2014 · The Revival

The Hill Came Back.

For more than three decades, the Empire Hill Climb existed mostly in photographs, stories and the memories of the people who had watched and raced it. In 2014, a new generation brought those stories back to Wilco Road.

The original Empire Hill Climb ran from 1964 through 1980, at times twice a year. Years later, Mike Kelty, whose father had participated in the original event, began pushing to bring it back. Kelty eventually approached Empire Chamber of Commerce president Paul Skinner, a longtime rally competitor from the United Kingdom. Skinner immediately understood the idea and helped turn it into an event the Village could support.

With the Village of Empire behind the effort, the organizers worked through the approvals and modern safety requirements needed to put competition back on Wilco Road. NASA Rally Sport provided the sanctioning framework for the revival, with contemporary coverage noting roll cages, driver safety equipment, head-and-neck restraints and onboard fire protection among the requirements.

The revival deliberately reconnected the race with the Village. Parc Exposé put the cars on display in downtown Empire before competition, while spectators once again gathered on the hillside overlooking the course. Contemporary reports credit the Empire Chamber of Commerce, Village of Empire, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Leelanau County Sheriff with supporting the effort.

The first revival field captured exactly what Empire would become: vintage machinery, rally cars, street-based competition cars, a Formula Ford and even a Modified circle-track car. That Modified would win the day, giving the reborn Empire Hill Climb its first modern-era King of the Hill.