Gordon Wise was inducted into the Weatherly Hillclimb’s Hill of Fame at the 62nd annual fall event this weekend.

Wise drove a car in the race during the early days of its revival, and was instrumental in its resurgence, according to Hillclimb Association President Joe Cyburt.

“Gordon went to different races, to see how they were held,” Cyburt said, “He used to drive when we had 30, 40 cars. He was a big part of our growth.”

Wise becomes the 25th inductee into the Hall of Fame. In the Hillclimb’s spring event in June, the Citizens Fire Co. of Weatherly was inducted.

All the way from Arizona

Bob and Marie Sherman traveled from Chino Valley, Arizona to race in the 62nd fall event of the Weatherly Hillclimb this weekend.

In fact, they raced in three other events before Weatherly.

“We knew George Bowland (from Easley, North Carolina, who also raced at Weatherly), and he invited us to race in some events in the East,” said Bob Sherman, a retired Portland, Oregon police sergeant. “So we loaded up our RV, and 20-foot trailer, and raced Polish Mountain in Flintstone, Maryland; the Duryea event in Reading, and the time trials at Summit Point, in Shenandoah, West Virginia. They were about two weeks apart, so we did some visiting in between.”

Those visits were to see where Bob’s multiple great-grandfather was buried in North Fairfax, Vermont.

“My great-grandfather was a lieutenant in the volunteer regimen at Fairfax during the Civil War,” Bon said.” We also visited Monticello, and Gettysburg.”

The Shermans, who raced their vintage 1972 MGB GT, were among racers from 10 different states and Canada who raced at Weatherly this weekend.

The couple planned to travel home after racing at Weatherly.

Aside from Arizona and North Carolina, racers represented New York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Florida, as well as the Canadian province of Manitoba.

Highlights of the climb

American muscle cars - the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette and Camaro, the Pontiac Trans-Am and Firebird, and the Dodge Charger were well represented in this weekend’s field.

But so were almost all models of the Volkswagen - the Cabrio, Golf, GTI, Jetta, Rabbit and Scirocco - were represented.

There were also three classic Austin Healeys - a 1959 Bugeye Sprite, a 1964 Sprite and a 1965 Mini Cooper - as well as three MGs - a 1952, a 1956 and a 1964 model. There were also a number of Indy-type racers and modified cars in the 135-auto field.

Weatherly area nonprofit groups also provided a variety of food for racers and race fans all weekend.