The beginnings of this championship are in the year 1956, but the first official Europe Championship was in 1957. This year season is jubilee.
The first champion was Willy Daetwyler from Switzerland on Maserati. In the several next years the best car for hill climbs was Porsche RSK and Carrera RS, the champions were Graf von Trips, Barth (3x), von Hanstein, Walter (3x), Schiller, Kühnis, Scarfiotti (2x on Ferrari), Herbert Müller (2x)... In 1972 made his first experiences in this championship Mauro Nesti, the most successful racer of all the history of hill climb races. He is nine times Europe champion! The first title he takes in 1975 with his Lola T 294 BMW. He could have five more titles, but score was lucky for group A5 car (small concurrence) driven by Jean-Marie Almeras (Porsche 935) and Herbert Stenger (Ford Capri Zakspeed).
Andreas Vilarino belongs to other great chapter of hill climbing. He came to this championship in the year 1986 and began very well. The fourth race from the season (Rechberg) he won! He was year to year better and better. In the 1989-92 seasons he always could not be beaten. Many track records belonged to him (and still belongs). Troubles in next year mean the end of four titles in the row. Another Spanish man takes his dominant, Francisco Egozkue (Osella PA 9/90). Two titles belong to him.
Genius racer, Fabio Danti from Italy, raced in group CN from 1995. He never got to know how it is - be beaten, he won his group at all the races in Europe Championship he had ever raced! After the end of 1996 he left this championship and also left factory Osella SRL team. But Osella has in this year another very quick driver in Pasquale Irlando. The first position in group CN in every race become the standard also for him. But we should mention to Francis Dosieres, who changed BMW M3 to Lucchini P390 and finally to Lucchini P3-94. He is very quick, but he prefers the national championship, and this is why he is not between the best in the final standing. Very good driver Gulio Regosa (REBO Sport) from Italy is probably the second faster in group CN, but Czech racer Jiri Micanek (Lucchini P3-95M) is this year so good he could be better to Regosa. Next year he will have the possibility to be the champion, I think. Another Czech driver Josef Krecmer (Lucchini P3-96M) is finding the experiences this year and he will belong to the top very soon.
This sportscar championship cannot be without other racers, like Adriano Parlamento and Renzo Napione (both from Italy) who never won, but make the racing interesting.
The last man I should mention is German Ruediger Faustmann (and his beautiful wife). He is absolutely top driver in group C3 (earlier B6) and very often he won overall classification. His plans are wining and making the tracks record times. Unfortunately there are only a little grid in group C3, and this is why he has "too little" points he cannot be champion, but only the second one (after some CN driver) in the final standing. He tried to unite the points for CN/C3 cars but without success. It is a shame, I think this can help the championship. The cars are aligned.