Curacao Hill Climb

period aerial photo of the Tafelberg area

Few know that in the seventies we used to have our very own hill climb. Organized by the "Automobielclub Curaçao", it was run on the service road up the phosphate rich mountain called Tafelberg, on the eastern part of the island. As a kid I remember going with my father Eddie de Kort, who competed successfully with several cars over the years. If memory serves me correctly, some eight different classes were run.

The hill climb was a unique event that drew thousands of people who came by land and sea. After my father retired from hill climb racing, we used to attend the race by boat. Back then on race day, the western section of Fuikbaai would look like our modern day Fuikdag, well at least as it looked in the 1990's. Unfortunately, when the Curacao Mining Company changed management, they stopped the yearly event.

Wouldn't it be great if they allowed us to race up the mountain again. With tourism being one of our main economic pillars it would be advantageous to have another event to compliment our destination.

Motorsports has become quite the glamorous event, and you won't find the grease monkey's of old. It would tie in nicely with the Santa Barbara Resort on the property. The race cars could go on display at the east hotel parking section. The WABI cars could be asked to join as well, as would be the Porsche Club Curaçao, the Corvette Club, and the different Harley Davidson clubs. The drift cars would put on a hell of a show as well, at the course that is.

The hill climb would re-trace the old road up the mountain, or it could be expanded a bit to include a stadium section, as has become the trend in racing around the world. We would surely get lots of cars from Curacao. To spice up the event, some professional drivers could be invited to drive alongside Curacao VIP's in a celebrity race.

Hopefully, this short piece can spark enough interest to revisit this once great motorsports event.


Photo credit: Photographer unknown.