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An overview of the path to the Under 40s Club
The initial barrier to be broken at the hillclimb was the minute
barrier but this was quickly broken at the first hillclimb on 18th
February 1968 by both Ray Jorgensen (58.39s) and Jim Reuter (58.74)
on their practice run. Brian Tebble, in Ann Thomson’s Lotus 15,
recorded the first official sub-60s run with a 58.59 on his first
official run while Tim Harlock (Cooper Ford) also went under the
minute with a 58.74. On the second official run, R Robson (Morgan
+4) 59.89 and R Atkinson (Formula V) 58.77 joined the ‘Under the
minute’ group. By day’s end, both Kerry Horgan (Sprite, 57.53) and
Will Charlton (MGB, 59.91) had increased the number of ‘Under 60s’
to seven. Fastest time for the day was Ray Jorgensen’s 54.54 making
him the first to break the 55s barrier and leaving people wondering
how long it would be before the 50s barrier would be
broken.
It wasn’t long before it happened; in fact, only four months. At the
Qld Hillcimb Championships held in June, Peter Holinger (Holinger
Vincent) came very close to being the first to break the 50s barrier
when he did a 50.00 on his first run but it was Glynn Scott who, on
his second run in his Lotus 23, achieved it with a 48.9s. By the end
of the day, the fastest time had been lowered to 47.4s by Peter
Holinger.
The next goal was to break 45s and Paul England, at the 1970 AHC,
came close with a best time of 45.6s. In August 1971, Murray Bingham
got closer with a 45.2 in his Cobra PAC II but it wasn’t until the
first round of the 1974 AHC that it was finally broken.
Interestingly, it came down to a contest between Paul England and
Murray Bingham with both being the winners! Murray Bingham was the
‘moral’ victor with a 44.4s run in practice but that didn’t count as
an official time so Paul England’s event-winning 44.7s went in the
record books as the first under 45s time posted in competition.
It took some time before that 44.7s time was bettered and it was
local driver Gary Cossor who did a 44.1s in winning the QHC in his
Wortmeyer SCV in June 1978. However, it was just one year later at
the AHC that Peter Holinger (Holinger Repco) achieved a 43.3s.
This time held as best until 1982 when Kym Kym Kym Rohrlach (VW Special) got into
the 42s with a 42.48s and the following years saw the times tumble
as Roger Harrison (Elfin 600C) did a 41.8s in 1983, Ivan Tighe
(Chevron) 41.32s in 1985 and a tantalizingly-close 40.29s in 1986.
As official timing was given to the nearest tenth of a second this
was recorded as a 40.3s.
It was on 31st May 1987 that the 40s was finally broken
by Kym Rohrlach (SA) on his second run with a 39.87s.
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Garry
Connelly addressing the crowd |
With official timing being only a tenth of a second, this went down
in the record books as 39.90s.
Four years later, in June 1991, Ivan Tighe (Qld), this time
in his Kaditcha, lowered the record further to 39.86s when he became
the second person to break the 40s barrier. Later that year he got
the time down to 39.33s.
In June 1995, two more drivers achieved the feat of breaking the 40s
barrier when Bill Norris (Hawk Mk II) and John Davies
(DBF), both of Qld, achieved times of 39.8s and 39.5s respectively.
It then took until June 2000 for someone else to join this exclusive
club and it was Peter Gumley (NSW) who, with a 39.19s in his
Wortmeyer SCV, also beat the ‘best ever’ time of 39.21s set by Bill
Norris at a Club hillclimb on 11 October 1998.
At the AHC in September 2001, New South Welshmen Eric Barnes
and Peter Finlay both ‘joined the Club’ with 39.97 and 39.87
respectively.
Then, the following year, Alan McConnell (Qld) with a 39.39,
became the 8th driver to achieve a sub-40 run.
Despite a number of drivers going tantalizingly close to breaking
the 40s barrier, it then took until the QHC in June 2007 for another
to actually do it when Victorian Andrew Howell (Gould GR55B)
posted a 38.32s on his first official run.
At the AHC in November, two more quickly joined the Club with
Greg Ackland (Vic) doing a 39.90 in his Ninja GA7 and Tom
Donovan (NSW) a 39.65 in his Pilbeam MP82.
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