Dean Amos won his third at the 79th running of the Australian Hillclimb Championship. Image: John Lemm
Driving his 2006 Nicholson McLaren V8-powered Gould GR55B, his best time in the event was 2.27 seconds quicker than his nearest rival.
Second place went to X Dean Tighe in Empire Wrath, powered by a Hayabusa Turbo engine. Tighe won the title at Mt Cotton in 2022, 61 years after his father Ivan first did it at the now-defunct Silverdale venue.
Third place went to Warwick Hutchinson aboard his OMS28/Rotary Turbo. Hutchinson completed a whitewash of the top three places for Formula Libre 2000cc and over cars.
The 2025 SupaService Tyre and Auto Motorsport Australia Hillclimb Championship was new for everyone. By hillclimb standards it was a very flat course. It was run on the 12-metre wide East Course in reverse over 1.9 kilometres. With ample run-off, it would be the safest and cleanest hillclimb venue in Australia.
“It was fast, very smooth and flowing. On the back straight we could get to 270 kilometres an hour,” Amos said.
“It was hard to adapt to at first. In practice we worked on getting the aero right without sacrificing speed.
“I thought the turbo cars would be quicker because they can dial up the boost where we could only deal with what we had.
“We didn’t do the last two runs as we were maxed out.”
Four runs were held on Saturday and five were available on Sunday. Amos’ quickest was on his last (Run 7) at 43.33 seconds. Tight also did his best on the same run – 45.60s – while Hutchinson’s sixth run produced a 47 dead.
Fourth and best of the tin tops was Dan Day. His best run was a 51.08s attempt at the end of Saturday and he only had one run on Sunday in his Open 4WD Time Attack class Subaru Impreza STi on Sunday.
He finished ahead of class rivals Doug Johnson (Subaru GC8), Damien Brand (two-door STi) and Mirko Grbic (Mitsubishi Evo 7). Eight outright was Phil Heafey (4WD Sports Sedan Evo 6) in front of David Whiteside (Formula Libre BOSS/Mazda V6 Twin Turbo) and Matt Brown (4WD Sports Cars Audi TT). Brown pipped class rival Nick Steckeisen (Nissan Skyline R35 GTR) by 0.01s for 10th.
Hillclimb SA host the event that feature 122 competitors competing in over 30 classes including Juniors and Ladies which were one by Charlie Evans (Holden Commodore) and Emma (Subaru) respectively.
The championship dates back to 1938 at Rob Roy with Peter Whitehead (ERA R10B) the winner. Amos joins Brett Hayward, Gary West, Paul England and Ivan Tighe with three wins, one behind Kym Rohrlach and Peter Holinger. Peter Gumley has the most with 10 ahead of Bruce Walton’s sixth and Malcolm Oastler’ five.