Photo © Elgee Words and Pictures

The aim of the first event at the new Haunted Hills Circuit was to organise a low key Club event, in order that we might iron out any bugs that surfaced during the meeting.

The aim was NOT met – the event was anything but low key, with 120 entries, and a massive crowd in attendance. The thought was that maybe we could get 100 entries, but we received way over the 120 limit and this for a Club event only! There were obviously a number of disappointed Club members who did not get to run on the day as a result, but there will be another day!

Where did the crowd come from? There was deliberately no advertising, as we figured that if we were to make a hash of the first event, we would rather do it with very few people watching – there was without a doubt the biggest crowd ever at a GCC event other than those seen at Australian Hillclimb Championships.

Did anything go wrong?? Not one single thing from the operational point of view, and all of the competitors appeared to have a good day, apart from the one or two who bent their cars slightly in off road excursions. There are some things we can do better, and we will implement changes for the next event, but by and large things went very smoothly.

The timing worked an absolute treat, even though we were working from a caravan rather than a permanent setting. The information given on the print outs is far better than our previous system, and the display board for drivers to note their times soon after they crossed the finish line was well received. We had two cars on the track at a time, releasing a car approximately every 45 seconds – this meant that we were able to give all of the entrants a run within a period of one and a half hours – with a single car on the track at a time, the run would have taken over two and a half hours.

The most interesting thing on the day was to actually find out how long it would take the cars to complete the run, given that the track is significantly longer than Gippsland Park, and technically much more difficult. We now know – the fastest on the day was 51.06 seconds, and the slowest 80.44 seconds – drivers are in their cars for much longer than at the Gippsland Park track. At Gippsland Park we were used to measuring the differences between times in hundredths or tenths of seconds – at the Haunted Hills the measurements were in whole seconds.

Fastest time of day was recorded by Andrew Howell in the Gould GR55B, with a best time of 51.06 seconds – Andrew is thus the outright record holder for the track! Brett Hayward, in his new and never driven Hayward 08, was second with 52.08 seconds, followed by Greg Ackland (Suzuki) with 52.78, Rod Moody in the Cheetah with 53.41, and, perhaps surprisingly, Brian White in the Suzuki Special with a best time of 54.86 seconds. Kevin Mackrell in the thundering Datsun was the fastest tin top, and in sixth place outright, with a best of 55.39. Luke White followed closely in seventh place with 56.04 seconds, from Jeff Beaumont in the Lancer Evo in eighth position with a best time of 56.64, Peter Minahan (Hayward 07) in ninth with 57.26 seconds, and Doug Lehmann (Lancer Evo) taking out tenth position with a best time of 57.58 seconds.

One pleasing aspect of the day was that twenty open wheeler racing cars performed on the day, with another three failing to actually reach the start line for one reason or another.

Ian Holdsworth was the fastest sports car at the event, recording a good time of 60.77 seconds, almost two seconds clear of car owner Glenn Campbell. Justin Tate was entered, but sold his car the day before the event to give the others a chance!! Simon Dalvean was the fastest Sports Sedan, recording a very good time of 58.46 seconds, from the next quickest, Gary Downes in the Falcon with 59.18 – Simon and Gary were the only Sports Sedans to beat the 60 second mark. The smaller capacity Improved Production Cars proved to be quicker than their larger counterparts, with Wim Janssen in the Honda quickest with 58.60, from Rhys Howell, an excellent effort, to record a best time of 59.58 seconds in his Honda.

Drivers on the comeback trail took out the fast times in the Historic classes, with Terry Dowel (first drive since the 2004 Australian Championship) the fastest in his Mustang with 62.83 seconds, from Wayne Murphy (having his first hillclimb drive in about twenty years) recording 62.90 in the Group A Walkinshaw Commodore. Steve Schmidt was not very far behind in his Morris Cooper S with a best time of 63.48 seconds.

Complete results for the day, in both outright and class format, can be found in the results section of this website.