GIANTS DESPAIR HILLCLIMB & THE BRYNFAN TYDDYN ROAD RACES
You wouldn’t think that coal country in Northeast Pennsylvania would be a major player in early sportscar racing, but it was. Giant’s Despair hillclimb just southeast of Wilkes-Barre started in 1906 and is still operating today. The list of winners and entrants is filled with Hall of Famers all the way back to Louis Chevrolet and Ralph DePalma. In 1952, an enthusiast who happened to be a State Senator, T. Newell Wood, offered his 960 acre Brynfan Tyddyn (Welsh for Big Farm on a Hill) estate for road races to accompany the hillclimb. This combination of hillclimb and road races on the same weekend went on for a glorious 5 years from 1952 to 1956. By 1956, the cars had outgrown the narrow, winding roads on the estate and the races were cancelled. In 1958, the road races moved to an ex army tank testing track in Berwick, PA. Berwick lasted two years and the hillclimb & road race years ended, but bigger and faster cars are still running on the 1 mile hill into the 21st century