The Australian Hillclimb Championships 2024 took place from the 24th of October to the 27th at Bryant Park Hillclimb track in Gippsland, Victoria.
With over 100 cars entered it was geared up to be a great weekend of action packed racing, and it sure was all of that.
The Yacar crew had 3 karts entered: Patrick Malanaphy and Rob Withers in the 750-1300cc class, and Matthew Healy in the up to 750cc class. Rob had travelled all the way from Canberra to compete.
Thursday and Friday was practice, and gave everyone the opportunity to dial in their cars and do some set up changes to ensure everything was perfect for the racing on Saturday and Sunday.
The Yacar team arrived at the track on Thursday afternoon and kicked off with some strong testing. Rob had never been on the track, so he done as many runs as possible to try and learn the track. The Bryant Park Hillclimb is very technical, with a lot of off-camber corners and blind crests, this event used the infamous figure 8 track which is one of the more technical. Matthew is a local, and had competed there earlier this year, so he done a couple of practice runs just to ensure everything was as it should be with the kart. Patrick however didn’t have a very smooth practice session on Thursday, issues with the brakes resulted in some difficult runs, however after some diagnosing the team were able to rectify this issue, being a sticking handbrake lever….. FFS.
Friday was the only day for timed practice, with a total number of runs for each competitor to be 4. The Yacar team used this day to find the best racing lines and braking points. After the first few runs it was clear that it would be a tight battle in the top 10. Only 1 second separated a few of the front runners in both Yacar Classes. Rob was a couple of seconds off the pace as he was running the gold speed tyres and not the slicks. Patrick was fastest on the Yacar team but only by 0.2 seconds to Matthew. After practice was over, the team debriefed in a local public house and probably consumed too many Carlton Dry’s….
Saturday was RACE DAY, and the team were all off to a good start, Rob continued to improve his pace through consistency, and now he was on the R20 Hoosier slicks. However, due to the extra grip the had started unloading the rear springs under heavy braking. Rob, being an engineer and set up wizard, made some set up changes to overcome this.
Matthew was on the pace from the get go, once the flag drops, the bullshit stops…. And boy was he pushing. After the first couple of runs he was leading the class by 1 second and was getting faster. His driving style is very clean and tidy, and he can make small adjustments to get every little bit extra from the kart.
Patrick started the day fast also, and immediately went to second in class behind Brett Hayward. Brett has previously won the Australian championships numerous times and is a bit of a legend around Bryant Park. As the day progressed Patrick managed to get his times down to 56.17 seconds, however this was not enough to keep Ewan Moile at bay who pipped him with an impressive 55.04 seconds.
Sunday was the final day of the event, and there were a total of 3 timed runs in the schedule. Rob was getting quicker and quicker throughout the weekend and Sunday was more of this, with Rob ending up with the fastest time of 59.04 achieved on his last run of the weekend. This positioned him an impressive 16th Outright.
Patrick tried to be a hero on his first run of the day and ended up clipping a cone and kerb on the 4th corner, this resulted in him putting a cone onto the middle of the track for his next pass through the crossover, and whilst trying to avoid this he spun out…. IDIOT. When he got back to the pits he realized he had hurt his arm from the steering wheel jolt and needed to see the medics. When he returned to the garage the team were full of sympathy with Matthew offering a “cup of concrete to harden up” and Rob taking some images to remind him of his highlight of the weekend. Patrick didn’t go faster on Sunday but still ended up in an impressive 3rd in class and 9th outright in one of the most competitive classes in Australia.
The real action from Sunday was in the 750cc class with Matthew and his closest competitor continuing to go quicker and quicker. Matthew managed to achieve a 57.15 time which was only 0.72 seconds quicker than his rival, who also done his fastest times on Sunday. Matthew managed to come home 11th Outright and take the class win. WHAT A LEGEND……
Special thanks to all the marshals, volunteers and medics who helped make the weekend a great event. Well done to all at Gippsland who put on a great event at incredible facilities.
Also like to mention Hoosier tires Australia who also helped keep us on the black stuff for most of the weekend 😊
Results can be found here. Videos can be found on our Facebook page!
