Sarel van der Merwe turned back the years when he won the inaugural Knysna Hillclimb in the Western Cape on Sunday.  Driving an Owen Ashley-built V8 Masters Series Ford Mustang, the 62-year-old motor racing legend recorded a best time of 43 seconds for the 1.85-km climb on the Simola Estate and Golf Course overlooking the Knysna Heads and estuary.

The first running of the Knysna Hillclimb attracted 47 entries with 21 surviving Saturday’s elimination round to go through to Sunday’s finals.  The battle for top honours turned out to be a two-way contest between Supervan and Anton Cronje in a highly modified Subaru Impreza WRX.  Cronje shaded Van der Merwe by fractions of a second during Saturday’s qualifying runs, but the multiple SA rally and circuit racing champion, displaying the legendary car control and big match temperament that made him an international star, claimed the fastest run of the day on Sunday to pip Cronje by just over half a second.  His top speed was 230 km/h. 

Cronje’s Subaru suffered a cracked exhaust manifold, but he still managed to win his class ahead of the AMG Mercedes C55 of Thouca Mechanicos, who finished fourth overall.
 
Third fastest overall was Fanie Theron in another Masters Series Ford Mustang ahead of Mechanicos.  Fifth was John Amm in a PVP Rotax 250cc Superkart.  Former national rally champion and winner of last weekend’s season-ending national championship Toyota Dealer Rally in Gauteng, Enzo Kuun, was sixth in an Audi R8.

Lourens van Litsenborgh (Honda V-Tec) won class D, Johan Zulch (BMW 325i) claimed the honours in class E win, while Knysna’s Francis Cussens took his Toyota powered Birkin 7 to the class G win ahead of Botswana’s Dave Alexander in a Harper Motorsport MGA.

Chris Carolin (Mazda Capella) won class H, Paul Bestbier took class L in a Fiat Uno turbo, Matteo Casale was fastest in class M in a Polo Tdi, Ian Oberholzer won Class A in a Datsun 1200 and class B went to a Marcos driven by Peter Gale.

Picture by: Malcolm Royston