The Sporting Car Club of SA (SCCSA) has enjoyed a busy period of motorsport with the club holding both a come and try hill climb and the fourth round of its 2021 Collingrove Challenge Trophy season on the weekend.

Held at the Collingrove hill climb, the double header welcomed more than 130 participants across both events in what were perfect conditions at the popular course.

The weekend started off with the come and try day on Saturday as 72 entrants took part in the event and got six untimed runs of the course.

Using the event to gain valuable seat time and experience in a hill climb, there were a variety of different cars tackling to the track as the participants got plenty of guidance on how to run a hill climb.

A major highlight of the come and try day saw a number of families competing with five sets of father/son combinations, while up and coming teenager Harry Pfeiffer drove the powerful Mallock with his mum returning to the driver’s seat on Sunday. 


For the Trophy event on Sunday, 65 participants got 10 runs on a fast track that had been worn in after Saturday’s activities, adding to the spectacle.

Taking out an unsurprising victory was David Mahon, who continued his brilliant 2021 form – the Dallara Hayabusa securing a victory of almost three seconds over Robert Ellis in the Acrobat MK1.

Right from the get-go, Mahon was on form as the 61-year-old posted a time of under 30 seconds on run one and continued to be the only one to do so on every run thereafter, including his best of 28.87 seconds which was his ninth and final attempt.
 
Like Mahon, Ellis’ best time of 31.83 seconds came on his final run of the day, while David Walsh steered his Ninja GA7 to third place, with his fastest time of 33.41 seconds coming on his fourth run.


Unlike the top two, the battle for third was quite close as less than a second separated Walsh and the next two drivers in Nathan Green in a Nissan Skyline GTR, whose 34.01 second eighth run helped him secure the best time of the tin tops. A further two tenths slower than Green was Alexander Wilson, the Audi A4 driver rounding out the top five.
 
Click here to see full results.
 
Event organiser Melissa Rees was thrilled with how both events panned out and believed they couldn’t have gone any better.
 
“We were lucky enough to have absolutely perfect conditions on both days, the come and try participants got so much out of their time on the course, while the competition was fierce in the trophy event,” Rees said.
 
“What made Sunday even better was how fast the track was, possibly because of the rubber laid down on Saturday. We believe that on top of many personal best times being set, there were also two class records broken.


“The great thing about hill climbs is that it’s an event that anyone can do. From 14-years-old first timers, to the more experienced heads like David Mahon. At the end of the day, you’re competing against yourself, which is the main thing.
 
“It was also nice to have so many different cars there, which is another great thing about events like this- you can have a purpose-built hill climb vehicle or in your street vehicle – either way, you can have as much fun in both, which is why we really enjoy holding both types of events.

"We also have a great team of officials at Collingrove who put in a mammoth effort to ensure the weekend was as good as it was – so to all of them, thank you."

The Sporting Car Club of SA now look towards hosting two major events over the next month with the Winter Cup to run on 29 August and Motorsport Australia SA Hill Climb Championships on 10-12 September.