It’s official – the Simola Hillclimb has an all-new record! Andre Bezuidenhout lived up to all expectations and powered the agile 2007 Gould GR55 to the best-ever time on the 1.9 km Simola Hill, stopping the clock in 35.164 seconds – 0.364 sec quicker than his previous record time from 2018. He achieved an average speed from the standing start of 194.517 km/h!

In the process he also claimed the Class C3 title, ahead of Robert Wolk in the A1 GP with his best time of the weekend thus far at 36.819 seconds.

Devin Robertson claimed the Class C4 win with a time of 41.166 seconds in the Radical SR1 Clubsport, while Class C5 went to the ADR MCE of James Forbes (47.388 sec). In the battle of the Shelby CanAm racers, Rui Campos took the victory in the mighty Ford 5.0-litre V8-powered car (42.290 sec) with Knysna resident Michael Verrier having to settle for the runner-up position in his Nissan 3.5 V6-powered machine (44.063 sec).

Modified Saloon Cars

Franco Scribante has established a new Modified Saloon Car record for the Simola King of the Hill during this afternoon’s highly-anticipated Class Finals. He pushed the multi-winged 2016 Nissan R35 GT-R, known as the “Sherriff”, to the absolute limit to set the fastest-ever time for a saloon car on the 1.9 km Simola Hill, crossing the timing beam in 39.303 seconds – 0.039 sec quicker than his record-breaking 2019 time.

This handed him the Class B5 title, beating second-placed Wilhelm Baard (2014 Nissan R35 GT-R) by 0.778 seconds (40.081 sec). Unfortunately Wade van Zummeren’s exceptional run in the wild 2002 Nissan R34 GT-R came to a halt in the Class Finals. He had arguably his best start of the weekend, but the car slowed and came to a stop before Turn 3 with a technical issue.

Dawie Joubert topped the times in Class B4, powering his Ferrari-engined Lotus to a winning time of 40.455 seconds, ending half a second faster than Pieter Zeelie (2002 Toyota MR2), with Charl Joubert (Honda V6-powered 2005 Lotus Elise) third on 41.254 seconds.

Charl Arangies won Class B7 in the 2019 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo (40.722 sec), ousting Silvio Scribante in an identical car (42.047 sec). Despite having a big off on Saturday due to a broken steering column on the 2000 Jaguar V8 Supercar, and not expected to return to the hillclimb action, Franco di Matteo and his team performed a small miracle and got the big Jag repaired and back in the fray, ending third with a time of 42.763 sec.

In Class B3 Anton Cronje was the class of the field in his 2013 Subaru Impreza WRX STi (42.743 sec), with Shane Naidu (2007 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) taking the runner-up position with a time of 45.262 seconds. Pierre Bester’s run in the 2014 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG came to nothing as his time was deleted due to a track limits penalty.

Johan de Bruyn (2009 BMW M3) won Class B6 on 46.706 seconds, ahead of Paul Munro (2003 BMW M3 CSL) on 46.744 seconds and Karel Stols in the screaming rotary-engined 1993 Mazda RX-7 FD (49.355 sec). Owen Bridger won Class B2 in the 2007 Honda Civic Type-R (47.592 sec), while Juan van Rensburg took the B1 title in his 2001 VW Scirocco (50.913 sec).

Udo de Beurges took Class B9 in the 2019 Audi RSQ3 (50.473 sec), ahead of Paige Lindenberg in the muscular supercharged 5.0-litre V8 Ford Ranger RTR Savage 660 (55.860 sec) and Ryno Scheepers in the dinky rotary-engined 1976 Mazda F1000 bakkie (57.069 sec).

Road-going Saloon Cars and Supercars

Popular production car racer Reghard Roets produced a giant-killing performance in the little 2020 MINI John Cooper Works GP, winning Class A1 with a time of 48.599 seconds, ahead of Jared Yeo (2017 Porsche 718s Cayman) on 49.722 seconds and Willie Stander in the 1990 Opel Kadett Superboss (54.574 sec).

Piet Potgieter produced a solid run in 50.014 seconds to take Class A3 in the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio, with A5 going to JP van der Walt who managed to fix his 2016 Porsche GT3 RS in record time after crashing in the morning warm-up. His time of 46.807 seconds was over six seconds faster than second-placed Feroz Ebrahim in the BMW Z4M Coupe (52.844 sec) and Francois Cowley (1989 BMW 3-Series) on 56.948 seconds.

Gordon Nicholson earned the Class A6 title in the 2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus with a time of 46.722 seconds. Class A7 went to Peter Lindenberg in the beefy 2016 Shelby Mustang Terlingua (52.072 sec) ahead of the Shelby Mustang Super Snake of Jonathan Needham (53.371 sec).

Gqeberha’s Latest News and Events can be accessed on MyGqeberha.com.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE

Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

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