Record in hill climb
RACING driver Andrew Waite set a record at the Coronet Peak Hill Climb in an 850horsepower beast.
Mr Waite, driving multimillionaire petrolhead Tony Quinn’s Highlands Motorsport Ford Focus Hill Climb Special, powered up the 2.7km zigzag Queenstown skifield road on Saturday in 1min 19.78secs — with an average speed of 121kmh.
‘‘It was an amazing experience, my first ever hill climb and straight into a car like that,’’ the 28yearold said.
‘‘The grip wasn’t too bad; it was more about learning the road and the car. I literally did one lap around Highlands [Motorsport Park, Cromwell] in it beforehand.’’
The hill climb was a proving run for the car — the shell of a Ford Focus powered by a tuned Nissan GTR engine.
Mr Quinn, who owns Highlands, plans to compete in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado Springs, US, next year.
Mr Waite was one of 42 drivers who raced up the hill around nine corners which varied from highspeed to hairpin.
They drove everything from Corvettes to Subaru Impreza WRX and even a 1929 Chrysler Special singleseater.
Queenstown Car Club president Stuart Maclean said: ‘‘That was Murray Frew, from Oamaru.
‘‘It has a straightsix Chrysler motor. It’s one of the oldest cars we’ve had but he had quite a respectable time, 109.98 seconds.’’ The event was first run in 1972. ‘‘Andrew Waite’s was a very quick time,’’ Mr Maclean said.
‘‘There’s never been anyone to my knowledge in the 70s before — we work in seconds so his time was 79.78 seconds.’’
Mr Maclean said a couple of WRX drivers tried to ‘‘take a short cut’’ at the Sbends halfway up, but both drivers quickly found their way back on to the road. Noone was injured during the day.
Tauranga’s Graeme Fraser (62) brought his heavily modified BMW M3 Evo to the South Island for the first time.
‘‘It’s very light, about 1100kg, with the bigger S54 engine and a sequential gearbox — it has about 380 horsepower and revs to about 8000. It’s probably the quickest E36 in the country.
‘‘I do the odd hill climb for fun but this car is actually set up for 1hr endurance racing, but as long as there’s no big bumps in the road.’’
Mr Fraser, who has been racing for 42 years, did the climb in 1min 33.42secs.
‘‘Once it gets in your blood, there’s no turning back.’’