By Trevor Jackson
ON an almost-perfect weekend for motorsport, drivers descended on the Valley Lakes for the annual Legend of the Lakes hill climb.
No one could stop Dan Day as he blazed to his sixth straight victory, surpassing the previous record of five straight by Mount Gambier’s Peter Gazzard.
But the Adelaide driver could not break his previous record time up the hill of 49.89 seconds, despite changes to his Subaru this year with that specific task in mind.
He was not far off, with a quick time of 50.32 set on Sunday morning.
With the sun out early on the final day, the times began to tumble, with all enjoying the sticky surface.
Day had his challengers, with Craig Van Diemen close behind with a time of 52.05 seconds set late on Sunday, while Damian Brand rounded out the podium with a hot 52.74-second Sunday run.
In fact, the sub-one minute runs extended down to 63rd position but one second is a large margin in a hill climb and Day prevailed.
Action was certainly the order of the weekend, with the likes of Mark Povey lifting wheels at every opportunity to thrill the limited crowd, or those watching from home on the live stream.
After wrestling with his Corvette-inspired Commodore, Mick Argoon managed to break the one-minute mark on Sunday, down to 56.64 on his final run up the hill.
The matt-black livery and roaring exhaust of his purpose-built machine certainly made for an impressive spectacle on the normally-quiet public road.
Sean Day – Dan’s father – made his return to the event after many seasons on the sidelines in an impressively-presented 22B Subaru WRX, with a fast 54.51 run to finish just inside the top 10.
The Subaru looked the goods with its WRC-inspired livery and was not far off the pace.
A popular driver at the event was Katelyn Bowering,who was given the chance to compete over the weekend, an honour bestowed the organising body – the South Eastern Automobile Club – to recognise the hours she volunteers throughout the year at SEAC Park, along with the fact she is a promising junior.
Bowering certainly had plenty of support up and down the hill.
While limited spectators were allowed due to Covid-19 restrictions, the live stream proved popular, with running commentary to ensure fans were up to date with what was happening.
Sunday also saw an effort to raise money for the Flying Doctors service, with all markers or barriers hit bringing a “fine” for that competitor, along with the usual five-second time penalty.
At the end of the day more than $3000 was raised for what race director Kevin Raedel deemed a worthy cause.
Raedel experienced first hand the need for the service in the region, recently transferred to Adelaide via the RFDS due to health issues.
