CAMS NSW Hillclimb Championship » REPORT: RD 6 2019 “Tamworth Hillclimb”

HE’S BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!

Date: 21/7/19 | Host: TSCC

Round 6 of the championship was hosted by Tamworth Sporting Car Club at the Oakburn Park facility west of town.

Unlike the traditional lookout hillclimb, this event is more of a “horizontal hillclimb”. The tight and technical go kart track provides a good mixture of tight bends and a high speed straight.

Spectators were treated to some incredibly impressive driving from some of the elite drivers in the state in their hand built and tuned specialist machines with one goal: go as fast as possible on one single run from cold! This is the challenge of hillclimb events and such is the lure of this discipline of motorsport.

There were some good battles in the field of 48 competitors across 17 classes, most of which practiced the day prior in ideal sunny conditions and apart from a mild breeze, it was nearly perfect weather conditions again for race day.

Malcom Oastler (28.69) was back after missing the previous round, and didn’t he let everyone know! The skill and precision on display as he danced his Lola T8750-F3000 was nothing short of astounding and in the process, he claimed outright victory and reset the outright lap record.

Pushed hard by the other competitors in FL2.0+ such as Dean Tighe (29.68) and Darren Read (31.44) in FL1.3-2.0, Malcolm had to keep his nose clean but in his usual cool, calm, humble nature he rose to the occasion. Well done again Malcolm.

Dave Morrow (32.89) won F/L0.75-1.3L and Nicholas York (34.78) won T/A 4WD in the highly modified Evo. In 2A Sports <1.6L, Greg Jones (35.91) took honours and a new record with Neil DePau (36.07) second with issues in the Radical. James Pearson (34.49) again won Prod Sports 1.6L+ in his RX-7 and reset the class record.

2F Sports 1.6L+ went to Ron Gallagher (41.35) and in 3DSS<1.3L, Louise Hayes (40.43) knocked off Josh (41.01) in the same car.

3DSS 1.3-2.0L was all about Honda powered Minis and top of the pack was Timothy Wrightson (36.22) from father David (36.99).

3DSS3.0L+ was one of the largest classes on the day and there was a great battle for supremacy, with local Alan Barnes (35.34) coming out on top in his v8 Celica from Wayne Penrose (35.63) in the VW superbug.

3J IP1.6-2.0L comfortably went to Gerard Gotch (38.49) in the Datto 1200 and 3J IP 3.0+ belonged to John Gilbert (36.54) and a new class record.

Late Model IP ex 4WD went to Brandon Leggett (37.47) in the VZ Commodore with a narrow victory over Chris Weir (37.61) while IP 4WD went comfortably to Tim Blake (36.49) from Newcastle in his WRX.

RR NLB 0-2.5L saw another great close battle between Garry Christopherson (37.35) and Graeme Orr (37.66), with Garry winning this round and setting a new record, this class is all tied up with only 2 rounds left! RRNLB 2.5+ was also very close, with Gunnedah’s Wayne Grosser (37.15) claiming victory over Andrew Frazer (37.28) in the Corvette.

RR NLB AWD went to Theo Poteris (36.78) in the Focus from fastest lady Karen Wilson (37.19). When will the commodore be back Theo?

All in all, a great weekend of motorsport as usual and we thank the team from TSCC for pushing through timing issues in the morning and still managing to give competitors 5 runs at the course.

Words by James Pearson