There were some standout performances from Eastern Cape drivers at the fifteenth Simola Hill Climb in Knysna at the beginning of May. Gordon Nicholson in his Audi R8 V10 took part in his eleventh Simola Hill Climb and continued his dominance in the A6 class that caters for standard production, road going saloon cars with 8-cylinders and above that are naturally aspirated by taking the class win with a personal best time of 46.517 seconds as well as finishing in fifth overall in the King of the Hill Shootout for road going cars.  This is the eighth time that Nicholson has achieved a class win having previously competed in the A8 and A9 classes for hybrid cars in a BMW before he switched to the Audi R8.

Dayaan Padayachey claimed his second class A5 for standard production, road going saloon cars with 5 or 6-cylinders that are normally aspirated, in just his second year of competing in his magnificent Porsche Cayman GTS.

In the B2 class for 4 cylinder racing cars that are unlimited two wheel drive vehicles with forced induction Daniel Rowe was second behind his VW team mate Jonathan Mogotsi in their VW Motorsport Polo GTI’’s with East London’s Owen Bridger in his Honda K24 in third.    

Another solid performance from Aldo Scribante saw him finish in third place overall in the B5 class for four-wheel drive cars with 5 cylinders or more in his Audi S4 whilst his brother Silvio stormed to fifth place overall in the King of The Hill shootout for modified saloon cars in his ever improving Audi RS3 followed by Wade van Zummeren from East London in his fire spitting Nissan GTR R34.

In Fridays very wet classic car celebration the powerful Nissan Skylines of Brent Watts and Rane Berry just couldn’t find traction off the line, but provided many thrills as they sped up the hill often drifting through the corners and were unable to get into the class finals that were dominated by less powered front wheel drive vehicles. Neil Stephen took his very rare 1972 Opel Manta to Simola for the first time and had an early scare when a pipe on the oil cooler came loose and thus missed a few of the practice runs which unfortunately cost him dearly and he wasn’t able to make the class finals.   

The event was sadly marred by the tragic death of well-known competitor Pieter Joubert who was killed after hitting a tree at high speed after his Lotus Exige left the road. Initial indications are that the car suffered steering failure, causing it to veer to the right, off the road.