KNYSNA NEWS - André Bezuidenhout has reinforced his dominance of the Simola Hillclimb by setting a new record up the hill, surpassing last year's record by eight tenths of a second.
Bezuidenhout ended a thrilling 2022 Simola Hillclimb weekend on a superlative note when he pulled out all the stops in the Single Seater and Sports Cars Top 10 shootout at the end of the third and final day, today, 8 May.
Competitors have battled not only each other, but also wet track conditions throughout the weekend.
Today, however, was the warmest and driest day of the three, which helped the drivers shoot up the hill in their best times of the weekend. Bezuidenhout, once more in his McLaren-powered 2007 Gould GR55, was firing on all cylinders from the get-go. He topped every session of the day both in the Single Shooter and Sports Cars classes and the overall standings.
This consistency paid dividends when the Top 10 drivers in the three different categories - Road and SuperCars, Modified Saloon Cars, Single Seater and Sports Cars - took to the start line for their shootouts. Jean-Pierre van der Walt fired his way up the hill to win the Road and SuperCar Shootout in a time of 44,562 seconds.
In the Modified Saloon Car shootout, Franco Scribante reclaimed his title from Reghard Roets by setting a new category record, blitzing his way from start to finish in 38,129 seconds. But the best was yet to come. With his 2021 record of 34,965 in the back of his mind, Bezuidenhout had something incredible in store for spectators.
At about 16:00 he blitzed his way up the 1,9km serpentine course in an incredible time of 34,161 seconds, outdoing his previous record by a sizeable 0,804 seconds. This handed him the King of the Hill title once again, an incredible two seconds faster than second-placed Robert Wolk, who clocked a personal best time of 36,335 today.
André Bezuidenhoht waves to supporters while returning down the track after his record-breaking run.
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