Equal First!

A stirling effort by the RCCV sets the year off to a cracking pace

We fielded a team of nine drivers in the first round of the Rob Roy Interclub Hillclimb in February this year, two-thirds of whom scored placement points for the club.  A 1st, three x 2nds and 2 x 4ths for a total of 47 points. Matched by the MGCC and well ahead of the GCC on 28 and VHRR on 25.

Colin Stark in his Alpine 110 got the first in class, backed up by Graeme Edwards (Clio 182) in second place in that class.  Paul Stewart in another classic – the R17 Gordini – started the day off with a PB for his first run, grabbed several more PBs with successive runs, and picked up a second in class for his efforts.  Our third second in class was David Bertuch in his Megane Trophy – beaten only by the man who took out first outright overall.  John Elliott and Geoff Rasmussen picked up fourth place points for the club in a Alpine GTA and an R4 – two more different ‘sporting’ Renaults you couldn’t imagine!

Colin was third outright for the day.  And although picking up 5 points for the club, Geoff was 50th which just goes to tell you that there were only 50 competitors! Four of the top 10 outright placings went to the RCCV, two each to GCC and VHRR and one each to BLCC and MGCC Geelong.

The weather was perfect, the atmosphere carnival with the cheer squad ably led by Jeni Sammons egging everyone on to greater efforts. It was good to see Glenn Armstrong back in the saddle, so to speak, easing himself back into competition after the tumble his Clio took last year.  Mike Neil in his rallying R16 having his first outing at Rob Roy and Peter Stathis, not his first outing but his first with his new Megane 275, completed the RCCV field.

The contest for first place is clearly a numbers game – the MGCC outnumbered the RCCV 13 to 9 but it was more that they had competitors in some classes with few runners in them that worked to their advantage. There’s no doubt it’s going to be an interesting contest this year – and we can be sure the MGCC will be looking at the stats in some detail and working up a strategy too.

Click here for the full scores.