2022 SHC King of the Hill – Class Finals
The podium positions have been decided in the Class Finals of King of the Hill at the 2022 Simola Hillclimb, with several of the top competitors having to contend with mechanical issues when it really counted.
This certainly wasn’t the case for the fastest cars in the field, though, as Andre Bezuidenhout posted his quickest time of the weekend at 35.041 I the Gould GR55 – 0.3 sec better than his qualifying performance, and just eight-hundredths of a second off his outright Simola Hillclimb record.
Robert Wolk was an impressive 1.5 seconds quicker in the Pillbeam (37.290 sec) to take second place in Class C3 behind Bezuidenhout.
Byron Mitchell took the Class C2 victory with an exceptional time of 39.847 sec. Andrew Rackstraw was 0.042 sec quicker but his time was deleted after clipping a corner marker. Devin Robertson won Class C5 (39.768 sec), while Rui Campos was victorious in C6 (41.558 sec).
Owen Bridger pipped Graeme Nathan to the Class B2 victory by a mere 0.016 sec with a time of 43.908 sec, with Pierre Bester taking B3 (46.799 sec) after Anton Cronje’s Subaru Impreza WRX STi came to a halt shortly after the start.
B4 went to Charl Joubert (40.112 sec), 1.4 seconds ahead of Wade van Zummeren’s wild Nissan GT-R.
Franco Scribante produced his best run of the day in the multi-winged Nissan GT-R on 39.382 sec, but his rivals faltered as Reghard Roets’ electronic troubles weren’t cured in his GT-R and he was almost 6 seconds slower, eventually retiring from the event before the Top 10 Shootout.
Class B7 went to Ricky Giannoccaro (44.390 sec), with the big and brash Nissan Patrol of Arnold du Plessis taking B9 (58.816 sec).
JP van der Walt secured the Class A4 win in the Porsche 911 Turbo S (44.934 sec), ahead of Deon Joubert in the BMW M4 Competition (46.753 sec). Gordon Nicholson (Audi R8 V10 Plus) claimed Class A6 (46.726 sec), with the A7 title going to Garth Mackintosh in the McLaren 720s (46.495 sec).
Ciro de Siena chipped away further at his time in the BMW i40 M50 and claimed the electric vehicle record at the Simola Hillclimb of 49.307 sec. Jonathan Mogotsi finished second, ahead of VW Motorsport team-mate Daniel Rowe in the all-electric VW e-Golfs.
Jared Yeo won Class A1 in the Porsche Cayman 718s (49.412 sec), with the A3 crown going to Farhaad Ebrahim (46.041 sec) in the Toyota Supra. Sean Mackay earned the A5 title in the Porsche 911 GT3 (54.205 sec).
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Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)
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