CAMS NSW Hillclimb Championship » ARCHIVED REPORT: Bathurst Mountain Straight R2 2008

Tim Edmondson

Date: 2/3/08 | Club: Bathurst Lite Car Club | Sponsor: Pete Rogers Real Estate & Bathurst RSL

Day two of the Bathurst double header saw the field head to Mountain Straight, one the longest and fastest ‘climbs in Oz. There were lots of records broken and the outright result was in doubt right till the end. Tamworth’s Neil Farr (Bowin Hay) was into the lead after the first run of 42.25s, ahead of Peter Gumley (SCV) by .02s. Next was Tim Edmondson’s high tech bike engined Force PC (43.58s).

Then things started to happen! Gumley responded by setting a new outright record of 41.16s despite seizing the blower as he approached the finish line and nursing a fading clutch. The SCV was now a scratching but Peter could be forgiven if he had assumed that FTD was well in hand.

Edmondson meanwhile chipped away at the deficit but was still nearly a second in arrears as he began his final run. In a copybook performance Tim stopped the clock at 41.15s – quickest by one hundredth of a second! A fine result for the Edmondson team, who have had to overcome a lot of mechanical frustrations in the past 12 months.

Almost unnoticed, Neil Farr finished third outright on 51.51s a mere 0.36s in arrears with Steve Hooker (Jedi) fourth outright. Stuart Inwood stormed up the mountain to be fastest Tin Top in the Nissan GTR (47.19s) ahead of Wayne Burden’s immaculate Gemini Sports Sedan (58.56s).

A new Group R record and eighth outright for Ron Hay (RH Honda) while Phil Pratt (Trojan)finally turned the tables on Tom Donovan (Megakart) in the hotly contested up to 750cc F/Libre class for seventh outright. Matt Halpin (Torana S/Sedan) made a welcome return to the hills, and finished tenth outright, while the ever competitive Christine Campbell upset husband, Heath in the Beetle to take out the Imp Production 1601-2000cc class.

Record breakers included William Parsonage (0-1600cc Open Sports PRB), Donn Vidler (0-1300cc S/Sedan Mini), Aden Hadley (1301-2000cc S/Sedan Datsun) Arthur Hollins 2001-3000cc S/Sedan Cortina) and Phillip Haynes 3J Imp Production XB Coupe).

Alan Barlow – NSW Hillclimb Website Editor

EDITORS NOTES:

Congratulations to everyone at BLCC for a truly memorable weekend.
For Peter Gumley there must have been a touch of déjà vu . Back in 2006 Neil Farr was able to pip Peter by that magical one hundredth of a second in similar circumstances to this year.
Both days were run very well, happily with minimal damage and delay.