Douglas Johnson has notched up his first ever major victory after winning the popular Twin Peaks Hillclimb on the weekend.
Held over two days in Port MacDonnell, Johnson ended up posting the fastest overall combined time for the South East Automobile Club run event, beating 69 other competitors to the victory.
With the event combining each driver’s fastest two times from Saturday and fastest two times from Sunday, the battle for top spot proved quite entertaining as Johnson ended up claiming a three second victory.
His closest competitors came in the form of Sean Day and prominent South Australian rally driver Nicholas Cagney, both of whom were in a tight tussle for second place all weekend.
Despite the duo producing plenty of pressure throughout the weekend, Johnson was in control all weekend as he steered his Subaru WRX to the fastest two times on each day – which helped him secure his overall victory.
“We’re definitely happy with the win as there was a lot of effort put into it to get the car to a good position,” Johnson said.
“We made a few changes in the lead up to the event and they were changes they ended up paying because the car did everything we wanted it to do.
“It was nice to get our first major win and get the monkey off our back, especially after travelling six hours to get there and a tough battle with Sean and Nicholas.
“While three seconds was a reasonable time to have up my sleeve, I was still a little bit nervous towards the end because I had to wait up to two hours before Sean and Nicholas did their final runs, but in the end, they didn’t beat it.
“A big thank you to all the organisers and volunteers, who did a great job and produced a fantastic weekend.
“The plan is now to continue improving the car and do some aero stuff. The engine package seems to be working, but there is always room for improvement and we will hopefully get even quicker.
“We will aim to do Legends of the Lake, the Adelaide Rally and Willunga Hillclimb, and may look into the Motorsport Australia Hill Climb Championship.”
As for the battle for second, Cagney enjoyed the better start between he and Day, leading the way after day one, however Day ended up bouncing back on Sunday, and pipping the rally driver by just half a second.
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