Mid December saw the inaugural running of the Eden Valley Hillclimb by autocorsa (add link). There was a bit of skepticism about this new event, on a new piece of road, so close to Christmas and forecast hot weather. But what can we say – we want more!
3 Touge members were entered, Garry gotr his tarmac/khana GC8 WRX out for a run, Greendog had the GTR out fresh form a run at Willunga and Vinh debuted his beatuful FD RX7. We were joined by fellow NDCC competitor mark is his accountant spec S13, who also got there nice and early with Garry to secure us a choice spot right near the start line.
The couse is a ripper, with fast and flowing start, holding it flat 9nearly) through the first few corners using 4 of the 5 cogs before getting into some more of the technical stuff. The run is a continuous climb, in the spirit of a hillclimb, with plenty of well sighted corners, along with a couple of doozies. One particular corner seemed to catch a few out in the first session which wsa a bit of a dampener, delaying proceedings but the rest of the day ran quite smoothly. Too hard, too soon 2015-Eden-Valley
Vinh's Comments:
Being new to the world of organised racing, the lead-up to an event like this would have been quite daunting. However, with tips and guidance of the senior veterans (Mark, Nathan and Garry), newcomers would find themselves safely completing all 4 runs through the hill. Many lessons were learnt on the day, not the least of which was to listen and respond to the how the car was behaving through the day. Simple steps such as monitoring/moderating tyre pressures, fault finding and topping up fluid levels would definitely ensure there were no hidden surprises waiting when your foot sunk to the floor around the number 2 hairpin. Possible exception being another victim of the deceptive corner.
It was great to see a few Touge members out on track again and we look forward to getting more people on track in 2016. If you are keen to find out more, whether its social, cruises or getting started in any number of local motorsport events, get in touch, come out and say hi and get involved.