Hillclimb Results Round 2

TIGHE CAMS HILLCLIMB, ROUND 2, Sunday, 17th May, 2009

The large crowd of spectators who came to Mt Cotton this Sunday for the 2nd round of the Tighe Cams Hillclimb Series witnessed some excellent competition in wonderful Qld weather. Highlight of the day included the appearance of Warwick Hutchinson’s new Formula Libra car which immediately impressed with its performance on its maiden outing.

Darren Duffield RPV01

Alan McConnell gave the appreciative crowd something to really cheer with his sub 40s runs which resulted in his fastest time of the day. Two records were broken, both in Historic categories. David Robinson broke his class record in Class R and Vern Hamilton Group Q took 0.4 sec off his old record to post a 42.86 sec in his 1974 Elfin 623.

It was also Warwick’s debut of his finished Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car RPV02. Warwick arrived at the track full of anticipation on how his car was going to perform and was hoping for a 45 second run. This event was going to be just for testing his brakes, suspension and handling. Warwick’s first run was just going to be settling the car and checking brakes. He start off the line and up the first hill with heaps of speed and grip, around the first loop there was a loud crunch and the front of the chassis was dragging on the ground. The crowd gasp as Warwick slowed down and drove off the track and back to the pits to see what had happen. The right hand front suspension push rod was bent causing the right hand front chassis to drag on the ground. When we first looked at the damage we thought it was the end of our day because we didn’t have any spare parts and it was 2 hours turn around drive back to his workshop to fix it.

Warwick Hutchinson RPV02

Great thanks goes to Neil Lewis one of the competitors who lives 10mins from the track suggested to Warwick go back to his workshop to fix the push rod. Warwick decide to take both push rods and strengthen them just in case the left hand side bent as well. Warwick was only away from the track for 50 mins and took about 15 mins to put them back on the car and made it in time for the 2nd run. The 2nd official timed run was to check brakes and the recorded time was 44.84, then the 3rd run was 41.64, and 4th run was 41.55. With these great times Warwick was able to enter the top six at the end of the day and finished 2nd with his fastest time of 41.44. This was a great result as Warwick was only expecting a time of around 45 seconds. With such great times there was some good natured rivalry between Warwick and Darren Duffield who purchase the previous Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car (RPV01) from Warwick approximately 18 month earlier.

The Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars competing and their best runs were