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MOTORING NEWS AND GALLERY - With spectators returning to the annual Simola Hillclimb for the first time since 2019, the event proved to be a spectacle worthy of much bigger crowds as records were sent tumbling down the Simola Hill faster than the cars could climb it.
This year was the 12th running of the Hillclimb since its inception in 2009.
It has run every year, only taking a break in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and has continuously grown in both stature and spectacle.
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There was an air of excitement around the Hillclimb this year as spectators were welcomed back, albeit limited to 2 000 people per day.
Classic Car Friday
As per custom, the event kicked off on Thursday 5 May with the display and scrutineering of the Classic Car Friday competitors in Hedge Street before their parade down Waterfront Drive.
The biggest development to come from this was that six-time winner Franco Scribante's 1970 Chevron B19 and the similar 1971 car of Peter Jenkins did not pass the pre-event technical inspection and both were ruled out before running even began.
On Friday, fellow regular Classic Car Friday challenger André Bezuidenhout was ruled out of the day when his 1976 Lola Cosworth T460 was accidentally hit from behind by the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Richard Evans during the return run down the hill to the pits.
This meant three of the regular classic competitors were out, opening the door for others to summit the hill.
The man who benefited from the opportunity was Ian Schofield, who soared to the top of Classic Car Friday to win his first Classic Conqueror title, completing the course in 42,303 seconds in his 1977 March Ford 77B Formula Atlantic single-seater in the Top 10 Shootout.
King of the Hill
The most highly anticipated racing though was the line-up of the 84 cars that took part in the King of the Hill competition on Saturday and Sunday, 7 and 8 May.
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The weather looked set to have a large impact on the weekend when heavy rains poured over Knysna on Friday night and light rain continued to fall on Saturday morning.
But in true Knysna fashion, it cleared up on Saturday afternoon just in time for the first three qualifying sessions.
Perhaps spurred on by his lack of competition on Friday, Bezuidenhout was a man on a mission up the hill, clocking quick times in every practice and qualifying session he took part in over the course of the weekend in his purpose-built 2007 Gould GR55.
He was also being pushed by a rapid Robert Wolk, who was tackling a new configuration in his 1989 Pillbeam MP58.
Ever the determined and competitive racer, Wolk was consistently nipping at Bezuidenhout's heels, reminding him that were he to slip up, Wolk would pounce without hesitation.
However, a slip-up never came as Bezuidenhout was as focused and locked on as ever. During the class finals he came within touching distance of the Hillclimb record he set in 2021, only eight-hundredths of a second off the time.
Top 10 Shootout
The best was yet to come from Wolk and Bezuidenhout, the only two men to ever run sub-38 second times up the hill, in the Top 10 Single Seater and Sport Car Shootout on Sunday.
Wolk flew up the hill in a personal best time of 36,338 seconds during the shootout.
With temperatures starting to drop and shade descending on parts of the track in the late afternoon, Bezuidenhout had his work cut out for him.
But boy, did he deliver. From a standing start, Bezuidenhout ascended the hill at an incredible average speed of 201,18km/h to set a frankly ridiculous new record time of 34,161 seconds. But he didn't rest on his laurels.
"With that 34,1 second time, a 33 must be possible, so I'm definitely coming back," he quipped at the end of the day.
Records
While the top time of the weekend, Bezuidenhout's record wasn't the only time written into the Hillclimb history books last weekend.
In the Modified Saloon Cars Top 10 Shootout, Franco Scribante was lightning quick, blitzing up the hill in 38,129 seconds in his 2016 Nissan R35 GT-2 to set a new Modified Saloon Car record.
Motoring journalist Ciro de Siena also set a new all-electric vehicle record of 49,231 seconds and finished a credible eighth overall in the Road and Super Cars Top 10 Shootout in his BMW i4 M50.
