Ross Nicol
GT40s Supporter
Sorry for that journalistic headline but if I have your attention please enjoy the read. I could have gone to Winton Raceway last weekend and raced against a mixture of cars but I decided instead it would be more interesting to compete at the 'Haunted Hills hillclimb' run by the 'Marque sports car assoc' at Morewell. This is a new track built by the coal mining company to replace the old one which had a rich coal deposit underneath it, and they needed that coal for the power stations. This was a one day meeting on Sunday and required a very early start to travel 2 hours for a 7:30am arrival. To take you back to Saturday- I have been trying to get onto cleaning the 40's engine bay for a week but alas saturday dawned and the cleaning had not even started. I decided to employ the services of a local detailer on sat arfternoon. I had been hesitant to use water for cleaning in case the electrics suffered but after covering all the sensitive areas with plastic, off Jason went with the high pressure water jet. Well the result was great and with all parts of the engine bay now gleaming, I couldn't keep my proud eyes off it. Back to Sunday morning and I arrived at Haunted Hills to find a long line of cars from the closed gate back down the road and so I joined the conga line.This is highly unusual for me as I'm not known for my punctuality.This was 7:30am and the gatekeeper did not arrive to open up until 8pm. With this late start the organizers were under pressure and I joined in to help scrutineer all the cars before putting the 40 through for others to check. After a driver briefing we were allowed an hour to do sighting laps of the track. The clerk of course warned of some blind and tight corners and of course his warning was found to be on target. I would have to describe driving this tight little track, as terrifying. The start leads down the hill (which is really a quarry) and then with tight turns, 2 blind crests and fast downhill sections that trick you into thinking you may be able to hold that speed for the next corner but then realize otherwise.Toward the end the track does rise back up the hill but with 2 more sharp corners the speed is kept down.
My first timed run was 68sec and I had no idea whether it was competitive or not. My next 2 runs were 61.05sec and 61.06sec. It was about this time that I found I was going quite well and had fastest time.Then a Lotus Elise turned in a 59.36sec time and I thought mmmnn time to get serious.I changed the tyres and fitted the slicks. This proved to be a good decision as I got my time down to 59.56sec and I thought with 1 more run I could take back the FTD from that pesky Lotus.Well they ganged up on me because another Elise decided to have an off track excursion and dumped oil all over the track.This caused a premature end to the days proceedings, a bit deflated I packed up and headed home. Of course the GT40 is not really suited to a tight twisty circuit like this, but as the results show I did quite well. Both Andrew East and Bob Lancaster who normally run their RF40s at the MSCA sprint meetings had left their V8's at home in favour of their Lotus seven replicas.They may have gone better in their 40s. Hope these pics give you some Idea of the layout of the place.
My first timed run was 68sec and I had no idea whether it was competitive or not. My next 2 runs were 61.05sec and 61.06sec. It was about this time that I found I was going quite well and had fastest time.Then a Lotus Elise turned in a 59.36sec time and I thought mmmnn time to get serious.I changed the tyres and fitted the slicks. This proved to be a good decision as I got my time down to 59.56sec and I thought with 1 more run I could take back the FTD from that pesky Lotus.Well they ganged up on me because another Elise decided to have an off track excursion and dumped oil all over the track.This caused a premature end to the days proceedings, a bit deflated I packed up and headed home. Of course the GT40 is not really suited to a tight twisty circuit like this, but as the results show I did quite well. Both Andrew East and Bob Lancaster who normally run their RF40s at the MSCA sprint meetings had left their V8's at home in favour of their Lotus seven replicas.They may have gone better in their 40s. Hope these pics give you some Idea of the layout of the place.