"I took the long range picture of the course from most of the way towards 
the top of the hill, which was the end of the hillclimb run.  There were some esses, and a sweeping turn.  If you look at a current diagram of the Willow Springs International Raceway, the hillclimb started near what is now the pit area, and ended at or near the highest elevation, which looks to be about 40% of the way around the road that would become the raceway."

(7-30-08)  From Michael Jacobsen:

"The '53 event (Dec 13) was the first hillclimb at Willow and class FM was won by Von Hanstein in a special factory roadster Porsche; Skip Swartley won overall in his Allard J2X which was Chrysler powered and metallic blue. 

The first race was Nov 22, 1953; There were at least two hillclimbs there in '54, the first Jan 31st--we were at this one and broke an axle on the line, losing to Ernie McAfee--Dad had the best practice time (in our blown N Magnette--the car I still race) and the event was limited to under 2 litres (which means it wasn't the event of Tibbets photos) and probably every year thereafter as lots of the smaller clubs were able to host them, like the Singer Owners Club, the TC Motoring Guild, VSCC, etc. 

I believe the event shown in Tibbetts' photos is the second Cal Club hillclimb at Willow in Nov or Dec '54. Big cars ran at this one. I have photos of this event at which John drove the red (not orange) 550, also 88 was there, et al. 

John wrecked his and the Coast's first 4-cam 550 at March Field the first week of Nov--it burned--and he then ran the red car. I remember the event as being after March Field, but I could be mistaken, It is possible he had the red car before the 4 cammer (which was silver) that was destroyed in its first event. I can't find a record of the date of the hillclimb, but it might turn up."