THE Legend of the Lakes Hill Climb is fast approaching and everything is in place for another successful event for the South Eastern Automobile Club.
The event continues to grow in stature, with this year seeing an international entrant in the form of Frank Kelly.
Kelly hails from Ireland and has enjoyed a decorated career in the 2WD class.
His Ford Escort, dubbed “Baby Blue”, is set to challenge the top-runners in the competition and his antics in race trim are certainly exciting to watch.
He is no stranger to sideways action and air, although the latter will not come into play at the lakes.
However, with around 300 horsepower under the bonnet of his Escort, he is sure to set the time sheets alight.
His achievements in rallying date back to being two times Irish Forest/Gravel 2WD Champion in 2005 and 2007, 2008 British Silverstar 2WD Champion (gravel), plus a long list of others.
More recently his achievements include a Classics victory at the Rally SA event this year, where he also finished first in the 2WD class and fifth outright.
Kelly will look to take the challenge up to regular front-runner and crowd favourite Kevin Mackrell, who will return in his heavily-modified purple Datsun 260Z V8 all-wheel-drive, while Dan Day has been confirmed a starter and is set to chase back-to-back titles this year.
But in contrast to a full rally, it takes less than a minute to cover the course from the bottom of the Valley Lakes crater to the top of the hill, so Kelly will have to dial his car in immediately and find some pace if he will challenge for the outright victory.
His Escort is also set up for gravel, which may see him struggle to keep up with the front runners, but is sure to provide plenty of action along the way.
Other notable inclusions are five-times Australian Rally Champion Simon Evans, who will tackle the lakes in a six-litre Ford Cortina, along with Graham Alexander in a Mitsubishi Gallant VR4.
Alexander’s career includes a Class A win in the 2008 Bathurst 12 hour, the Australian GT Performance Car Championship in 2002, regular drives in the Touring Car Masters, a long and successful rally career, including sixth place in the 2009 East Africa Safari Classic Rally and the winner of the City of Mount Gambier Rally in 1993.
Last year Day’s Subaru WRX was the car to beat and that showed in the final result, although he only claimed the honours by less than half a second over Mackrell.
He too had to find immediate pace in his first look at the hill, but was able to do that in spectacular fashion.
Lakes legend Peter Gazzard will not return this year, once more leaving the door open for another new name to grace the honour board.
Mount Gambier’s Simon Feil kept the top two honest last year, with his fastest time of 53 second just shy of the eventual winning time of Day’s – 51.11 – while Mackrell stormed home with a time of 51.45, recorded on his third run.
It took Day until the final run of the weekend to eclipse that time.
With big names set to shake up the field this year, all is set for another top weekend of racing.
