The famous Mount Cotton Hillclimb will host the annual Eureka Landscapes Motorsport Australia Queensland Hill Climb Championship this weekend with 66 entries confirmed for the event.
Unlike other state hill climb championships that are run over multiple rounds, Queensland’s championship has a finals like atmosphere to it with competitors having just one event to win some state championship silverware.
A high quality entry list will compete at Mount Cotton, with some of the country’s biggest names to fight for the win.
Representing the large pool of homegrown talent and a driver likely to be in contention for the title is Dean Tighe. One of the fastest in Australia as a whole, Tighe enters the event as the reigning champion after beating 59 other competitors last year.
Tighe’s maiden title proved to be sweet redemption after he narrowly lost 2019’s Championship to New South Welshman, Dean Amos.
Amos is also back for this weekend as one of the favourites to be vying for the title and with a number of impressive victories already in 2021, he would be confident of adding another victory to his name.
Although Amos and Tighe are the familiar names at this annual event, the major drawcard is undoubtedly David Mahon.
Mahon is one of the hottest properties in the Australian hill climb scene at the moment, having won multiple Victorian state rounds this year and dominating the SA rounds too.
Now the Dallara Hayabusa pilot has his sights set on a Queensland title and with Amos having won the most recent dual between the two of them – a thrilling victory at Bathurst last month – Mahon is likely to be firing on all cylinders come Sunday morning.
There are plenty of other notable entries for the weekend and President of the organising club, the MG Car Club of Queensland, Richard Mattea was looking forward to what was going to be a good weekend.
“Having 66 entrants is a bit lighter to what we usually used to here at Mount Cotton, however the entry list is all about quality over quantity,” Mattea said.
“To have 11 open wheel racing entries should make it very exciting and not only do we have some really talented steerers this weekend, but we also have some interesting vehicles.
“The one that sticks out to me is the Ex Graham Hill Brabham BT36 Formula 2 car driven by Alan Telfer as it’s a car with lots of history.
“Another interesting one is Ross Mackay in the Ford Escort Mk 1. He’s been breaking class records left, right and centre recently so it should be good to see running this weekend.
“It’s a really good entry list. But the stand outs are definitely the two Deans (Dean Amos and Dean Tighe) because they’re always going at it and have had some good battles in the battle.
“I feel that if you want to win – you’ll have to be doing times in the 35 second bracket. David Mahon’s car can do that time as it was an original Malcolm Oastler car so he is highly capable of doing it.”
Competitors have access to a practice on Saturday from 9am, while the official action gets underway on Sunday morning with around six runs available.
Fans will have access to both days with free admission for Saturday and $10 adult tickets available for Sunday.
The Eureka Landscapes Motorsport Australia Queensland Hill Climb Championship takes place on 30 May.