It was my first ever time on the race track, let alone a quick open wheeler.

I had been told of certain parts of the track that could be tricky and with a storm on Saturday morning this made it just that bit harder and scarier.

My first run time was 63.06 seconds. This was just a sighting run for me to see how wet the track was and what the car and the I was capable of. After the first run I got back to the pits with a good understanding of just how powerful, and how well RPV02 handles.

With my confidence building after every run and track times dropping I was feeling good on the Sunday morning, especially with it being a fine day. My goal was to make it to 50 seconds which I was able to do on my first run with a 50.07.

With the track getting hotter the tyres were sticking so I thought I could do a lap even quicker. At this point however, I started having some gear problems, which were completely the drivers fault and was able to do a personal best time of 48.51 seconds on the Sunday.

Thanks to Warwick and Suzy for giving me the opportunity to race your vehicle and all the pit crew that helps out at every hillclimb. Thanks to Ultimate Power Steering for all their support.

I hope to have more runs in the RPV02 in the future.

I purchased the RPV01 (Rotary Powered Vehicle) from Warwick & Suzy Hutchinson at the beginning of 2008. This was the first open-wheeled race car that I have ever driven. Since then it has proven to be extremely reliable and very competitive. I have run the car in hillclimbs and street sprints as well as a few circuits like Lakeside & Queensland Raceway.

So far I have won outright at the Rockhampton Street Sprints, 1st outright at 2009 Leyburn Sprints.

Early in 2010 I decided to increase the boost and change the fuel to E85 Ethonol this was the same setup that Warwick is running in his RPV02.

To do this it required the engine to be setup and re-tuned by Ben at Rotary Motorsport, the outcome of this was more power. This proved very successful but also led to the VW gearbox shearing the input shaft and badly damaging the crown-wheel. This was expected due to the increase in the power output, so I had to decide either try to repair the over stressed VW gearbox or look at other gearbox options.

Having seen how well Warwick’s new car was going with the Renault UN5 gearbox we decided late 2010 to follow suit.

The RPV01 was originally designed around the VW gearbox it was not as simple as dropping a different gearbox into it. For that reason I very keen to do the gearbox conversion.

Currently the car is on chassis jig in a Brendale workshop awaiting work to begin. To help I have purchased an adaptor plate, to allow fitment of the Renault UN5 gearbox to a VW bell-housing and a dummy Renault gearbox has also been sourced, to allow for a mock drive line to be assembled.

The plan is to improve the rear suspension angles while we fit the new gearbox as well and also add more down-force to the car by fitting a larger under tray and extra wing elements.

I will continue to update everyone as the work progresses and hopefully in approx 4 months we will be able to report on a successful shake-down run at either Lakeside or Morgan Park.

Regards Darren Duffield.

The 16th annual Sprints, commemorating the 1949 Australian Grand Prix, had 210 entries from historic, classic and high-performance cars built between 1926 and 2010.

The Leyburn Sprints is one of the longest continuously-running historic motorsport events in the country and again it was very well supported this year by spectators, competitors and sponsors.

Saturday was well and truly wet as the rain was heavy for most of the day, although track times were affected until rain eased and the sun came out late Saturday, organisers were pleased with the overall outcome of the event. On Sunday, the weather changed for the better and a full complement of competitors, a big spectator crowd and 80 glittering cars in the Shannon’s Show n’ Shine competition turned out in warm, sunny weather for an action-packed day.

Times continued to tumble on a drying track, with the top drivers trading tit-for-tat fastest laps throughout the day. Spectators also enjoyed a spirited unofficial competition in the V8 Supercar Drivers Challenge between veteran Dick Johnson and young guns James Moffatt of Johnson’s Jim Beam Racing team and Alex Davison from Irwin Racing, who all shared three classic racing cars. Proceeds from the not-for-profit event will benefit community organisations and projects.

The rotary hillclimb racing car of Warwick Hutchinson, went very well for the first time at this event with an outright win. Click here to view in-car footage.

Top 5 Outright Results for the week end -

1 Warwick Hutchinson (Van Diemen RF92-RPV02 Turbo Rotary) 47.6584 sec. (New Track Record)

2 Ray Vendersee (Skelta G-Force) 49.4597

3 Grant Watson (Prosport Eclipse) 50.1378

4 Garry Ford (Ford Escort RS5000) 50.1900

5 Paul Mienert (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 51.0086

Once again the organizers of this event should be congratulated as the weekend was a great success and we are looking forward to next year’s event.

