Geelong Revival Hillclimb VHC 2017 Round One
On the weekend of the 26th and 27th November the Hillclimb element of the Geelong Revival meeting was held in the grounds of the Eastern Park over the two days of the event. I fine layout was offered to competitors with the liberal use of water filled crash barriers rendering the site and the hillclimb among the best on offer in the Victorian Hillclimb Championship. Although held in November 2016 the event was to be the first round of the 2017 Victorian Hillclimb Championship and 83 drivers entered to attack the course. The weather of the course of the weekend was fantastic with dry skies and nice and mild days in the region of 20 to 25 degrees and the course was fine and the facilities excellent on the hillclimb for the meeting. Of special interest to the fans of Type 49 racing were the two Mk 1 Escort entries of the genuine Aussie Type 49 Twin Cam Lotus Escort of Damian Faulkner and the Mk 1 Pinto Powered RS 2000 clone of Les Morrall. The two cars both have an interesting history with the Faulkner Twin Cam being in the ownership of the Faulkner family since new and the Morrall RS 2000 replica being recently purchased from Tasmania by Les and subject to a full and extensive engine rebuild by Warren Heath. The Faulkner family were the owners of Eclipse Ford in Ballarat and it was one of a pair of new Twinks that Colin Faulkner (Damian’s father and owner of Eclipse Ford) earmarked as personal cars and kept in the family so to speak. Damian has been a regular club level competitor in various small Fords and regularly runs the H plated Twink in hillclimbs and sprints. The car is very original and aside from some braided brake lines and tuning of the engine the car is very stock except for roll cage and seats and other safety items being fitted Les Morrall sourced the Mk 1 coupe from its previous owner in Tasmania and it was a pretty standard Aussie Mk 1 as far as chassis and suspension and brakes and the car runs on 15 inch rims and R spec tyres. The gearbox is a standard Type E four speed and the diff is English but the engine is quite modified by Warren Heath of Warren Heath Performance.
Damian recoded a best run in the Twink of 45.67 seconds and Les started steadily and worked his way down to a fine 45.97 seconds for the hill climb at Eastern Park. Best time of the meeting was a 36.03 recorded by Allen Foley in his Dallara Open Wheeler Hillclimb special.
