Well, the drive to Kempsey (well Cooperabung to be precise) was as uneventful as a trip up the F3 and Pacific highway can be and I arrived at the hillclimb track around 1pm. After seeing cars lining up at the base of a hill, I realised that this was going to be one scary ride, the cars were racing off towards a tight right kink and disappearing around a corner.
After that session finished I was able to drive up the course myself to the pit area and was pretty taken aback as to how daunting the track was - tight, blind and FAST.
I went through the paperwork and attended scrutineering, and got my sticker to say I was good to go... Lining up with a few other tin-tops I had a chat and was told to take it easy, especially the last corner as it had savage camber changes.
I had decided to leave my car in street trim; with Dunlop Direzza Z1 tyres and muffler silencer left in. This would give me a good idea of the pace of the corners, without giving too much too soon.
I lined up for my first run, did a burnout and got to the line gingerly - then spun off the line and accelerated full pace up the hill, heading to a simple left-right chicane where I found 3rd gear and then a hard left 'hairpin' which was 2nd gear. Out of the hair pin it is 2nd gear to redline and then find 3rd for the multi-apex right hand sweeper to the finish line. The hardest part is definitely the last apex of the sweeper, where the car just feels like it is going to slide off into the tyre barrier on the left!
Anyway, 32 seconds was that run, which was in the ballpark of what I was expecting, I did a few more practice runs and got down to 31 seconds (still in full street trim). I felt confident that 20 more HP and my semi slicks would see that drop by maybe 1.5 seconds.
It rained overnight, and it was cool and damp on the mountain, but I changed over to my Kuhmo V70A semi-slicks and removed the silencer and topped up the oil. I felt ready and was feeling the nerves... I was glad that I was the last car out of 60 that would be running up the hill - the others will dry the track out to some extent, as would the warmth of the sun... Guys were coming up saying it was slippery but manageable but I still took it easy on my first run, getting a 31.5 as a 'banker'.
The next two runs I was pushing harder, but this meant I was finding wheel spin at inopportune times, like out of the hairpin and around the inside of the final corner - where you don’t want any traction issues! So I managed a 30.6 and a 30.7 on these two runs and was very frustrated at my wheel spin!
You can hear the problems the wheel spin was causing on these video: {addign soon!}
My mate Steve (driving a worked Gen III V8 sedan) was also frustrated with me, as we'd hatched a plan the night be before to be within a second of each other like we had been during practice (he also practiced on street tyres)... He asked about my tyre pressures and I told him that I was running what I run at the track - 34psi. He told me I was crazy and to drop pressure to 30psi or lower!
I dropped my tyres to 31psi for the last run of the day, not really sure how this was going to feel, but damn the car hooked up on the slippery surface much better and I launched very hard out of the starting box to be hitting 3rd gear rev limiter after the chicane and the hairpin was even better as I was able to hold almost full throttle from the apex... The third gear run around the top sweeper was much more controlled and I was able to guide the car with the steering wheel rather than the throttle! I split the beams with a 29.7 time which was a new class record! I guess I have Steve to thank for this, and learnt a valuable lesson about hillclimbing - tyre pressure should not be the same as it is on the race track!!
Packing up was a chore, and we waited around for teh trophy presentation, which was well worth it as the hillclimber is a great bunch of guys and girls, so it was good to de-brief with them and discuss the upcoming Bathurst rounds.
For more hillcl;imb information, click here.
Here are a few pics of some of the faster cars:
Car 27, on the big LH hairpin, plenty of room it seems, but you approach it in 3rd at 8600rpm in my car...
Dave Homer in his Swift with EVO 6 running gear
Reece - Improved Production 180SX, 29.4 seconds
Scott Tutton - Lacer EVO2, 28.0 seconds
Doug Barr - WINNER - LOLA F3000, 22.9 seconds
