VIC MSCA Haunted Hills Hillclimb at Morwell

Terrifying.


'nuff said.

 

How did you go Peter? Was it everything you hoped it would be? How did the others go? Cat wait to see any photos posted up

 

It was great, though I can't remember being so scared in a long time. Some very scarey sudden dips steep enough that you can't see any track and have to drive by memory (and a bit of guesswork) leading straight onto nasty off camber corners. Pete can tell you better about the track as he has more to compare it too, very different to sandown though, Sandown is a lot of fun without the abject terror.

There was a bit of a wait at the start while cars queued up outside the gate as far as the eye could see. they finally arrived at about 7:45 so the day got off to a very late start. Scrutineering was meant to start at 7:30.

I was really pleased with how I went, my aim at the start of the day was to finish the day with a straight car, if I was going slightly faster at the end of the day that the start that would be a bonus. I went for a gentle sighting lap at the start in teh untimed pratcice session and was keen for another but they ended the practice just as the car in front of me got to go.


My first run was a bit cautious and I got into a little strife on one corner where I had shifted nto third just before the corner and realised I had to shift down again all of a sudden and had to give it plenty of revs to avoid compression lock. Ended up with a few too many and the back wheels tried to overtake the front ones, I managed to pull it out of that safely and finished in 1'15.85" which I was very happy with.

Nxt run was a bit cleaner and I managed to cut it down to 1'13.06" so I was over the moon, I could have gone home happy then.

Next run I pushed a bit harder having been pretty clean the previous one and managed 1'11.00" and decided all my christmas' had come at once.

I tried braking earlier, harder and less in the next run and managed 1'09.54" and you couldn't wipe the grin off my face.

While I was lining uo for my final run a Lotus Elise came to grief at the bottom of the track (see the bit above about nasty off camber corners at the bottom of a sudden blind drop) and made a mess of the track so the day was cut short.

Thanks to everyone who helped get me set up to go, especially Pete (WYKKED) and everyone who came to watch, there should be plenty of photos and video around, including Petes great drifting.

Edit:Oh, yeah, I ended up finishing something like 9th out of 14 in the 2 to 3.5L class too, not bad for my first go in a basicly stock NA Zed. Way better than I expected.

 

Pics!!!

Ok, here are some pics.

Firstly, here are 3 stitched pano's of the complex itself. It is quite an amazing facility. The photos don't do the change in altitude or direction justice.

In the first pic, the start line is on the top right and the circuit goes clockwise:


Similar view to the first one, but shows the change in height a little better:


Pic 3 is basically from the other side looking back over the "back straight" / last complex sections:


For most of the day I camped over at the last complex of corners. Here are a couple of shots of Peter Black whipping his mighty Aus spec NA into a frenzy:







Now a couple of Mr Wykked in action. I only have these 2 shots of Pete, but I should have some video footage which I hope to post up tomorrow:





Now for a few shots of some of the other competitors. You should have heard the noise coming out of this machine...


Not sure if this is the elise that got 1 min flat or not (there were 4 or so of them competing), but they are certainly a well sorted chassis. Seemed on rails compared to all other cars out there:


Nice Ferrari...





This is all that was really salvagable from my camera. After 18,000 shots my 4mb camera is just about shot, but Jack & RZM should have some nice pics with their better cameras. I have a few minutes of video footage that *hopefully* is usable. I'll try and put it up tomorrow night.

Congrats to all the competitors (and especially our 2 zedders) - it was a gutsy effort, particularly with the track freezing, new and daunting. It was a great day out with excellent company as usual!

 

God that was fun, but Pete is right. It is a very scary track until you know it. With something like 4 blind crests, a heap of off camber corners and a very green and dirty track it was extremely challenging. I was very dissapointed to miss out on a 5th session as I blew my 4th run by pushing too hard into the last corner and sliding the rear end on sand (the "drifting" Pete mentioned).

A breif summery of my times for the day were;
Run 1 - 1.08.27
Run 2 - 1.08.09
Run 3 - 1.06.51
Run 4 - 1.07.90 (damn spin)

I haven't had the chance to get the photos off the still camera yet and the in-car camera has nearly 1gig of footage that needs to be editied and cleaned up (Kr4usy, you got any editing software?) before I can post it.

Congrats to Pete Black for his excelent work getting his time down on the day and I'm sure it would have gone even lower on the last run if the bloody Lotus hadn't ruined it :bash:.

Big thanks to Col, Mikey, Jack, Mark, Roy (and Partner) and my long suffering Jen for all the support on the day. Having a few friends in the audience definately makes the day so much more enjoyable.

 

Dam Jealous!

That looks like a cool track, have to come down and have a go. Nice work to the duo of Petes. What happened to the Lotus

MattB

 

Not really sure what happened to the Lotus because the Lotus clan (there were about 5 competeing) closed ranks and since you can't see the bottom of the track from the top we didn't see how it happened. Al we know is that the back was dirty with both exhaust pipes full of mud and the front spoiler was broken. Unfortunately he also broke a pipe off his oil cooler and dumped a heap of oil on the track which couldn't be cleaned up in the hour we had left so they pulled the pin on the day.

 

Wasn't the orange one pictured above, it was a grey Elise. The incident happened out of sight but on the corner Jack and I were marshalling at. The driver possibly unweighted the rear wheels over a crest and spun into an earth bank before the corner punching holes in the fiibreglass front end, but worst of all, tearing a line off the oil cooler. He then drove off around the corner spewing oil right through it ....

So instead of getting some good shots and vids of the back section, we manned brooms and pushed kitty litter around for an eternity until the C of C decided to pull the pin on the day.

I only got a passenger ride to the marshalling point, but from inside the car it looked a lot steeper and tighter than it did from trackside. I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge next year .

With any luck I'll have some pix and maybe vids up early this week.

 

OK, can someone please verify whether the link below works or not? If it works, I'll be able to upload a few more.

http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/redzedmikey/Mikey Vids/?action=view&current=DSCF1828.flv

 

works for me mate

 

link works mikey

DAMMMM it looks like an awsome track after seeing the pics i wish i put everything aside and came looks so good and challenging.

im going to the next one wen is it lol

bring on the vids looks like an awsome day. congrates on the results guys

 

if only you could run it downhill, that'd be even more fun.

 

well next time I'm in for sure , i didn't know it was that sort of track...
if only WIKKED had pulled me up ...

 

I thought you understood what a hillclimb was?

 

nuh i had no idea ,, but if i did , you know I'm there , that looks awesome...
whens the next one ??????????

 

The MSCA wont be back there until next year, but the track is run by the Gipsland Car Club and when the track is in use and who is using it is displayed on their calander. If you want to compete you will need to contact the club hiring it and see if they will let you enter. All the clubs are listed in the club directory on the CAMS website with contact details.

http://www.gippslandcarclub.com.au/calendar.aspx

 

Awesome

Great looking track, is it new?
Haven't heard of it before.
What sort of speeds, what gears?, looks like a lot of 2nd gear stuff.

 

Opened at the begining of July and replaces the old Morwell track which had coal under it so the power company wanted the land. They coughed up the $$$ to build the new track. It is basically all 2nd gear except for a short bit in third at the end of what we were calling the back straight. My top speed was 106, but you could get more with a cleaner run through the last corner onto that straight. It is a very technical track and until you have it all committed to memory you won't get near the 51 second track record.

 

Well done Pete and Pete... that track does look pretty scary, was watching some vids on youtube. I'm hoping to get to the sauvic/wrx club event on october 11th. are either of you going to go back and have another shot? I can find out if non-members can enter if you want.