iN PHOTOS: Kelowna’s ‘unique’ and ‘thrilling’ Knox Mountain Hill Climb

It’s normally a serene hike, a quiet place to overlook the valley, but over the weekend Knox Mountain in Kelowna was filled with the sounds of roaring engines and the smell of burning rubber.

At the 67th Knox Mountain Hill Climb, May 16 and 17, more than 70 drivers took to the track for a unique race in some unique cars. 

Norman Hayton was one of those drivers, back for his fifth year in a row, racing a 2006 Honda Civic that’s virtually stock just with some minor modifications to make it safe to race. 

“It’s a pretty unique event, there’s nowhere else in B.C. I think we can do this. I mean I’ve been down to the states to do a few events down there, but there’s just so few and far between that it’s one of the highlights of the year,” Hayton said. 

Basil Santamaria is another driver, also racing the same Civic, and he said the rest of the year Knox Mountain is taunting drivers who have to look at it and wait for their chance to conquer it. 

“It’s just menacing you, looking at you all year, and you only get to drive it for two days,” he said. 

Hayton said the course is dangerous, but that’s part of the fun.

“It’s a pretty thrilling course,” Hayton said. “There’s cliffs, mountainsides, trees. When it goes right, it’s just like pure adrenaline, but there’s certainly the risk of going off the course and doing some damage.”

Hundreds of people swarmed the hillside to see the drivers push their luck around the hairpin turns on the 3.5 kilometre track with 245 metres of elevation gain. The event also had food trucks, games and a car show on flat ground.

For people who missed out on the action iNFOnews.ca grabbed some photos. Livestreams for Saturday and Sunday are available online along with final results.