The 2022 edition of King of the Hill at the 12th Simola Hillclimb is officially underway, but the competitors face extremely difficult conditions following heavy overnight rain and a continuous drizzle this morning.
The sodden 1.9 km Simola Hill already claimed its first victim during the opening practice as Haydn Ellwood (1992 Swift S92F) was a bit to eager on the throttle in the Esses and went off, hitting the bank and damaging the suspension leading to an early retirement.
While several competitors elected to stay in the pits for P1 – including reigning King of the Hill Andre Bezuidenhout – many others used it as a shakedown. Franco Scribante (2016 Nissan R35 GT-R) led the opening stint with a time of 46.650 sec – although he is expected to go around 7 seconds faster in the dry.
Reghard Roets had his first run up the Simola Hill in the BB Motorsport 2014 Nissan R35 GT-R after taking over the machine from Wilhelm Baard this year. He was second (48.561 sec), followed by Byron Mitchell in the 2002 Formula VW single seater, ahead of Aldo Scribante (2011 Audi S4) and Robert Wolk in the Nissan Infiniti V8-powered 1989 Pillbeam MP58.
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Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)
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