By Margaret Maccoll
Professional racing driver Broc Feeney, 18, described his first run at Noosa’s Hill Climb as a short but intense one minute race that with its 14 bends across 1500 metres was exhausting.
“It’s surprisingly enjoyable. I’ll definitely be coming back,“ he said.
Feeney was not the only professional driver to be racing at the Hill Climb event on the weekend.
Supercar champion Fabian Coulthard took to the track for the first time, clocking the fastest time on Saturday with 62 seconds on a wet and slippery track.
Coulthard joined the Reed & Co team, event sponsors, which brought 14 cars to the track. Their drivers also included motorsport team Triple Eight Race Engineering founder and managing director Roland Dane and Reed & Co’s Adrian Reed.
Noosa Hill Climb spokeswoman Kate Rider said the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club event had a strong driver representation with 130 cars on the track and a strong following of spectators.
The fastest time at the event was 55.27 seconds achieved by Warwick Hutchinson.
Regarded as one of the most challenging hill climb events in Australia the winter Noosa Hill Climb attracted young and old, newcomers and veterans.
It was the sixth hill climb for mechanical engineer and racing enthusiast Ryan Kennedy who loves the “fast, flowing corners“ of the track that he first raced as an 18-year-old and says it has greatly improved his general driving.Justin McCarthy celebrated his 81st birthday on Saturday while racing his 1925 Austin Seven, the only car on the track with a crank handle. Justin began his racing career at the age of 75 years but his collecting of Austin Sevens began decades earlier at the age of 17. His weekend racer which the self-taught mechanic rebuilt over the past three months is his third Austin Seven. With both Peter Brock and Dick Johnson beginning their racing careers in Austin Sevens Justin believes he is in good company.
One of the original members of the club Pete Dutkowski has raced his 1980 Porsche at the hill climb since its first event and continues just for the “fun of it“.
For more car action the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club will host its Classic Car Show on Sunday 18 July from 9am to 3pm at the Mat Thornhill Oval, Noosa District Sports Complex, McKinnon Drive, Tewantin. The event is open to ’All Classics’ and local jazz band, Plan B, will be there to entertain.
Later in the year the club’s new event, Classica on Hastings will bring classic cars to Noosa’s tourist strip on 11 September from 4-8pm and the Spring Hill Climb will be on 2-4 October.
