Simola Hillclimb Day 2: TimesLIVE takes the win in Class A1

The final day of the 2024 Simola Hillclimb dawned to clear skies and a weather report promising zero rain, a welcome relief after it had poured for most of Saturday night.

Though a lot of the grip-giving rubber would have been washed from the track as a result, the prospect of not having to deal with a soaked surface en route to the class finals gave us competitors something to smile about.

I was feeling extra cheerful as I set the fastest time in Class A1 on Saturday afternoon, steering my TimesLIVE Suzuki Swift Sport up the hill in a time of 54.143. However, this optimism was pretty much extinguished after running the obligatory Sunday morning warm-up session.

Despite pushing hard, the best I could manage was a lukewarm 56.030. Brendon Staniforth (55.790) went second fastest, while Wesley Greybe set the bar with a 55.549. 

Motorsport is a deeply mental game and little dips in personal performance like this can quickly wreak havoc with your mojo. The thing is to not dwell on them and instead try to focus on getting back on track as quickly as possible. So I spent time looking at Saturday’s GoPro footage and figuring out where I could maximise my pace.

Launching off the start line seemed like one of the places I could whittle away time by trying to limit my wheel-spin in first gear. Rolling off the throttle a little bit could definitely enhance my grip and save a tenth of a second of two.

The second place I could gain was through corner 3 (under the bridge), where I could dab the anchors later and softer. Technically you don’t need to brake for this section of the track in a Swift Sport, but I found a light touch on the brake pedal helps rotate the car better, improves front-end grip, reduces understeer on exit and sets you up for a faster run up to the Suzuki Esses. 

This time of introspection seemed to do the trick because in the first of the three Sunday morning qualifying sessions I set a 53.781 — the first time a Swift Sport had ever broken the 54-second barrier at the Simola Hillclimb. This was followed by an even quicker 53.551 in the penultimate qualifying run, followed by a 53.928 in the final one.

Things were looking up — as they were for Greybe, who registered a 53.816, and Staniforth, who found a whack of time after setting a 54.241. All three of us Team Suzuki drivers were through to the Class A1 final and going on this performance, any of us stood a chance to claim overall honours.

After an agonisingly long lunch break, it was time to helmet up for the last time and dig deep for one final do-or-die scrabble up the hill. However great your last practice and qualifying sessions might have been, this is the only one that counts, so the pressure to perform and not make any mistakes is phenomenally intense — think of it as the motorsport equivalent of diffusing a bomb.

After triple-checking my air-conditioner and traction control were both off, I stormed off the line with limited wheel spin and was soon storming up the long climb towards corner 3, the speed trap clocking me at 145km/h, which could have been my best VMAX of the day.

I managed a tidy exit and from here on kept it ultra smooth up through the Suzuki Esses, eventually crossing the finish line in a time of 53.784, good enough to not just finish ahead of Greybe (54.221) and Staniforth (54.327) but also set a new record time for a stock-standard Swift Sport up the 1.9km course.

The sense of achievement was immense. I’ve been competing at this event on and off since 2010 and class honours have always eluded me. To finally stand on top of the podium and spray the winner’s champagne was something truly special. 

The real star of the show though has to be the plucky little Swift Sport. As mentioned before, this is a stock-standard vehicle fitted with regular street tyres and the way it handled two days of foot-to-the-floor abuse up such a challenging course was mightily impressive.

All three punched above their weight, beating out some considerably more powerful machines, including a Class A2 BMW M135i xDrive (56.928) and Class A6 BMW M5 V10 (55.283). Not bad for something with “only” 103kW and 230Nm of torque.

This trio of Japanese junior hot hatchbacks proved to us, drivers and spectators alike, that you don’t have to spend a small fortune (R455,900 for the auto model I drove) to enter and have an absolute ball in prestigious motorsport events such as the Simola Hillclimb.