QUEENDSLAND HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIPS, Saturday & Sunday, 13th & 14th Jun, 2009
Queensland produce beautiful weather for the Queensland Hillclimb Championships this year and attracted competitors from over Australia and this year was no exception. With competitors from Coffs Harbour, Sydney, Victoria and of course Queensland. There were a total of 66 entries this year with 19 open wheeler racing cars which was a huge turn out for this category.
Drivers Briefing
The competition this year was very close and the spectators were treated to exciting competition between the outright racing cars. After 6 competition runs the Queensland Champion for 2009 was Peter Gumley (NSW) in his Wortmeyers SCV with a time of 37.97 sec, 2nd place was Alan McConnell (QLD) in his Van Diemen RF87 with a time of 38.09 sec and 3rd place was Tom Donovan (NSW) in his Pilbeam MP82 with a time of 38.97 sec.
The only Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars entered in the QHC this year were Warwick Hutchinson in his RPV02 and Darren Duffield in his RPV01. Darren Duffield drove exceptional well whilst still learning to get the best out of the RPV01 but managed to impress on each and every run.
Warwick's RPV02
Darren's RPV01
With Warwick still sorting out the new RPV02 there were a few issues with the brakes with the sizes of the brake master cylinders causing uneven brake bias this lead to the front wheels locking up under heavy braking. Unfortunately Warwick was unable to fix the problem on the day and will hopefully have the brakes all sorted for the next round at Noosa on the 20th and 21st Jun.
RPV02 Brake Lock Up
The Rotary Hillclimb Racing Cars competing and their best runs were
Darren Duffield (RPV01 13B Turbo) 40.70
Warwick Hutchinson (RF92-RPV02 13B Turbo) 40.84
Top Ten Results were
Peter Gumley (NSW) 37.97
Alan McConnell (Qld) 38.09
Tom Donovan (NSW) 38.97
Greg Ackland (Vic) 39.22
Doug Barry (NSW) 39.32
Rod Johns (Qld) 39.94
Bill Norman (Qld) 40.44
Darren Duffeild (Qld) 40.7 (RPV01 – Rotary Hillclimb Racking Car)
Warwick Hutchinson (Qld) 40.84 (RF92-RPV02 Rotary Hillclimb Racing Car)
Stan Pobjoy (NSW) 41.57
The next hillclimb event is at Noosa 20th & 21st June 2009