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Back to May 2012 Motorsports News Archive
| 14-05-2012 at 07:00: Hutchinson Storms to Wet Hillclimb Victory | |
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Saturday afternoon saw competitors turn up to the Mt Cotton track wearing rain coasts and changing from their slicks to full wets as the rain was relentless. As drivers gathered round for the briefing, some old faces could be seen amongst the new and regulars. One of the old faces was Bill Norris who was having his first drive at the hillclimb in more then six years. When the event got underway the rain was still coming down strong and many drivers decided it was not time to hit the track. The few that did found the driving slow and treacherous with slow times being laid down. The fastest driver of the first run was Shane Merrick in his 2-litre Datsun 1200 Coupe with a time of 57.50 seconds. As the weekend went on Merrick posted his fastest time on run four with a 49.83 second pass. With is his best time posted on Sunday Shane ended the weekend first in class and 14th outright. The early battle for outright position was between Danny Mischok in his beast of a Ford Escort and Warren Robb in the Dino Kart. Danny chose to miss his first run of the day but took to the road on run two and set a fast time of 54.83 seconds. This was not fast enough to take the lead as Robb ran a 51.44 second pass on his second outing. Run three was faster again for Mischok but still not enough to take the lead. On his forth run Mischok would not see the finish line as the wet conditions got the better of this talented driver. With little damage to the car, Mischok would continue the event and set a time in the rest of the runs for the weekend where he ended first in class and fifth outright.
Second place outright was taken by a driver who elected to run only five of the nine runs and the third of those runs would be his best. Paul Van Wijk driving the BKZ 07 chose the only dry run of the weekend to set a time of 45.82 seconds. With this time he walked away with a first in class and second outright for the event. The time difference between first and second was 0.31 seconds, but that was all that was needed for Warwick Hutchinson in his powerful Van Dieman RF92-RPV02 to take the win. Having not turned a wheel on Saturday and coming out on Sunday to post a 45.51 second run on only his second outing for the event, Hutchinson proved he is a force to be reckoned with this year. A number of other drivers were picking runs throughout the weekend trying to do all they could to be best in class and as high up the outright order they can. One of these drivers was Ken Graham in his Datsun 1600 SSS powered by a 2.4-litre engine. Going out in the rain on Sunday Graham set a time of 61.68 seconds but ended his weekend with a class winning time of 49.17 seconds. The next event on the Hillclimb calendar is the Queensland Hillclimb Championships on the weekend of June 2 and 3. The Championships always brings out the best in drivers and is an event worth getting to. Photos by Phil Melvin |
The second round of the 2012 Tighe Cams Hillclimb series was not one for the faint hearted of driver as the weekend was full of sliding, spinning and slipping in the wet weather.
Robb in the Dino would continued improving his times over the weekend and set his fastest time on run seven. This time of 47.53 seconds would set this driver up for a first in class and at third outright.
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