Sunday 26th November, 2006. Christmas Hills, VIC
The fresh air in the hills of the Yarra Valley, fine weather, and the smell of the barb-e-que in the Octungda at the 15th Historic & Classic Rob Roy Hillclimb set the scene for a wonderful step back in time at Australia's most historic active hillclimb circuit.
The Guest of Honour was John Harvey, who on this occasion drove a car, which he surely wouldn't have touched in the past – a 1949 Lago Talbot T26 GP. Bill Prowse was celebrating an amazing 60 years since he first competed at Rob Roy. This year he competed in his Alfa Ricciari.
Glimpses of the past were had by a small number of entrants. There were two T-Model Ford Speedsters competing from the early 1900's, a Vauxhall 30/98, MG J3, but the real piece of art was the Hudson Special built by Earl Davey-Milne and driven by son Lyndon. This is a must see car…Quite unique! But then everything in the Davey-Milne garage is!
John Gillett made his return to the track in the ex-Jack Brabham MG TC Special after a major engine re-build – and clocking a low 25 second time in his first official run.
Though the car that really stole the show was a non-historic entrant. Andrew Howell was invited to demonstrate his awesome $230,000 Gould Hillclimb car. In its first time at Rob Roy earlier in the year (in apparently semi-damp condition's) Andrew smashed his own Hillclimb record with a time of 18.09 seconds. In his first flying run at the historic Rob Roy (unofficial of course) he managed it in 18.05 seconds. Amazing stuff!
Report by: Charles Rogers / Historic Racing Australia