Bruce Minahan has taken victory at the Gippsland Car Club’s Twilight Club Hill Climb at Bryant Park over the weekend with just two tenths of a second separating the top three.

With 65 entries competing in the one-day event, Minahan set the benchmark time of 49.98 during the first run in clockwise direction before dropping the pace a little bit on the second combination to record the fourth fastest time.

However with his rivals also his combined time of 88.62 secured him victory by the smallest of margins over this brother Peter and Wim Janssen. Sitting not far behind the duo was Ewen Molie and Mark Samson in fourth and fifth respectively.

Despite putting in the fastest time on the first combination, Bruce believed he was quite fortunate to come away with the win.

“I was a bit lucky actually, we ran different track configurations, and the start time was brought forward by an hour because it was going to rain,” Bruce said.

“We had a track that we run a lot of the time and another track which we don’t run very often. So, I was lucky enough to have a good time on the commonly used track but not such a good time on the second track.

“However, because it was a combination of the times, I managed to get the win.

“We put in a big effort for a lot of us to get to Challenge Bathurst last week and then back it up with the race meeting over the weekend just gone. So, it’s been great after the year we’ve had.”

In beating Peter in the hill climb, Bruce managed to add another chapter to a great sibling rivalry with his brother whom he shared the car with during the event.

“We’re always within one tenth of second of each other,” Bruce joked.

“He beat me in the Victorian Hillclimb Championship by one tenth of a second a few years ago so it’s always pretty close between us.”

As for the event itself, Bruce paid full tribute to the club for putting on the event. 

“It’s a really good club, the people are really good and it’s a really good motorsport environment down there in Gippsland,” Bruce added.