The next hillclimb event that the rotary hillclimb racing car will be running is Round 5 of the series at Mt Cotton on the 15th & 16th October 2011, come along and see the RPV02 running 2 drivers for the first time.

Some of the photos on this entry were supplied by “Steve Johns” and “Phil Harrys”, thanks guys for you great photos.

The third round of the Series was run in wonderful Qld Winter weather and there were a large number of appreciative spectators all eager to watch the 95 competitors that had entered this round.

This round had 5 rotary hillclimb racing cars running in 2 different classes.

Marque Sports – 2001cc & over.

Cameron Hurman running his series 6 Mazda RX7 ran all 7 runs over the two days. He started on Saturday at 50.65 sec for the first run and got down to his best time for the weekend which was on the very last run on Sunday with a time of 49.75 sec this time was quicker by .51 than the best time he posted in round 2 of the series.

Simon Witt running his series 1 Mazda RX7 the photo above shows Simon breaking hard off the 2nd loop into the hairpin. Simon also ran 7 runs over the two days. His first run on Saturday was 53.74 sec and he trimmed that down to his best time for the weekend which was also on the very last run on Sunday with a time of 51.46 sec. Simon has missed a few rounds this year but we hope to see him at the next round.

Christopher Sharman in his series 4 RX7 was competing for the first time and improved from his first run on Saturday of 57.13 sec down to a 51.46 also on the last run of the day on Sunday. We hope that Christopher gets the bug and is back running his rotary at the next hillclimb.

This class was dominated by Mark Crespan in his very fast Cobra, Mark set a new record for this class an extremely quick time of 44.55 sec well done Mark keep up the great work. (Although this car is not a rotary it was still worthy to be mentioned in this blog)

Formula Libre – 1301cc & over

John Moore in his Hijinx Buggy (12A Turbo) did not run on the Saturday but posted a 53.30 sec run for his first run on Sunday. John’s best run was on his 3rd run on Sunday with a time of 46.54. John had traction problems due to incorrect tire pressures but he sorted this out and other than a clamp falling off the exhaust John had a good Hillclimb.

Warwick Hutchinson in his racing car (RPV02) did not run on the Saturday dew to family commitments. His first run on Sunday was 42.45 sec and he managed to trim that down to a 39.35 on his 3rd run. This was exactly the same time he posted in the top six shoot-out at the end of the day, it is not very common that the same time is run by the same person on the same day.

There were 5 Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars competing in this round of the series, their best times are listed below.

Cameron Hurman (Mazda RX7) 49.75 – (5th in Class & 39th Outright)

Christopher Sharman (Mazda RX7) 50.99 – (6th in Class & 49th Outright)

Simon Witt (Mazda RX7) 51.46 – (7th in Class & 53rd Outright)

John Moore (Hijinx Buggy) 46.54- (3rd in Class & 14th Outright)

Warwick Hutchinson (RPV02) 39.35 – (1st in Class & 1st Outright)

Top Six Shootout Results were –

1st Warwick Hutchinson (RPV02 13B Turbo) – 39.35

2nd Paul Van Wijk (BKZ07) – 43.62

3rd David Homer (Suzuki Swift) – 43.77

4th Terry Johns (Esprit Sports 1300) – 44.11

5th Brian Kirkby (BNG #1) – 45.97

6th John Boyce (Kaditcha VW) – 46.17

Come along to the Leyburn Street Sprints to see the Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car RPV02 run around the houses at Leyburn on the 27th & 28th August.

“CLICK HERE“ to visit the Leyburn Sprints Website.

The next hillclimb event is Round 4 of the series at Mt Cotton on the 3rd & 4th Sept. 2011.

Some of the photos on this entry were supplied by “Steve Johns” – via the MGCCQ website.

“CLICK HERE” to visit the MG Car Club – web site.

This Hillclimb was organised by the MG Car Club of Queensland and the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club’s. It was sponsored by the Autobarn stores at Gympie and Nambour. So thanks go to the two car clubs and to Autobarn for committing to sponsoring this Hillclimb again in 2012.

Saturday’s practice runs started at 12 o’clock and went until 1.30, most of the people running took part in the non-timed practice to hone their skills for the main event. The first official run on Saturday was mostly under control with most people running staying out of trouble but a few cars had some off’s, none of the cars that had issues during the weekend were badly damaged just a few red faced drivers.

With overnight rain the track was wet for Sunday and conditions were slippery for the first 3 runs but the track dried out over the day to make the track grip very good. With 6 runs on Sunday and 2 on Saturday the entrants had 8 official runs over the weekend.

