Hillclimb,  Pebblebrook,  September 2003

TCS Racing is sponsored by :
ALTO

Results for this event can be found on the HCMC site.
Photos from this event can be found here.

This was a great days racing, and a pretty good day for our team overall.  With SO863 under repair and ME8579 waiting for some attention before we renew the WOF our team had to use the new Subaru Omega just recently purchased.

This turned out to be an excellent choice for the Pebblebrook venue. While the Subaru doesn't have the power, brakes, low centre of gravity or stiff suspenson of SO863 it has four wheel drive (and it's a much cheaper vehicle !). Troy's first run up the hill was quite slow, being around 1:19, as he was extremely nervous.  Driving SO863 up Pebblebrook last time was not much fun for Troy and his memory of that event plus his attempt at taking some (expert) advice he wasn't ready for slowed him down.

Troy's second run was much faster measuring a 1:10, a nine second improvement ! Sean was also competing on the day, and his first run was approximately the same time (1:10).  Seans second time brought that down to a 1:06.  By this time Troy was starting to get a feel for the new vehicle and proceeded to improve by another 2 seconds, with a time of around 1:08.

Sean, not to be outdone out performed Troy by three seconds scoring a high 1:05. Unfortunately on Seans following run something went horribly wrong and he stood the car on it's nose again,  much like he did with ME8579 at Taupo earlier this year.  Fortunately he was uninjured and the car came back down right side up,  after having carved a new ditch in the road.  The damage was not too bad (photos will be posted here when available), and with a little assistance from various club members we were able to straighten out the guard and continue racing.

Troy went out again in the newly modified Subaru and proceeded to prove the damage was purely cosmetic by putting in a time of 1:05:36, which Sean was unable to beat that day.  Both Troy and Sean put in one more time each,  Troy managing a 1:05:82 and sean another 1:06. It was obvious at this point that the four-wheel drive was a real confidence booster for Troy, at least on gravel. Troy also got several compliments about his 'launch' technique, which he admits was largely a racing start on gravel that only worked because the four wheel drive system was 'doing it's thing'.

Although the official results haven't been posted at the time of writing,  we believe Troy managed to take out the full 10 points for the HCMC 1601-2000cc class championship, with Sean gaining a probably 9 points.

The best time of the day was 52.40,  which was mammoth effort by Eric Uhe.  Dale Crossley was only slightly behind with a time of around 53 seconds.  Well done also to Harold Bennett who managed to break the magic minute in his Celica.

The weather wasn't too bad, mostly sunny with a few light showers and only two heavy spots of rain.  Pebblebrook itself had just been rolled & graded but there were a couple of washouts from the night before and much of the road was slippery clay rather than grippy gravel.

The organisation was pretty good, with no obvious problems except being short one battery to run the radios, however this was quickly rectified and the event was underway.  With Seans accident being the only real incident and the event being run so well the official runs were over by about 3:00pm, with a couple of unofficial runs done at the end by those who were interested.

Thanks to all the volunteers, organisers and competitors who turned up or helped out on the day.

Results for this event can be found on the HCMC site.
Photos from this event can be found here.

TCS Racing is sponsored by :