This year’s Noosa HillClimb was the largest event ever held at Gyndier Drive, Tewantin, according to organisers, the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club.
Noosa Car Club spokesman Noel St. John-Wood said they were overwhelmed with the number of spectators that came to see the V8 muscle cars and their drivers including motorsport Legend Dick Johnson who was reunited with his famous Ford the TRU-BLU Falcon.
“The Noosa HillClimb is now in its 20th year, and we were celebrating its success by hosting two very special events this year,” Noel said.
“We could not have wished for better weather and the array of cars including V8 powered Volkswagens, supercharged MG Tourers, Peugeot, Porsches, Corvettes, Falcon and Holden utes giving us an idea of what was on offer from the 150 plus entrants.”
Competition was intense with a few cars being pushed very hard, coming unstuck and hitting the barriers.
“We had one go over the edge, but luckily not too far and all drivers were unhurt fortunately,” Noel said.
“This track is very unforgiving, and there’s not much margin for error at speeds around 160 km/h.”
The timed track record was broken by 20-year-old Michael Von Rappard from Airlie Beach in his Hayabusa powered race car who claimed it from Darryl Watt of NSW with a new record of 50.9 seconds.”
Charities including Noosa Sea Scouts, Rotary, Noosa Men’s Shed and Noosa District State High School benefitted from the event through fund-raising efforts.
Noel said an auction gave the winner an opportunity to accompany Dick Johnson for a celebrity run in the TRU-BLU Falcon and raised $500 which Dick donated to a local charity.
Noel thanked the businesses for their support and said they looked forward to hosting their next HillClimb in November.