There was 6 Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars competing in this hillclimb, Scott Trenoweth (Mazda RX7 – 13B), Chris Moore (Hi Jinx Buggy – 13B turbo), John Moore (Hi Jinx Buggy – 13B turbo), Ken Luxton (Mazda RX7 – 12A), Lou Szekely (Mazda RX7 – 13B) and Warwick Hutchinson’s (RPV02 13B Turbo) their best times are listed below.

The Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars competing and their best times were –

Warwick Hutchinson (RPV02 13B Turbo) 53.73 – (1st in Class & 1st Outright)

Scott Trenoweth (Mazda RX7 – 13B) 61.00 (1st in Class & 7th Outright)

Chris Moore (Hi Jinx Buggy – 13B turbo) 63.50 (2nd in Class & 19th Outright)

John Moore (Hi Jinx Buggy – 13B turbo) 63.89 (3rd in Class & 20th Outright)

Ken Luxton (Mazda RX7 – 12A) 67.06 (3rd in Class & 45th Outright)

Lou Szekely (Mazda RX7 – 13B) 72.04 (2nd in Class & 96th Outright)

The highlights over the weekend were the braking of a few records one was the track record to 53.73 seconds by Warwick Hutchinson in his RPV02 Formula Libre and another record was broken by Scott Trenoweth in his beautifully prepared and very well driven Mazda Rx7 and to add to that, Scott finished 7th outright out of 128 cars well done!

Chris and John Moore battled between each other all weekend with Chris finally piping his dad John by just .3 of a second, well done Chris.

The top 10 outright cars were -

1st Warwick Hutchinson (RPV02 13B Turbo) – 53.73

2nd Michael Collins (Subaru WRX) – 59.75

3rd Neville Scott Subaru WRX) – 59.83

4th Garry Ford (Ford Escort Sports Sedan) – 60.31

5th David Homer (Suzuki Swift) – 60.87

6th Mark Crespan (Mongrel Ford Cobra) – 60.89

7th Scott Trenoweth (Mazda RX7 – 13B) – 61.00

8th Troy Moffitt (Mitsubishi Lancer) – 61.74

9th Danny Mischok (Ford Escort) – 61.81

10th Jason Gava (Ford Escort Sports Sedan) – 61.83

The next hillclimb event is round 3 of the Tighe Cams Hillclimb on the 23rd & 24th July at Mt Cotton.

Some of the photos on this entry were taken by Gary Pitt, Michael Ciccotelli and Steve Johns – via the MGCCQ website. “CLICK HERE” to visit the MG Car Club – web site.

The 2011 Queensland Hillclimb Championships were blessed with the best winter weather that Queensland has to offer.

Saturday’s practice highlight was Brett Haywood setting blistering times of mid 37 second runs, not to bad for someone who has not driven the tack before. Most people running stayed out of trouble but a few cars had off’s. One of which was the crash of Rod Moody as he went back over lovers leap the car made contact the bank this damaged the front right hand side wing, rim and lower control arm, but with help from Brett Haywood the car was repaired ready for Sunday morning.

Sunday was another perfect winter’s day with blue sky making perfect conditions for fast times.

The highlight was the shattering of the track record to a stunning 36.57 seconds of Brett Haywood in his well-built Haywood 09 Formula Libre hill-climber. This was the first time a car has ever run the Mt Cotton track in under 37 seconds. Well done Brett this time should stand for a long time.

Other records to fall on Sunday were the Formula Ford record to Terry Johns with a time of 44.41, the Group V record went to Ross Rundle with a time of 52.22, the Group S record went to Mike Allen with a time of 49.79 and the Closed sports cars up to 2000cc with a time of 51.29s.

The top 6 cars all set times under 39 seconds.

1st Brett Haywood (36.57) – Vic.

2nd Peter Gumley (37.64) – NSW.

3rd Alan McConnell (37.92) – Qld.

4th Doug Barry (38.56) – NSW.

5th Warwick Hutchinson (38.71) – Qld.

6th Rod Moody (39.66) – Vic.

In total there was only 3 Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars entered in this year’s QHC with a 5th outright and 3rd in class going to Warwick Hutchinson in his RPV02 (38.71), 2nd in class and 31st outright went to Scott Trenoweth in his Mazda RX7 (47.36) and 4th in class and 47th outright went to Cameron Hurman in his Mazda Rx7 (49.55)

The next hillclimb event is Noosa Hillclimb on the 2nd & 3rd July .

Some of the photos on this entry were supplied by “Steve Johns” – via the MGCCQ website.

“CLICK HERE” to visit the MG Car Club – web site.