Interesting idea the combined times. Seems the ones I have seen are also shorter which makes sense and maybe that is a difference in hill versus not because by definition many hill climbs will be short (not mountain like pikes peak of course but the local twisty road up a hill kinda thing) and therefore easy to learn/memorize so can attack very violently versus rally with less familiarity, pace notes, surprises, etc.
Hillclimbs are indeed as the name suggests, climbs. The track is typically (99%) on smooth asphalt (pikes peak and the like being the exception). The finish line is at a higher elevation than the start. At an event you get two practice runs (sometimes more) usually about 2 hours apart. The competition is then two runs only and the fastest of the two runs is the one that counts. There are classes for different cars but the top award is called an FTD - Fastest Time of the Day and it is simply fastest to the top wins. It is the oldest form of motor-racing in the world and was started back in the early 1900's when only the rich could afford cars. They would either drive them themselves or quite often get pilots to drive their cars. The discipline unlike circuit racing where you go lap after lap learning the track, is that you have to drive adaptively and instinctively. Tyre warmers are banned so you start on cold tyres and finish on hot ones and if it rains in between practice and timed runs you have no idea how much grip there is. Hope this is informative Jonathan Rarity 5 times (and current) Scottish Hillclimb Champion enjoy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5sH2i0Zf14
Tronaasen http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=6059 http://gpltd.bcsims.com/track_images/tronaas/map/map-tronaas.pdf
I'm jumping the gun here, but went ahead and put up an Rfactor 2 Hill Climb server We have no timing or leaderboards yet. But the server is set up to run lllloooong practice sessions, so people can get together for some friendly competition. Lola t260 on Subido a Munco it is! The server is called "VHC_Hillclimb Series" No password required. http://virtualhillclimb.com/rfactor-2-hill-climb/
If you look at the MP trends, numbers I'm sure are quite low. Maybe time to give up on MP features for now, stop worrying about MP for awhile? I really wish ISI would focus on the single player experience, a hillclimb being one of them.
For everyone they looking for hill climb races you can take a look here: 1. https://www.hillclimb-virtual-championship.net/ 2. http://sim-racing-world.proboards.com/ 3. https://www.facebook.com/Hillclimb-virtual-championship-407777563303401/ 4. https://twitter.com/HillVirtual