Hillclimb,  Pebblebrook,  May 2004

TCS Racing is sponsored by :

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

This event,  the first of the 2004/2005 competition season was marked by fierce sibling rivalry within the team.  Both Troy and Timothy competed but in seperate cars.

The morning started off cold and foggy but by the time we arrived at the event the fog had cleared and the sun had come out.  By the end of the day it was a very comfortable temperature and the road was quite dry.  

There was an excellent turn out of vehicles with a total of 24 entries,  including a few new HCMC members and an entire family from Auckland Car Club (good to see them there).

Timothy competed using the teams Subaru Omega,  and this was his first event.  His first time was an unimpressive 1:25 but he had a dramatic improvement on his second run where he arrived at the finish in only 1:17.  That wasn't where he stopped though,  as he went on to acheive times of 1:11 and then 1:08.95 on his subsequent runs.  This was an impressive showing for a learner driver,  in his first hillclimb and with his first experience in this particular vehicle.  Timothy finished the event with the vehicle running just as well as it had when it started and with no panel damage,  despite admitting that he just about "owned the car" on one occasion.  Tim had a great time and is eager to compete again.

Troy was consistantly faster than Timothy,  but not by much.  Using the teams premier car,  a Toyota MR2 (SO863),  Troy started out with a dreadful time of 1:23.  Troy wasn't about to give up though and managed a 1:14 on his second run,  approximately a 9 second improvement.  The third run saw him cross the finish line another three seconds quicker with a run totalling 1:10.  Troy's final time was low to mid 1:08,  just slightly quicker than Timothy.  Despite the relative lack of speed Troy was pleased with the result and had enjoyed himself.  His primary goal of keeping the vehicle in one piece before the Dunlop Tires Targa Dash in June was achieved easily,  with Troy not having even one moment of panic in any of his four runs.  Troy's final time was still 3 seconds slower than his best ever time at Pebblebrook (1:05) which he achieved in the teams Subaru,  but cites the difference in speed as being a combination of four wheel drive (versus rear wheel drive on the MR2) and being more worried about the cost of the MR2.

The day was largely without incident.  Mike Barton had a fuel pump related problem on his first run but that was solved and he was back out competing in no time.  Don Ruby has some problems with his Escort due to a new Nissan engine having been installed,  but a new ECU solved some of the problems.  The rest of them will be solved by a replacement crank angle sensor which Don is looking to install.  Peter Bodley managed to climb a bank and stop his turbo charged Mazda 323 a foot short of the finish line,  parking it on an angle over some toy-toy's and gorse.  Although it just about rolled Peter did manage to keep it upright and several competitors as well as the finish marshalls eventually got him moving again.  This wasn't particularly good experience for his new co-driver - his daughter,  but she was back in the car with him on the next run anyway (well done!).  The youngest member (12 years) of the Auckland Car Club family also had a minor bingle while driving down the hill on a return from one of his runs,  but this only required some race tape to hold one corner of the bumper on for the rest of the day and the damage looked to be minor.  Jeff Torkington tore the sump guard of the teams MR2 (SO863) which he was sharing with Troy but this damage is also trivial and can probably be fixed in an hour by a competent welder.  Despite loosing the sump guard Jeff managed a time of 55 seconds on one run which was quite on the pace (the best times being around 54 seconds).  

The organisation was brilliant except for a slow start to the event and the lack of a caravan for the results team.  The club caravan is currently under going work to restore it to WOF compliance levels.

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

TCS Racing is sponsored by :