After some light overnight rain, the King of the Hill competitors are back in action this morning in clear and warm conditions for the 2024 Simola Hillclimb. The opening warm-up session started with a bit of drama as Wade van Zummeren got out of shape in the final two corners in his specially built rear-wheel drive 2002 Nissan R34 GT-R, hitting the banking in spectacular fashion. This led to all three Van Zummeren Nissan GT-Rs ultimately being withdrawn from the event as Jody failed to make the start with his 1994 R32, and Martin’s 2002 R34 suffered a bent crankshaft yesterday afternoon.
Dawie Joubert remains the leading contender in class B for Modified Saloon Cars, powering his Ferrari-powered Lotus Exige to the fastest time of the session of 38.921 seconds, just a tenth off his best qualifying time from Saturday.
Reghard Roets had a clean run to post a time of 39.044 seconds (0.2 sec slower than yesterday) in his Nissan R35 GT-R. Charl Joubert remained third-fastest (39.220 sec) in the Honda-powered Lotus Elise, just ahead of Franco Scribante in his multi-winged Nissan R35 GT-R (39.508 sec) and Pieter Zeelie in the Toyota MR2 Super GT (39.911 sec) – so it’s currently four top contenders in the 39-second mark.
Robert Wolk’s morning qualifying session in the Infinity Indycar V8-powered Pillbeam MP58 was hampered by a technical glitch and he wasn’t able to complete his run. This left Ian Schofield to lead class C in this session for Single Seaters and Sports Protoypes in the Mygale SJ Formula Ford (42.791 sec), ahead of Rui Campos on 43.363 seconds, a full second off his Q2 time from yesterday in the Shelby CanAm.
In the standard production vehicle class A, JP van der Walt remains the leading contender in the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S, posting a time of 43.161 seconds (0.4 slower than Q1). Clint Weston followed suit in a series of dramatic four-wheel drifts in the mighty 2023 Mercedes-AMG GT63 E-Performance hybrid on the 1.9 km Simola Hill, starting off with a time of 44.538 seconds. Cristiano Verolini retained third place in the session (44.897 sec) in the 2023 BMW M4 Competition xDrive.
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Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)