Gutzeit and Arton star at Simola hill
Dezzi Gutzeit crowned King of the Hill while Arton walks off with Classic Conqueror title
PEACE and quiet has been restored along the Simola Golf Estate’s rolling fairways, now that last weekend’s Jaguar Simola Hillclimb is in the bag and the 130 roaring race cars which terrorised the usually tranquil venue from Friday to Sunday have been packed up and hauled away.
After three days of timed runs up the five-star resort’s driveway, Des Gutzeit and Charlie Arton walked away with coveted titles of 2015 King of the Hill and Classic Conqueror respectively. Arton, in a 1979 March 79B Formula Atlantic racer managed a final time of 45.894 seconds up the 1.9km hill to beat out 47 other historic racers on Classic Friday; and Gutzeit blew away 80 other competitors over the weekend with a record-breaking time of 40.148 seconds in his R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, credited with an output of 1000kW.
For Des it was a tale of retribution after narrowly missing out on the overall win in 2014 to Franco Scribante in 1970 Chevron B19. In the run-up to this year’s event, the sixth in its history, the Port Shepstone Dezzi Raceway track owner added a “nice bag of groceries” to the straight-six turbo engine in his brightly liveried Nissan to ensure the crown would this year go home with him.
“They say the older you get the faster you were, but next year I’d like to try to break into the 39s,” said Gutzeit who confirmed he’d be back to defend next year. “It was a fantastic weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Joburg BMW tuner Sav Gualtieri held the rear-wheel drive flag high by finishing second in his radically modified 335i, over a second and a half behind. Third went to Darron Gudmanz in an R35 GTR, with a final run time of 41.763 seconds.
Scribante, in last year’s winning car, missed a gear during his run and had to make do with fourth overall.
Some high-profile casualties who couldn’t make the finale but might have otherwise been in contention, included Toby Venter who blew the clutch in his 993 Porsche 911 GT2 Evo, and Jaki Scheckter with a failed centre differential in his R35 GT-R.
Friday’s runs, which were strictly reserved for cars older than 1980, also saw 2014 Classic Conqueror winner Franco Scribante ousted from his seat by a narrow margin. Under new hillclimb rules, Scribante wasn’t allowed to use his Chevron in both events so instead brought a 1974 Porsche 911 RSR, but a best lap of 46.051 was only good enough for second place behind Arton. Ross Lazarus, in a 1965 Ford GT40 was third with a time of 47.390 seconds.
“The March is like a surgical instrument,” said winner Arton. “It’s so precise and actually rides the bumps really well, and the gearing was perfect for the hillclimb course. It was a fantastic day and well done to the organisers for a great event.”
The 2015 edition of the Jaguar Simola history was the biggest yet with almost 130 entrants, and over 12 000 spectators through the gates. Jaguar South Africa took over sponsorship of the event last year and will again host the prestigious race in 2016.