Pljevlja Hill Climb — Nikola Asanović Memorial

The Pljevlja Hill Climb is one of Montenegro's biggest motorsport weekends, raced each mid-August on the Rudnica–Dajevića han road above the town. Held as a memorial to the champion driver Nikola Asanović, the event turns 4,350 metres of climbing mountain asphalt into a full-throttle race track.

The high country around Pljevlja provides ideal hill-climb geography: a long climbing road with rhythm and elevation, firm mountain asphalt, and natural grass banks that turn the hillsides into grandstands. Add the echo of racing engines off the surrounding ridges and the setting supplies half the show by itself.

The stakes are international: the race counts for the FIA Central European Zone championship, a series spanning fourteen countries, as well as for Montenegro's national championship. Recent editions have drawn around seventy drivers — roughly sixty Montenegrin competitors joined by ten or so international entries chasing CEZ points — sending everything from touring cars to purpose-built single-seaters up the hill against the clock.

Hill climbing is motorsport at its most spectator-friendly: cars launch one at a time, engines echoing off the hillsides, and fans line the barriers within metres of the action. The mid-August date makes it the loud, petrol-scented counterpoint to the region's hiking-and-rafting summer.

First-time spectators should walk a stretch of the course before the runs begin and pick a corner — the braking zones and hairpins are where the drama lives. Bring sun cover and patience between runs; the paddock area adds its own theatre of jacks, tyres and last-minute adjustments, and ear protection for small children is a sensible addition to the day bag.

Spectating along the Rudnica–Dajevića han course is completely free. The race weekend runs in mid-August, with practice and race runs sending the field repeatedly up the 4,350-metre course.