Noosa Winter Hillclimb June 2021

By Shane Murphy, pics by Shane Murphy and Dick Reynolds.

The Sunshine Coast weather typically presents a challenge to organisers and competitors at the Winter Hillclimb, the BOM website must have been given a hammering in the days leading up to this year’s event.

This year no surprises as rain fell on Friday and Saturday, interrupting the program but not enough to scare the competitors away.

A big shout out to the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club for the event organisation, no doubt that Covid regulations seeded a level of management complexity, but the club met the challenge very effectively.

Friday is typically set up, registration and scrutineering day, we were presented with a manicured pit area, special call out to Peter Quinn, Jason and Curtis McGarry and team Eureka Landscapes for a great job getting the park ready.

The Friday night reception at The Boiling Pot Brewery was a big hoot, the group comradery set us up for a very special weekend. Some reports (unconfirmed) were circulating that on Friday night, after the reception shindig, that there was a toga party and massage therapy session going down in one of the Big 4 cabins, no names no pack drill.

Our group, one of the biggest club cohorts, with a few ring-ins made for a solid team, across a range of classes.

Clubman Cars (0 to 1600 cc)
• Shane Murphy – Lotus 7
• Jon Young – Caterham 7

Clubman Cars (1601 to 2000cc)
• Jason McGarry – Caterham 7
• Dick Reynolds – Caterham 7

Sports Cars -Two Seater – (0 to 2000cc)
• Peter Quinn – Lotus Elise
• Pat Richards – Lotus Elise

Sports Cars -Two Seater – (2001 to 3000cc)
• David Yule – Lotus Elise S

Standard Production Cars (> 2001 cc)
• John (Ross) Johnson – Toyota 86 Coupe

Regularity Cars – Open Class
• Max Stephenson – Aston Martin Le Mans

Classic Cars 1950 to 1969 – Open Class
• Robin Manning – Morris Mini

We missed Zaid and Gayle, word on the street is that when Zaid gets his Exige back on the track, it will be weapon, watch out Jason.

The pre-event preparations were intense.

Dick with his newly re-re-re-built Kent engine and A050 tyres rattled into pits, all ears to any “shaking can of spoons” type noises.

Pat was determined to get the weight of his Elise down and spent the best part of a day wrangling the passenger door glass into the correct space, Peter offered to knock out the heavy lump of glass, the offer was of course kindly rejected. Robyn off loaded her left-hand golf clubs as a further effort to manage the Elise’s weight and competitiveness.

Robin Manning managed to get his new brake kit installed on Saturday morning, brakes are so overrated, but Robin did manage to keep his Mini on four wheels all weekend.

As predicted, the Saturday competition kicked off in drizzly weather, just wet enough to get your attention, Sunday was predicted to be dry so all was not lost. Jason did admit that on those early Saturday runs, he was a little scarred!

Luckily for us, Flick Coffee was on hand to keep our focus and heart rates in the correct operating range.

A couple of celebrity entrants mixed up the field, Roland Dane in a Subaru, Fabian Coulthard in a fire eating Porsche GT3 and Broc Feeney in an Audi.

David Yule was a first-time runner in his Elise, another convert I expect.

The Saturday program was challenged by an intermittent timing system glitch and the odd shower of rain.

Jon was running on medium compound rubber, and in order to be competitive adopted a new technique, appropriately labelled the (“T and T”) methodology, of course, what happens on camp stays on camp, however one of the T’s is Tantric. Let your imagination run wild.

The weekend was not without the usual mechanical gremlins, Jon split the bum in his race suit after a particularly hair- raising run which included a frightening high-speed excursion over the infield at corner 4 and a short airborne flight back onto the track, Jon managed to repair his suit with zip ties and race tape, no vehicle damage done

I had intermittent oil pressure issues all weekend, a post-race investigation determined that my Big End and Main Bearings were toast.

And of course, do not mention Voodoo.

Did I mention that I set a PB!

Best times for a successful weekend.

Next event is shaping up to be a three-day event in early October (Spring Hillclimb), if you are looking for a challenging event with a great social vide, head to the next Noosa event.