Pre-war cars race wildly up Castle Hill, Massachusetts

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From 1995 to 2002, the Vintage Sports Car Club of America, the country’s oldest historic motorsport club, which stages races, hill-climbs and rallies, hosted an event at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about an hour's drive north of Boston. The two-day event was a non-spectator hill-climb for pre-war cars on Saturday and a concours on Sunday that was open to the public. The formal name of the Castle Hill venue is the Crane Estate and is a property of the non-profit Trustees of Reservations, the largest landowner in Massachusetts, which maintains almost 300 properties totalling 35,000 acres.

Atop the hill, which has sweeping views of the Atlantic, is a 100-year-old mansion built by the founder of Crane Plumbing, Richard Crane. The hill-climb took place on a winding half-mile drive up to the courtyard of the mansion. The concours was held on the dramatic Grand Alee, a perfectly manicured rolling lawn stretching almost half a mile mile down to the sea, bordered on either side with Romanesque statues and uniform trees. Hundreds of pre-war cars, rivalling the selection at just about any concours, would line both sides of the lawn. Unfortunately, heavy rains one year left the lawn in tatters and the event was no more. Its absence has been lamented ever since.

In 2020, the VSCCA approached the Trustees of Reservations about reviving the hill-climb. This time, there would be no concours and the hill-climb would be open to spectators.  The complexities in making the venue safe for spectators was a considerable undertaking as the course has no safety provisions like Prescott or Shelsley Walsh. Furthermore, to access the viewing areas spectators would need to cross the track from the parking area and then be kept at a safe distance from the competing cars on the drive. The logistics in pulling the event off safely was a team effort between the VSCCA and Trustees event managers and a small army of volunteers. With spectator numbers limited to 1000 in 2021, the event came off largely without a hitch and both organizations decided to move forward for 2022.

A roaring success

The second edition of the revived Castle Hill Pre-War Hill Climb was held on 16th October, a perfect autumn day. This year, almost 1500 spectators turned out to watch the 23 pre-war cars compete for the fastest time of the day.

The weekend started with a 100-mile rally that wound its way through the bucolic roads of Boston’s North Shore and into southern New Hampshire, where the group stopped to see the collection and restoration shop at Bayberry Classics in Hampton. On Saturday evening a dinner was held in the ballroom of the Great House, the mansion on Castle Hill, in a setting worthy of Downton Abbey.

The Sunday hill-climb had a great representation of pre-war marques such as Bugatti, SS, Rover, MG, BMW, Morgan, Ford, Auburn, AC, Amilcar, HRG, Alfa Romeo and several specials. The 1921 Alfa Romeo RLTF of Dick King which partook in both the rally and the hill-climb ran like a clock.  The oldest car was the 1921 Ford Model T of Christopher Tragert. Ben Bragg, driving the former ARCA special, the Old Gray Mare, set the fastest time of the day with a run of 54.65 seconds (ARCA was the Automobile Racing Club of America, the first sports-car racing club in the US, founded by the Collier brothers in the early '30s). Sandy Leith with his BMW 328 and Erik Thomas in his Mercedes 170 tied for the second-best runs at 59.4 seconds.

A popular public spectacle

Probably the best part of this event, which has so many wonderful aspects to it, was sharing these cars with the spectators. In all likelihood, very few of them have seen pre-war cars in competition as the closest vintage races are four hours away at Lime Rock Park. If ever, they see pre-war cars as static displays at car shows. At Castle Hill, with the stunning backdrop of the ocean, the estate, autumn foliage, live jazz and vendors, they get to see these cars take spirited runs up the hill. Indeed, some saw a Morgan three-wheeler take the final turn on two wheels on one run! After each run all the cars would park in the courtyard of the Great House and the spectators could take a closer look, speak with the owners and many a beaming child had their picture taken, sitting behind the steering wheel on the 'wrong side'.

The event already has the largest true pre-war entry of any competition event in the country as well as being a significant fund-raiser for the estate. Both the VSCCA and the Trustees of Reservations see it growing in the coming years. The event is scheduled for 14-15th October in 2023.

Words by Mark O’Day, photos by Deb O’Day

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