This weekend saw the 8th running of the Simola Hillclimb at Knysna, where more than 15 000 spectators arrived to watch a total of 64 competitors –including multiple circuit racing and rally champions, motoring celebrities, as well as guest drivers from the US – take part in the annual event. The line-up of machinery that ascended the hill comprised a multitude of single-seaters and sports cars, modified saloon cars and road and supercars.
In the headlining Single Seaters and Sports Cars class, Andre Bezuidenhout smashed Franco Scribante’s 2016 lap record of 38.646 sec by almost a full second at the wheel of a Dallara F189 Formula One car. He blitzed the 1.9-kilometre Hillclimb course in an astonishing new official lap record of 37.695 sec at an average speed of no less than 181.456 kph.
The three winners of the 2017 King of the Hill titles: Wilhelm Baard, Reghard Roets and Andre Bezuidenhout.
Bezuidenhout set his fastest time of 37.162 sec during the fourth qualifying session, but could not replicate the time in the Class Finals, which took place in cooler conditions. Scribante, who was seeking his third King of the Hill title in a 1972 Chevron B26, finished second and Robert Wolk placed third in the Formula Renault V6.
In the Modified Saloon Car category 2011 winner Wilhelm Baard and 2015 title-holder Des Gutzeit – both driving highly-tuned Nissan GT-Rs – duked it out in a nail-biting Top 10 Shoot Out. Baard's 2014 R35 GT-R set a new record (and broke the 40-second barrier in the class for the first time) with a blistering time of 39.892 sec.
Ride on board with Cars.co.za road test editor Ashley Oldfield for his run up the hill in the Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport.
Gutzeit's 1992 R32 GT-R was second with a time of 40.114 sec (despite eclipsing his own 2015 record of 40.148 sec) and Anton Cronje finished third in his 2013 Subaru Impreza WRX.
Meanwhile, the Road and Super Car category saw a thrilling tussle between the two latest-specification 2017 Nissan GT-Rs of Reghard Roets and outgoing champion Jaki Scheckter, along with a pair of Jaguar F-Type SVR entries of multiple US racing champion Randy Pobst and Dawie Olivier.
Roets (centre) was joined on the Road and Super Car category podium by Pobst (left) and Scheckter.
Despite damaging his car's rear suspension on Saturday, Roets set the fastest lap ever in a road-legal car of 44.766 sec on Sunday to earn this King of the Hill title for 2017. Pobst took second place in the Top 10 Shoot Out with 44.999 sec in the F-Type SVR Coupe, Scheckter was third with 45.171 sec and Olivier was fourth in a Jaguar F-Type SVR Convertible.
Meanwhile, Cars.co.za Road Test Editor, Ashley Oldfield, finished second in Class A3 with his Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport with a time of 47.592 sec, behind Robert Gearing, who set the fastest time of 47.398 at the wheel of a BMW M3 Competition Pack.
Cars.co.za's Ashley Oldfield (left) finished second in the Class A3 category of the 2017 Jaguar Simola Hillclimb.
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