Rob Roy is Australia?s oldest hillclmb track. The first event to run there was in 1937 and the track was sealed a couple of years later in 1939. After a bushfire in 1962 the venue fell into disuse until resurrected by the MG Car Club in 1992. It?s a very short track at less than 700 metres and the last half, after crossing over a causeway, is very steep. The outright record is only 17.30 seconds.
This 7th round was not as well attended as the previous six rounds of the Championship with only 51 entrants fronting up. It was a bitterly cold day and threatening rain, but Jane Vollebregt, Ian Holdsworth and Steve Schmidt were there representing the Sporting Register.
Jane won her class (Sports Cars up to 2000cc), but the trophy was little consolation for severely damaging her recently resprayed MGBGT after sliding off the track and into the trees on the fastest part of the circuit.
Thankfully, apart from some seat belt bruising, Jane was unhurt; but the B will take a little longer to recover.
Ian was the quickest of the 3 Sporting Register entrants, finishing second in the big capacity Sports Car class and a very creditable 11th outright; but like many competitors, he had trouble finding grip on the very cold and patchy, damp track in his turbo-charged RX7. Your Editor, who has a well-known aversion to Rob Roy and usually stays away, needed some points in the Championship standings so put in a couple of mediocre runs before packing the Cooper S up at lunch time.
Most competitors took advantage of the smaller than usual field and managed to fit 5 runs in with the track drying out and becoming less cold later into the afternoon.
The next and penultimate round of the Championship is on the 18th August at our local Bryant Park venue in the Haunted Hills behind Newborough. It is one of, if not the, premier hillclimb track in Australia.
The bottom row of 5 photographs are courtesy of Gary Hill,? ELGEE WORDS and PICTURES elgee@netspace.net.au
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