The thrilling King of the Hill challenge has commenced at the 15th edition of the Simola Hillclimb – fortunately with dry and much warmer weather compared to yesterday’s icy and wet Classic Car Friday.
Reigning Single Seater and Sports Car champion Robert Wolk topped the session in his first-ever run in the 2005 Gould GR55B with a time of 39.302 seconds. This car was recently acquired by the InvestChem team from a private owner in the UK in pieces, and has had almost no testing before the Simola Hillclimb. Accordingly, Wolk and the WCT race crew will be using today to refine the setup of the car.
Unfortunately Andre Bezuidenhout was ruled out of this year’s event as his Gould’s engine is still being rebuilt in the UK.
Top Modified Saloon Car contender Reghard Roets was second fastest on 41.923 seconds in his wild Nissan R35 GT-R, ahead of last year’s category winner Dawie Joubert in the Ferrari 488-powered Lotus Exige – less than four-hundredths of a second adrift.
Seven-time World Rallycross (WRX) champion Johan Kristoffersson completed his first-ever run up the 1.9km Simola Hill with a solid time of 43.579 seconds in the 2023 title-winning all-electric Volkswagen Polo RX1e, placing him seventh so far.
AMG Driving Academy head Clint Weston was the fastest of the standard Road Car and Supercar competitors with a time of 45.313 seconds in the South African debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT SE E Performance, but his time was disqualified for clipping a corner marker. This gave AMG Driving Academy lead instructor Courtney Nicholl the top time of 48.433 seconds in the AMG C63 SE E Performance.
