With the opening rounds of the 2022 Motorsport Australia New South Wales Hill Climb Championship just one month away, the Bathurst Light Car Club will give aspiring state competitors a chance to dust off the cobwebs this weekend.
 
Taking place on the iconic esses section of the famous Mount Panorama circuit, a full field of 40 cars will take part in the event with each to get up to eight runs of the course.
 
This weekend will be the first time the club has run this sort of event with the state championship its usual first main event for the year.
 
However with many competitors having had limited seat time over the past 12-24 months, the club decided it would be good to run a smaller event to give individuals the opportunity to squeeze in some runs ahead of the state championship.
 
“We’re quite excited to get this event off the ground and I think it’s going to be a fantastic day,” Event Secretary Bob Lundie-Jenkins said.
 
“I am also the club’s competition secretary and it feels that throughout the past two years, all I have spent all my time doing is preparing events but cancelling them for obvious reasons, so it’s nice that we will be able to finally follow through with one.

“We always run the first two rounds of the state championship at Mount Panorama and because there is usually a busy schedule at the circuit, we normally don’t do an event before, but we were able to organise it this year.
 
“This is an extra event on our calendar and it’s literally just to provide people an opportunity to race. A few people have told us that their cars are tied to the concrete floor with cobwebs, so this event will hopefully give a chance to dust them off. 
 
“When the entries were opened, it was a bit of a slow start and we were not sure if we were going to get many people at all, however they started to flow in and on the last day we got 10, so we reached our capacity and the club was very pleased.”
 
While none of the state’s best top contenders or open wheelers are part of the entry list, there are still a diverse range of cars entered.
 
From the standard Subaru’s, Alfa Romeos and Chev Corvettes to the more unique vehicles such as Uber Karts and a Vulcan sports car, there will be plenty of cars for all fans to enjoy – something Lundie-Jenkins was excited for.
 
“We might not have any open wheels this weekend but we have a really diverse range and I am really looking forward to seeing some of these go up the track,” Lundie-Jenkins added.
 
“I think the one entry that had me scratching my head was a 1956 home made vehicle with more than 1100 horsepower and who will be driven by a man in his eighties – so I am keen to see how he goes.
 
“The other interesting pick of the bunch is that Uber-kart. It’s a tiny little thing but I believe it will probably be the winner because it is seriously fast and it will stick to the floor which is really important.
 
“With that said, I think overall it will be an interesting event and I think that if there is room for it in the future and it goes well this weekend, there is no reason we can’t keep doing it annually.”
 
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The Bathurst Light Car Club’s Esses hill climb takes place at Mount Panorama on Sunday 6 February.