15th
Rob Roy Historic & Classic Hillclimb report
Sunday
26th November, 2006. Christmas Hills, VIC
The fresh air
in the hills of the Yarra Valley, fine weather, and the smell of the
barb-e-que in the Octungda at the 15th Historic & Classic Rob
Roy Hillclimb set the scene for a wonderful step back in time at Australia’s
most historic active hillclimb circuit.
The Guest of Honour was John Harvey,
who on this occasion drove a car, which he surely wouldn’t have
touched in the past – a 1949 Lago Talbot T26 GP. Bill Prowse
was celebrating an amazing 60 years since he first competed at Rob
Roy. This year he competed in his Alfa Ricciari.
Glimpses of the past were had
by a small number of entrants. There were two T-Model Ford Speedsters
competing from the early 1900’s, a Vauxhall 30/98, MG J3, but
the real piece of art was the Hudson Special built by Earl Davey-Milne
and driven by son Lyndon. This is a must see car…Quite unique!
But then everything in the Davey-Milne garage is!
John Gillett made his return to
the track in the ex Jack Brabham MG TC Special after a major engine
re-build – and clocking a low 25 second time in his first official
run.
Though the car that really stole
the show was a non-historic entrant. Andrew Howell was invited to
demonstrate his awesome $230,000 Gould Hillclimb car. In its first
time at Rob Roy earlier in the year (in apparently semi-damp condition’s)
Andrew smashed his own Hillclimb record with a time of 18.09 seconds.
In his first flying run at the historic Rob Roy (unofficial of course)
he managed it in 18.05 seconds. Amazing stuff!
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