KNYSNA MOTORING NEWS - The 10th edition of the Jaguar Simola Hillclimb crowned a new King of the Hill champion on Sunday and saw the reign of two others extended with a thrilling finale at South Africa's premier motorsport lifestyle event.
The biggest news was Franco Scribante taking his first King of the Hill title in the extremely competitive Modified Saloon Car category, powering his radical 2016 Nissan GT-R to a new Class B record time of 39,274 seconds. He ousted 2018 winner Wilhelm Baard who had to settle for second place in the final Top 10 Shootout.
"It was an interesting King of the Hill as it was getting dark for the Top 10 finale and we had a misfire that developed in the final run, but it all came together and the entire team is so happy to take this victory after working extremely hard to get the car ready for the Hillclimb," Scribante stated. Scribante yet again stamped his authority on the Classic Car Friday event winning his fifth Classic Conqueror title, and fourth in a row, in thrilling fashion.
In the Single Seater and Sportscar category, Andre Bezuidenhout fought off a strong challenge from Robert Wolk (2009 A1 GP Ferrari) to secure his third win a row. He powered the specialist Gould GR55 Hillclimb car to a winning time of 36,764 seconds – with his outright record of 35,528 seconds remaining unbeaten due to much cooler conditions this year.
It was a similar story for Reghard Roets who made it a hat-trick of victories in the Road Car and Supercar category, after slashing his 2018 time by 0,8 seconds to set a new Class A record of 44,094 seconds in his Nissan GT-R.
Gennaro Bonafede was a fan favourite in his BMW M2 Competition car.
Accidents
Blake Linder of Knysna-Plett Herald reports that while Sunday's racing was devoid of any crashes, there had been one in Friday's Classic Car competition and two on Saturday in the King of the Hill competition, both during Practice 4.
Brian Bruce crashed his Ford GT40 on Friday, while Saturday's crashes came at the unfortunate hands of Wessel Maritz in his Volkswagen Golf 7R while Charl Joubert was the third and final crash at this year's Hillclimb in his Lotus Elise. All three drivers escaped noticeable injuries.
Over 17 000 spectators attended the 2019 Jaguar Simola Hillclimb over the three exhilarating days of Hillclimb action. The event was also livestreamed with more than 225 000 views over the weekend.
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