For the first time in five years, Arizona Region plans to bring its SCCA Hill Climb to Greenlee County with the rebirth of the Clifton Hill Climb – and all the locals now know about the upcoming April 16-18, 2027, event thanks to the Eastern Arizona Courier and Arizona Region’s RE Jim Cantrell.
“The hill climb’s roots in Clifton stretch back to 1966, according to Jo Amm Stratton, whose family has been involved with the event for four generations,” the Courier’s Brooke Curley reported in the article. “Stratton said her husband, David ‘Dave’ Stratton, had previously worked as a corner worker for the Jerome Hill Climb before the family moved to Clifton. By 1966, he had formed a local car club when the Four Cylinder Club from Phoenix began looking for a new location for its hill climb.”
The report says the Clifton Hill Climb ran through 1982, before taking a hiatus until events in 1989 and 1990. The event has run somewhat inconsistently since then, but with drivers always waiting to enter every time it returns.
The 2027 Clifton Hill Climb, the article states, will use the same canyon course outside of Clifton, AZ, as past events – that means the course will be 1.9 miles in length and involve 22 turns spanning 586 feet of elevation change.
The Clifton Hill Climb is also expected to include a parade through town, making this a memorable three-day event.
“It’s a very unique event not allowed in many communities anymore,” Cantrell told the Courier. “They used to be far more common and this is a historic venue and event and it’s great to still be able to do one. The famous Pike’s Peak event in Colorado later in the summer is a supercharged version of the Clifton event, but racers from that community come to Clifton as a means to practice and mechanically sort their cars for the big event.”
Read the entire article on the Eastern Arizona Courier’s website.
Registration for the April 16-18, 2027, Arizona Region Clifton Hill Climb is slated to open Nov. 1, 2026. For more information, check out Arizona Region’s website at azscca.com.
Photo courtesy cliftonhillclimb.com
