Judd-powered Gould GR59. On a road that short, every fraction of a second gained is impressive.

On Home Soil

Simola brings the same hillclimb logic to South Africa, and that is why it’s so popular with local petrolheads. The course sits alongside the Simola Golf & Country Estate above Knysna in the Western Cape, and the event has been run 16 times to date. It has established itself as SA’s premiere motorsport event with racers piloting a wide array of cars, new and old, some purpose built and many from other race series.

Click here to watch a video of the six wildest car from the 2026 Simola Hillclimb.

Fans flock to Knysna from all over Msanzi for one weekend of petrolhead madness. They are treated to the sight of racecars zooming down the city’s main drag ahead of the race weekend. The SHC course features a 1,9 km tarmac climb with fast stretches, flowing Esses and enough elevation change to punish any driver who can’t maintain precious momentum. The outright record is held by Andre Bezuidenhout who ramped his Gould GR55 up the hill in just 34,161 seconds which equates to an average speed of just over 200 km/h.

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The Driveway Run

Goodwood Festival of Speed sits at the strange point where motorsport, history and theatre collide. It was founded in 1993 by Lord March, now the Duke of Richmond, and is staged at Goodwood House in West Sussex. The ‘hill’ is 1,86 km long, a tarmac run up the estate driveway that includes a flat out blast past cheering crowds, a flint wall, a right-hander that punishes overconfidence and a fast finish that asks for full commitment. Each year thousands of fans descend on the estate to enjoy race machinery from several decades, and to catch a glimpse of their racing heroes present and past. Max Chilton piloted an electric McMurtry Speirling up the Duke’s driveway in just 39,08 seconds, smashing the old record by over 2,5 seconds.

A Revival

Bernina Gran Turismo is the historian’s favourite for good reason. The event takes place on the Bernina Pass in Graubunden, Switzerland, and was revived in 2014 to honour the original mountain races from the 1920s and 1930s. The route uses a closed section of alpine road with huge altitude swings, sweeping bends and scenery that is postcard perfect.

Publicly, Bernina is more about class records than one single outright number, because the whole point is historic machinery running in period style. A useful recent marker is Fredy Lienhard’s 2023 run in a Ferrari 312 PB, which set the benchmark for the Sportscars up to 1975 class in 2 min 05,10 sec. At Bernina, the record book serves the cars, not the other way around.

The Newcomer

Tutto Bene is the least-known name in this lineup because the event does not sit in the same well-documented folder as Pikes Peak or Shelsley Walsh. In the current hillclimb conversation, it reads as a more boutique Italian alpine gathering than a staple of the sport, which is probably why it has the mystique it does. Tutto Bene is the pointy end of style-led mountain motoring sport. Its philosophy is summed up by the motto Slow Down to Go Fast.

Long and technical the 8-km run is tree-lined covered, making for iffy surface temps. Engines can be heard for some time before they burst into sight. Race to the top and you are greeted with vistas spanning over Lago Maggiore, the three islands within and Switzerland in the distance. Stay for the post-race cocktails and you will rub shoulders with the who’s who of European sportscar production as the sun sets over the mountain-lined horizon.

That is hillclimb racing in its purest form. Some venues reward bravery in short bursts. Others reward patience over a whole mountain. The great ones do both, and the best drivers make it look like the road is moving for them.