THE 2017 Legend of the Lakes Hill Climb has finally arrived and the 2016 winner Dan Day is primed to defend his title.
Day competed last year for the first time, in a car that had not been raced previously and managed to claim the fastest time up the hill on his final run of the weekend.
With around 750-800 horsepower on tap in his Subaru WRX – plus the option to go to 900 if required – Day is certainly in with a chance to claim back-to-back titles.
Much depends on how the weekend unfolds, but he has left nothing to chance this time around.
“The car is fairly improved since last year,” Day said.
“Last year was its very first event so it was my first time driving the car and solving any teething issues.
“The car has had a whole year of driving and upgrading since then, so I’m looking forward to see how we go.”
Those improvements include a drop in weight, plus other tweaks which has seen the Subaru at the pointy end of the field on five occasions.
“The car is about 150 kilos lighter this year, with carbon panels and plastic windows,” Day said.
“We are running on Avon tyres – a specific hill climb tyre – which we have never done before.
“We also have a bit extra power down low.
“Last year it was a bit “laggy”, with all the power all up top, plus I have 12 months of driving it.”
Day’s performances the last 12 months include a win at the Willunga Hill Climb, where he broke the record by about two-and-a-half seconds.
That pace sets him up for a sub-50 second run, something yet to be achieved at the event.
But he will have plenty of opposition, especially from Kevin Mackrell, who he finished second to at the recent Mount Alma Hill Climb.
“I will not be too surprised if we do a sub-50 this weekend,” Day said.
“I think the record by Gazzard is around 50.7, so I’m really hoping to get into the 49s.
“I have been looking through Mackrell’s times and whether he has done something else to his car this year, he seems pretty consistent every year – in the very low 51s.
“Weather plays a big part and everything has to fall into place to get the perfect run up there, so we will give it a good crack, but I will not be surprised if Mackrell has done something and he is right on our tail or in front of us.”
Day said he also expected stiff competition from various other drivers this year and was looking forward to returning to the Valley Lakes course.
“This is our biggest event of the year, so we are putting everything into it,” he said.
“The bit of road they use there is just awesome.
“There will be more competition than there was last year – I think there will be at least four or five of us at the top.
“Last year it took the whole weekend to get on top of Mackrell – we were sitting in second, but just at the end we managed to out-do him by .3 of a second.
“On paper our car should be a bit quicker and I should be a bit quicker with the extra experience, but at the end of the day you have to go up there and have a perfect run to make it all count.”
