The 2024 Trident Tyre Centre Legends of the Lakes Hill Climb has proved yet again a raging success as drivers from across Australia put the pedal to the metal on the iconic tight, windy and steep Valley Lakes track.
The event was owned once again by Dan Day who claimed his ninth consecutive hill climb title.
Day was unstoppable all weekend, setting a new record three times with his best effort of 48.05 seconds, breaking the previous record that sat in the low 49 seconds set in 2022.
Rounding out the podium was Adelaide’s Douglas Johnson who took home second place and Kevin Mackrell who finished third.
Event director Kevin Raedel said the event ran well with the drivers getting 15 runs across the weekend.
Raedel was also impressed with how well the track performed during the weekend.
“The track had some pretty good times out of it,” he said.
“There was lots of grip and the right temperature made it a very fast track with lots of people getting personal bests quite a few times which is good.”
Raedel said the on-site big screen broadcasting the racing live was a hit among the spectators at the event.
“The big screen was a big hit again, everyone loved the big screen back again, it’s very expensive to have but people loved it,” he said.
Raedel thought Day had a very strong weekend on the track.
“He pushed as hard as he could, right from the very start Saturday morning he pushed really hard,” he said.
Raedel said the locals had a variety of results during the weekend with some doing better than others while one the junior drivers had a great result.
“It was a mixed bag, Tristan Crowe and Kylie Howard had a good weekend in their classes, they did not win their classes but did really well,” he said.
“Lots of the local juniors had a good weekend with young Charlie Evans, he won the junior class, he was really, really fast.”
Raedel enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the event during the weekend with a solid crowd.
“It was really good, on Saturday it was really good and on Sunday it was a bit down than normal but Saturday was huge,” he said.
“There were around 2000 people on the premises on the Saturday.”