The 2016 SCCSA hillclimb season at Collingrove started on April 16 with a come & try day, with 70 new comers getting to enjoy the excitement of a hillclimb for the first time. The next day competition began with the running of round 1 of the Sporting Car Club Winter Cup.

2. Viva Auto Repairs: 2016
WINTER CUP ROUNDS 1 & 2

3. The 2016 SCCSA hillclimb season at
Collingrove started on April 16 with a come
& try day, with 70 new comers getting to
enjoy the excitement of a hillclimb for the
first time. The next day competition began
with the running of round 1 of the Sporting
Car Club Winter Cup.

4. Near perfect weather saw 119 competitors,
ranging in ages from just 14 to over 80
years of age, tackle the hill for the first time
in 2016. In keeping with the hillclimb being
a great discipline, for entry level
motorsport, 44 of the entrants were in the
“Road Registered” classes, that only allow
very minimal modification from a standard
road car.

6. To be eligible to enter these classes a road
worthy car only needs to have a 1kg fire
extinguisher and a sticker to show the
position of the battery. No roll over
protection is needed (and can only be fitted
to open top cars in this category), and as
long as the standard seat belt is in good
condition, that is all that is required.

7. Several other near standard registered
vehicles were also entered in other classes
throughout the field, including Peter Emes
in his standard Smart Car Roadster,
entered in the production sports under
1300cc class.

8. Over half the field in these events usually
drive their car to the track and home again,
which along with $110 entry fee makes it a
very affordable form of motor sport. It was
also great to see Rob Harrison out there in
his Porsche 993 race car after he had a big
accident in it at Mount Gambier last
November.

10. With several cars having off track
excursions, (including John Illingworth’s
Holden Commodore coming to grief and
tearing the front end out, on the moss rocks
at the top of the circuit) and the odd
mechanical breakdown, there were a few
delays in the early runs, as the Linas Auto
recovery vehicle was called upon to bring
the cars back to the pits.

11. Between these delays and the massive
field, only 5 runs could be completed in the
day but the competition was fierce
throughout the field. Several new records
were set by competitors, along the way
including Peter Stanley in his glorious MkII

12. Austin Healey Sprite that is shared
between himself and his daughter Andrea
Worley, And Peter Emes in the Smart Car,
but times were generally a little slower than
usual for most drivers, probably due to the
track being cooler than it getslater in the
year.

13. Only 5 cars were able to better 35 seconds,
with Derek Foster taking outright first with a
29.89 second run in his Suzuki Special,
3.88 seconds ahead of Mathew Woodlands
in the Richards 201C (33.77 seconds)
Damien Hurst was third in his WRX in
33.82, 1 second ahead of Alistair Dow in
the Puma Clubman. Alistair’s time of 34.82
was only .1 ahead of Alex Wilson in the
Audi A4 Quatro at 34.92.

15. Round 2
Four weeks later round 2 was run on
another dry day albeit, quite cloudy in the
morning, with a field of 99 cars this time.
Once again road registered cars were well
represented, with the under 2000cc class
having a massive field of 15 cars

16. Newell prevailed in this class with an
impressive time of 36.46 seconds in his
Toyota MR2 ahead of Tony Trewren in the
Nissan Pulsar (36.70).
The usual protagonists in this class, Peter
Altman & Robin Bostock were relegated to
battling for third & fourth in their respective
Mazda MX5s.

17. Once again Peter was fractionally quicker
than Robin in his older and smaller
capacity model, but it was a ferocious
battle all day.
John Steggles continually put in personal
best times in the pink Hyundai Excel that
he now drives after his daughter,

18. our youngest competitor rolled their
Daihatsu Charade in the final run of the last
event for 2015. Joanne is now driving the
junior challenge car that has been kindly
donated by Chris Ferguson.

19. This Ford Laser is also going to be used
as a challenge car where, drivers can buy a
raffle ticket to win 1 run to fight it out for an
end of season trophy.
All proceeds of this will go directly to the
Collingrove Hillclimb Development Fund.

20. I was lucky enough to be the first driver to
set a time after winning the drive in a silent
auction, and I set a benchmark time of
41.41 seconds, hopefully quick enough to
keep the rest at bay.

21. Robert Atkins was another driver to greatly
improve his best time when he got his
Holden Commodore down to a 34.95 only
.03 of a second behind Steve Thiele in his
Porsche GT3.

22. Impressive work Rob! John Bryant’s
Formula 5000 Lola T140 created a great
deal of interest, but unfortunately, he
couldn’t get it running on song and ended
up heading home early, hopefully to return
for the next event. John Illingworth returned
for this event but this time in a Mitsubishi
Mirage, after his mishap in the Commodore
last time out.

23. Unfortunately this time around it was Luke
Ballard in his Evo10 Lancer that ploughed
off and damaged the front end of his car.
Once again it was Derek Foster in the
Suzuki (30.25) who took out first place from
Kurt Krassnitzer in the Pro Sport Mussane
in a 32.45, with Luke bringing the Evo
home in 3rd before his off track adventure.

24. Sarah Pfeiffer finished 4th in her dad’s
Mallock U2 (34.34 seconds) ahead of both
Mark Rice (Mazda RX7) & Gavin Farley
(Mitsubishi Evo7) on 34.68. Peter Emes
improved his class record again, getting the
Smart Car upthehill in 42.75 seconds,
thereby setting himself up well for a chance
at the outright win in this year’s Winter Cup.

25. Our next event at Collingrove is round 1 of
the multi club Collingrove Cup on June the
5th, so why not come out and enjoy a day
watching great motorsport in a picnic
environment. Collingrove Hillclimb track is
situated on Hillclimb Road, Mount
McKenzie, just 7km out of Angaston.

26. For more details
Visit us @
http://vivaautorepairs.com.au/