In September of 1954 the Four Cylinder Sports Car Association held a hillclimb on a two mile section of the road at the Wilson River Highway Summit on Hwy 6. The summit is 32 miles east of Tillamook. The county line for Tillamook and Washington counties is located at the summit. This summit is one of the borders of the Tillamook Burn Forest Fire. From 1933 to 1951 this area of the Coast Range was plagued by fires resulting in a combined 355,000 acres of timber lost.

The event may have been held on the highway, as the road snakes its’ way up to the summit. There is several roads going off of Hwy 6 near the top , but they are dirt or gravel. I have been told it was a paved hillclimb.

This seems to be the first confirmed “sports car” hillclimb in the state of Oregon. The name of the club was later changed to Cascade Sports Car Club.

If anyone has additional information about this event please contact me.

**The above photo was taken from the book “Long Straights and Hairpin Turns” with the permission of Martin Rudow, author.

Article is from The Oregon Daily Journal, Sept 27, 1954

**Thanks to Martin Rudow and his wonderful book: “Long Straights and Hairpin Turns” – history of Northwest racing from 1950-1961. It is a wonderful resource and without it I would not have known of several hillclimbs in Washington and Oregon!