Mount Panorama Hillclimb

Photos by Mike Shore

Brett and I attacked the NSW Hillclimb Championship again over the weekend. This time it was at Mount Panaorama, Bathurst for rounds 3 and 4, heading up The Esses on Saturday, and up Mountain Straight to the top on Sunday.

The double-header was originally scheduled for March, but floods in the central west of NSW made the highways to Bathurst impassable the day before, and the Bathurst Light Car Club were forced to postpone the events until May.

Brett and I got our cars sorted and our packing done on Friday afternoon, and the first stop was Caltex in Pendle Hill for a top-up of their high-ethanol blend E-Flex fuel. You'll also notice that my ’91 EB known affectionately as ‘Weekend Warrior’ served as its own tow car, the trailer carrying some extra spares and gear as the cars were full of tools and camping equipment.

We woke nice and early on Saturday morning to finish unloading the cars and I couldn't miss the opportunity to get a pic of the sunrise as viewed from the top of the Esses that we'd be driving on that day. Bloody hell it was cold though. According to the weather app on my phone, it was -1degC!

We also needed to change our tyres. The cars in our class need to be road registered, road legal and ready to pass a pink slip to match their paperwork (engine capacity, number of seats, etc), so we're allowed to run any tyres that are legal for the car (size, load rating, etc). I've got an old set of Pirelli P Zero Corsa that I found on eBay, while Brett has some Federal RSRs that he got from Tyres For Less in Fairfield.

With the cars changed and ready, it was time to line up for scruiteneering. Both cars passed without drama and the next thing was to attend the driver's briefing and then wait for our turn to have a play.

We headed down the hill to the Club Rooms carpark which was used to turn us around for the individual runs back up the hill. When it's your turn you do a skid to warm the rear tyes, continue up to the start line for the bloke with the wheel chock to hold the car in position, and then go for it after the light goes green.

The Esses are unbelievably steep. It's hard to appreciate it in pics if you haven't been there.

The walls are intimidating but the surface is even and predictable, so there are no nasty surprises waiting to cause the track to eat the car.

We each had four runs up the hill, and I'm very happy to report that I again finished 2nd in class, and this time was awarded a trophy to show for it. It was the first trophy I'd received for driving this silver car. I've built it myself, played with improving it on and off for over seven years, and it was on hallowed ground, so it meant a lot to me. I also remain 2nd in the class championship. Brett came in at 3rd and solidified his position in 3rd for the championship.

Thanks to Bob Wooton, Hillclimb NSW Chairman for the photo

Since it was a double-header we had decided to camp in McPhillamy Park, and despite the serious cold we're glad we did. We met some more great people and talked car stuff around a camp fire.

Before I went to bed, I decided to get a shot of Bathurst itself under lights.

Mike, who had come to take pics for us on the Saturday, decided he was enjoying himself so much that he stayed (in his car!). He had some fun with long exposures on his camera and we got up at sparrow's to get the sunrise.

We awoke on Sunday to frosts, -1degC again, and a thick fog over Bathurst. The entire valley was just a sea of white.

This did not clear fully until after the first group had done their first run. This meant that Brett approached turn 1 at speed for the first time ever in fog!

Did I mention that it was -1degC when we got up? It was so cold that the cars had a layer of ice on them. Who's genius idea was it to camp on Mount Panorama in May?!

Sunday's prep was much eaiser. The cars were already ready to go, and scruiteneering was streamlined for those who had competed on Saturday. They still checked ours for safety, but it was a bit quicker.

After another driver's briefing it was once again time to play, and oh wow the Mountain Straight run is awesome! If your car is setup for circuit work (stable in higher-speed corners, decent higher-revs power) then it is absolute magic! All those track days at Wakefield Park (and a few at Eastern Creek) certainly paid off in terms of both getting the suspension sorted and me confident enough to have a red-hot go even between the concrete walls. Unlike the previous round at Kempsey, I let the car wriggle a bit (both days) and didn't scare myself by doing so.

Brett disagreed, but we haven't dealt with the factory rear-steer on his yet, nor has he had practice getting used to that characteristic (and the lift-off oversteer) at speeds above 100km/h. The body-roll still indicates that he was trying though.

The run out of The Cutting and across the top is sensational. I took it almost flat from there to the finish line, just having a slight confidence lift to settle the car for the right-left flip flop at the highest point, the undulations, and the final left-hander at the finish line.

Brett got to let his big 351W sing properly, as his tall gearing was fairly well suited to the sweeping nature of this course. Brett finished the day 3rd in class again, and remains 3rd in the class championship.

Thanks again to Bob Wooton

I finished this 4th round of the NSW state Hillclimb Championship 2nd in the class, and remain 2nd in the class championship. I reckon that was pretty darn good for a car that served as its own tow car, and for a machine the officials were calling "The Mobile Barbeque" over the radio each time I lined up at the start (we ran E-Flex in competition, but it has to carry the LPG signage because the tank and system remain on-board).

We changed our cars back to their everyday road tyres as the sun set, packed up the camping gear, hitched up the trailer, and cruised on home with successful results, more friendships than we arrived with, and some excellent memories. I cannot recommend this form of motorsport enough. You just have to have a go for yourself!