2021 KNYSNA SPEED FESTIVAL RESULTS - MODIFIED SALOONS
THE HILLS WERE ALIVE TO THE SOUND OF HORSEPOWER!!!
I was really sad to miss the hillclimb this year. I got media entrance and everything just to find out there will be no spectators and that they will hire certain photographers and media personnel. They at least did give me media privilege's for their online media which helped a lot for this article. On Friday 3 September Classic Car Friday started, but since that was a bit boring when you excluded the crashes and there was some dodgy rule bending (I will talk about this in a later article), I thought I will skip over that. Last weekend on Saturday 4 September the modern cars started charging up the Simola Golf Course to see who would become the king of the hill. On Saturday there were four practice sessions and three qualifying sessions. On Sunday there is another three qualifying sessions and then the class shoot-outs between saloons and single seaters. The term saloon is used for cars that resemble a factory produced car like a Nissan GTR, Lamborghinis and Ferraris for example and not necessarily saloon shaped cars. A 2021 Red Bull formula One car will be allocated to the single seaters as will Radicals.
The event was sponsored by Castrol and Suzuki (I will talk about the Suzuki sponsorship in a later article). Throughout the weekend there were a few offs and then on Sunday morning in Q6 Chris Hollis ran wide in turn 5 (+- 170km/h I would estimate) and buried the GTR he was driving on the embankment of turn 6. I will write more in a later article about this particular crash and on how this car should not have been allowed to compete. Check the map of the hill below for more information.
After all the practice and quali sessions we had a great all-round Top 10. There was a mad mixture of rear wheel drive vs all-wheel drive, naturally aspirated vs turbocharged and front engined vs mid-engined. I will be showing the results as they happened and not in a descending or ascending order of finishing positions due to it retaining information as to what happened on certain runs. The top 10 qualifiers also go in order from slowest to fastest, meaning the 10th place qualifier goes first in the all or nothing run and 1st place qualifier goes last.
First up was Franco Di Matteo in his Wesbank V8 Jag. It is powered by a Chevy V8 (between 6 - 7 liters) built by Gavin Wilkins Racing and it has a 4 speed jericho clutchless gearbox (clutch used for launch only). On Saturday he went off at high speed due to a broken steering column and he thought his weekend was over. His crew fixed his car through the night and managed to qualify on Sunday morning. He did a 43,375 up the hill.
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Following Franco was Silvio Scribante in a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO. Basically an off the shelf GT3 class car. Silvio had a close call out of know where at pretty low speed close to the start line, not sure what happened there. He was also out performed by a young guy in the same car (see below). Silvio managed a 42,386.
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Following Silvio was Charl Joubert in a crazy Lotus Exige powered by a turbocharged Honda J35 V6. He was runner up in 2018 and rolled the car in 2019 so he was out for blood. The car was very meh the whole weekend until he turned it up in the shoot-out. He managed a 41,365.
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Following Charl was Pieter Zeelie in a MR2 which has a turbocharged 3.5L Toyota V6 in the back. He was one of the two guys I was rooting for. He managed to make a car I always say is extremely girly look like a monster and it also performed that way. Zeelie was relatively consistent and trouble free the whole weekend. He posted a very quick 40,402 run and took the top spot, for now.
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Next up was Anton Cronje is he mad Subaru. Anton flies under the radar every year, so much so this year that I could only find two photos of his car. His car is consistent, reliable and he usually gets fast launches with it which is a massive advantage. He punched a 42,279 run on the board.
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Charl Arangies chased after him in a blue and orange Lambo (please comment what you think of the livery, I am in two minds). He showed the other guys what their Lambos could do if he was driving them. The angry bull managed a 41,081 up the hill.
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Chasing the angry bull was Wilhelm Baard. This car and driver combo won the event in 2018, but the car from the Nismo South Africa and BB Motorsport team hasn't been the same since. The car has a smaller aero package from Nismo in Japan that is supposed to create the same downforce but much less drag than the 2018 kit. The car as a whole is missing something because it only managed a dreadful 41,829 which is basically 2,5 seconds slower than his winning run in 2018.
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Next up was Dawie Joubert (Charl Jouberts' older brother) in another mad Lotus. The key difference is this is powered by a twin turbo 3.9L V8 from a Ferrari 488GTB. The commentators called it the Lotari which I love. It was consistent, but a little off pace and in the shoot-out Dawie managed a 40,717. Unfortunately he striked a springloaded policemen (sponge like cone) that is used to mark the track limits of apexes on corners and this resulted in his disqualification.
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Next up was my favourite car of the event. Its an R34 GTR with a massive aerokit, a ridiculously powerful 3L+ RB screaming to 9000RPM dressed in a copy of the amazing Penzzoil livery. Usually its driven by Martin Van Zummeran, but he was ill so he handed the keys to his crazy drift champion son Wade Van Zummeran. He posted a blistering sub 40 second run in quali but had a disastrous shoo-out run. He went to queue in line to soon and his tires cooled down. He ran wide in turn 2 into the dirt which made things worse. Some serious farming followed on the second straight and his run ended by hitting all the policemen which results in disqualification. Even with all that he did a 41,105.
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Last up was Franco Scribante in the Sheriff (also known as The Kraken). This car and driver pairing won the 2019 Hillclimb. It has one wild aerokit and produces +-1600hp reliably for hillclimbs from a billet 4L + stroker V6. They struggled with the car whole week. They broke the driveshafts in late night testing on Thursday, had throttle position sensor issues on Saturday which only allowed +- 70% throttle. In between all this they squeezed in two 39,5 second runs in Q2 and Q5 which put them in the top spot. They waited for the marshalls to re-install all the policemen Wade drove out of the apex line and he left with four wheels smoking. In the shoot-out Franco did a 40,522 which meant Pieter Zeelie in the red MR2 was the King of the Hill.
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Copyright © 2021 - Simola Hillclimb | Speed Festival
I would like to thank everyone involved in the Knysna Hill Climb for organizing such a great weekend event that could be followed from youtube livestreams easily all over the world. I would also like Cars.co.za and Motor Press for giving me media access to their photos and videos. Please visit their youtube channels and websites for their awesome content.
All photos of cars used are from the MotorPress site : Copyright© 2021 HotPress Media (Pty) Ltd.
All videos used are from the Cars.co.za youtube channel : All content © Cars.co.za 2021.
The home page of the Knysna Speed Festival : www.speedfestival.co.za/
All results of previous races can be found there.
Please bump and comment what you think you think of the cars.
Thank you for reading, Brian Wait.
All results of previous races can be found there.
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