Event date: 23 May 2021
T ’was an early start on a crisp Autumn Sunday morning to head off to Round 5 of our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship at Rob Roy Hillclimb in Christmas Hills, to the North East of Melbourne. This event also forms Round two of the three round Motorsport Australia Interclub Challenge.
Rob Roy is a bit over an hour’s drive away from our place, add in a stop for fuel in the racecar on the way, so I left around 6 to be there at the 7.30am opening time. It was a lovely quiet drive up from the Peninsula into a beautiful sunrise, promising another perfect Melbourne Autumn day. Cold in the morning, but quickly warming up as the sun comes up, love this time of year. As I got closer to the track, winding through the hills and crossing the Yarra at Warburton the frost alert on our trusty tow car, Helga, went off and looking at the outside temp it was indeed a frosty 2 deg and dropping as I neared Rob Roy.
Once arrived, I found Phil and Blake already had their marquee up and were setting up camp for the day, with room for the rest of the club members to gather around too. There was quite a bit of frost on the ground still, but as the sun came up over the hills it quickly disappeared, and the sun gave us a beautiful day out to enjoy.
Blake hadn’t been to Rob Roy before, so he went off to do a sighting lap after drivers briefing. Then we went through in class order for each of our timed runs. There was a bit of a hold up during the morning, as one of the MG’s dropped coolant all the way up the hill and the officials had to clean it up and make it safe again. We each lowered our times during the day, with Blake and I ending up second and third in the 2-3 litre class in our E30’s. I also received a trophy from the last round here, as I won the class on that day. This time though it was about making sure the car was running ok again, after racing last weekend at Phillip Island and having to pull our after breaking a rocker in race 2. Apart from an electrical issue with the start switch that will need attention, my E30 ran as well as it always has, so she is ready for the next track day with the club at Sandown for the Come and Try/Driver Training Day on 19 June.
It was fantastic to see quite a few club members dropping in to see us during the day and watching some of our runs, enjoying a coffee and a chat in the sunshine with us. Thanks to Phil for setting up his kitchen to keep us in coffee, egg and bacon rolls and toasted sandwiches for lunch, it is a great atmosphere at our events, when we all congregate together as a group, just love it.
Look forward to seeing you at the next event.
Graeme Bell | Member #1
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne
