The fiercest and mightiest automobile battle
KNYSNA - It has to rank among the fiercest and mightiest automotive battles of them all, where millimetre precision and as little as hundredths of a second decide the fate between winners and losers. We are, of course, talking about the epic Modified Saloon Car fight for King of the Hill glory at the Simola Hillclimb, which features the wildest, most powerful and fastest tin-top racing cars in South Africa.
There's arguably no more intense and engaging tussle than the ongoing needle match between Franco Scribante in his time attack-inspired and carbon-fibre bodied 2018 Nissan R35 GT-R, known as 'The Sheriff', and the menacing BB Motorsport 'Armageddon' 2014 R35 GT-R driven by Reghard Roets.
There was little to separate the two leading protagonists at the 2023 Simola Hillclimb as they continued to push the envelope of performance. Roets held the advantage during qualifying, completing the 1,9km standing-start sprint eighthundredths of a second faster than Scribante's record time of 38,129 seconds from 2022 – although only times set in the Class Finals and the Top 10 Shootout count as official results.
When rain interrupted play during Sunday's Class Finals, Roets retained the leading spot from Scribante who had been sorting out a series of technical issues with his car. But then the tables were turned in the all-or-nothing Top 10 Shootout, as the unpredictable damp conditions saw Roets braking a moment too late leading to Turn 3 and losing a bit of time, which handed Scribante his fifth Modified Saloon Car title.
Accordingly, to say that fans can look forward to an epic battle between these two leading protagonists in 2024 would be a huge understatement.
"Last year I made the mistake and lost the Simola Hillclimb. Franco won it by putting in a good time with a clean run when it mattered and he deserved it, but I'm keen to see what we can do this year," Roets says.
"We have a couple of improvements on the car, and did a lot of suspension work last year which helped a lot, but at the level everyone is competing now we're fighting for fractions of a second. I predict if it's dry, the winning time will be around 37 seconds, which we almost certainly would have done last year, but unfortunately the mixed wet and dry conditions threw a huge
curveball at everybody," he says.
"Hopefully the weather will play along. Ideally it should be either dry or wet, as that in-between is extremely difficult, especially in this format when cars go off at different times and one person may have a dry run and the next has to deal with wet or mixed conditions. The Simola Hillclimb is without a doubt my favourite event of the year, and I can feel the hype building everywhere. I think it’s going to be a good one,” Roets says.
With five victories already under his belt, Scribante is determined to give it everything again this year. "Naturally we want to win. I think Reghard and I are pretty maxed out with getting everything out of our cars, and it will be down to who is better on the day," Scribante says.