THE INAUGURAL ZWARTKOPS INTERNATIONAL WORLD OF MOTORING TOP OF THE HILL CHALLENGE WAS A BANGER!
Crowd favourite Reghard Roets blitzed to victory at the first-ever Zwartkops International World of Motoring Top of the Hill Challenge this past weekend, recording the fastest Shootout time of 53.257 seconds in his BB Motorsport Nissan GT-R R35, lovingly referred to as Armageddon. Roets not only claimed the overall Shootout win but also took top honours in the Modified Production Car Shootout and the Class B5 title earlier in the weekend. Another favourite and the only international hill climb competitor, Pieter Zeelie, took his 1,000 hp+ Zeelie Auditors Toyota MR2, and put up a proper fight, missing out on the win by a razor-thin 0.38 seconds. We could see a bit of a suspension issue that saw the car bouncing a bit when it shouldn’t have, which means that without the issue, a top podium spot could have been a possibility. Zeelie did snatch the victory for Class B4 though. Friday’s qualifying hinted at a 3-way (Oi, mind out of gutter!) showdown, with out-of-town favourite Franco Scribante and The Sheriff, his big-winged Nissan GT-R R35 in the mix, but the car was plagued with issues that saw the car retired from competition. Well-known Honda fanatic Charl Joubert’s wide and low turbocharged Honda V6-powered Lotus claimed the final spot on the overall podium ahead of KZN’s favourite JDM tuner, Steve Clark, in the mad Backdraft Racing Cobra who took fourth place - along with the Class B7 win. Rounding out the top five was Aldo Scribante in the loud Scuderia Scribante Audi S4. Volkswagen factory driver Jonathan Mogotsi took 6th place in the shootout in his Volkswagen Motorsport Polo GTi (along with a Class B2 win), with the multi-championship-winning Devin Robertson’s taking the fully street-legal Czank Racing Nissan R32 Skyline to 7th place overall. The other Joubert, Pieter, took the 8th spot in his amazing AMG-powered Lotus Exige, George Evans in the Evans Racing Nissan GTR R35 placed 9th and the final spot was reserved for Oscar de Oliveira in the Point S turbocharged Mazda MX5 we often see in the Vilaca Racing Time Attack Series.
Class B9 was won by another Vilaca Racing competitor, Charles Fowlds, in the wide-bodied Subaru WRX, even after popping a turbo during Friday’s track sessions. Class B6 was won by Karel Stols in the only pistonless entry in the form of the SPS Racing Mazda RX7, while Miguel Ribeiro took his 1971 Alfa Romeo GT AM to a Class B1 win. The only SUV in the mix took the Class B9 win in the monstrous 400 kW+ supercharged BB Motorsport Nissan Patrol. Hillclimb regular Ian Schofield won the Classic Conqueror Shootout in his gold 1977 March 77B, which also set the second-fastest overall Shootout time of 57.072 seconds, and the Class H9 win was also his. Zwartkops Raceway’s own Mark du Toit followed closely, driving his ultra-wide-bodied Opel Astra to a second place in the shootout along with a Class H8 win. The 3rd podium spot went to James Temple in the Lindenberg Racing 1968 Ford Fairlane. The Single Seater / Sports Car Shootout was all about JM Gerber in his Van Diemen Formula M, who clocked a time of 58.717 seconds to take both the Shootout and Class C2 titles. He edged out Renzo Ribeiro’s VW GTi Swift and Josef Kotze’s Birkin S3. In the Road Car / Supercar Shootout, Vic Campher was the top dog with a stunning Porsche GT3 taking the Shootout and Class A5 win. Mercedes-AMG driving instructor Courtney Nicholl took the company car, a Mercedes-AMG C63 SE Performance to a 2nd podium spot along with a Class A8 win, while yet another Vilaca Racing competitor, Jared Rossouw, graddeb the 3rd spot along with a Class A2 win in his well-sorted VW Mk6 R. The Volkswagen Rookie Cup Shootout saw a bunch of local racers, journos and celeb-types (shot invite) entered in a fleet of Volkswagen Motorsport Polo Vivo GTs, here Judd Bertholdt claimed victory while Dhivyen Naidoo came in second, Uzair Khan took 3rd and Maroela Media’s funniest journo Brendon Staniforth snatched fourth place. Other class winners who didn't make the shootout include Vinesh Padayachy in a Shelby Mustang taking the Class A7 win and Jonathan du Toit piloted his BMW 125i to a Class A1 win.
For an inaugural event, this Top of the Hill Challenge was pretty damn good. We’d have liked to cover the event from the usual shooting spots, but without accreditation, we were a little limited. We did expect to see more people at the event though, we arrived late and were convinced we’d end up in a queue of cars leading out to the main road but we drove straight in, and the VIP parking was quite empty and we got waived into park without having to pay the extra fee. It wasn’t empty, it was still pretty well attended, but considering the quality of the cars and the rarity of seeing them in action we expected a capacity event. We’re 100 % sure that the next instalment will be packed, especially with the great marketing and updates from the track via the usual socials and a WhatsApp group, as well as a top-quality live stream from our mates at 2WheelsTV. Bring on the next event!
Take a look at the YouTube video from the second day of the livestream that shows the best bits of the shootout and the qualifying leading up to it. Many of these cars only come out for special events, so it's great to be able to see them in action at one of our favourite race venues: Top of the Hill - Day 2 | 2WheelsTV
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