The chequered flag dropped on the 26th running of the Trident Tyre Centre Legend of the Lakes Hill Climb on Sunday and a bright blue Subaru was once again the class of the field.

For a record-breaking sixth consecutive year, the fastest man up the crater was Adelaide’s Dan Day.

The 27-year-old set the time sheets alight blitzing the nationally renowned course in just 50.32 seconds, while no one else broke the 52 second barrier.

Day may not have been able to break his overall lap record of 49.89 seconds, but he did take the title of the most consecutive legends titles from home-town favourite Peter Gazzard who has five.

Day said it was a thrill to be crowned as the king of the mountain again and add one extra consecutive crown over Gazzard.

“Going into the weekend getting the title of six in a row was always the aim and that makes it a bit more special,” he said.

“The record is a pretty big deal and means a lot and receiving the Lionel Stingers Memorial Trophy made it an extra special year.

“The whole SEAC crew put on a great event again with everything running like clockwork.”

Without his regular adversaries Gazzard and Kevin Mackrell around, Day was racing in another stratosphere to the rest of the field.

But the fight for the best of the rest trophy was on with six cars split by less than two seconds.

Some hot pace on the final day from Mitsubishi driver Craig Van Diemen ensured he sealed the runner-up position, seven tenths ahead of the 1997 Subaru of Damien Brand.

The fierce looking 2008 Nissan GTR of Nick Streckeisen completed the podium, while youngster Oscar Matthews was the final man to eclipse the 53-second barrier.

Day was braced with a new setup and set of tyres to attack the lakes in a new way.

Six of his eight runs would have been enough to win the title with the star driver’s only mistakes a small lock-up at the Bus Stop and “overdriving” the shoot-out lap.

Day said it took a bit of adapting initially, but he still managed to lead the way and believes all that separated him from the lap record was another set of tyres.

“It was a challenging weekend trying new things with the car,” he said.

“We ran our old tyres for the first two runs and straight out of the trailer we set a 51.82 which was enough to win.

“After that we decided to try the new tyres I have never driven on and I was just trying different suspension and sway bar settings most of Sunday because they were very different.

“It would have been good to have a second set of those tyres to have a crack at the record because the car was faultless all weekend.”

The 2021 hill climb was a family affair for the Days with Dan’s father Sean also sporting a striking Subaru STi painted in the iconic Colin McRae colours.

The vintage paint job did not just look fast as well with Day senior sneaking into the top 10 finishing ninth overall with a time of 54.51.

Day junior said the presence of his dad behind the wheel again made this year his favourite of the six pack.

“To have dad racing as well made our little team really busy,” he said.

“It was good to see him enjoying himself driving with a big smile, so that made it my favourite of the six.”

The 4WD Saloons Road Registered class was dominated by Streckeisen, while the Circuit Excel podium featured Mount Gambier’s own Bailey Perryman in third behind winner Kevin Lynch.

Both Improved Production classes were taken out by Mount Gambier’s Phil and Damien Wilson.

Damien Wilson powered his 1991 Nissan Silvia to the top in a tight battle for the 1301-2000cc Improved Production title with Mark Povey.

The Improved Production 3001cc to 6000cc class was comfortably fronted by Phil Wilson’s 1989 Toyota Soarer.

One of Mount Gambier’s oldest competitors Alex Bohner took home the honours for the Road Registered over 4000cc class.

The fastest Clubman Type and Historic Group J cars were driven by Roger Lomman and Scott Murray respectively.

The stunning Historic Group N turned heads and Robert Vanderkamp’s Ford GT was six seconds faster than all others.

Tom Ferguson, Anthony Norris, Nathan Dale, Nathan Crettenden, Shaun Williamson, Wayne Fitzpatrick, Bradley De Luca, Geoff Vardon, Lloyd De Kruyf, Andrew Campbell, Kyron Williamson and Trevor Pyatt all won their respective classes.