The volcano surrounding the Valley Lakes precinct may be dormant, but the picturesque area is set to awaken Mount Gambier with an eruption of noise when the 2021 Trident Tyre Centre Legend of the Lakes Hill Climb hits top gear tomorrow.

A record-breaking field of over 220 cars will take on the daunting climb up the crater which has forged a name for itself as one of the most storied pieces of tarmac in the South Australian motorsport community.

The man to catch is Subaru star Dan Day, who is aiming to enter into unsurpassed territory and win a sixth-straight Legends title.

Day has dominated every event since 2016 and holds the consecutive victories record with Mount Gambier’s own Peter Gazzard, evenly splitting the last decade.

Aside from the outright race there are plenty of other drawcards for enthusiasts to look out for including the biggest Friday field of historic and special interest cars.

The award-winning event has been previously recognised as the premier motorsport event in the state run by the South Eastern Automobile Club and race director Kevin Raedel said everything is in place for another weekend packed with motorsport madness.

“The track is all sorted,” he said.

“We have been setting the track up for more than a week, so it is a big 10 days.

“We do not even want to think about how much we have to set up because it gets more and more every year.
“The track surface is looking good and there will be some fast times set if the weather on our side because it might cause havoc.

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COVID-19 restrictions remain in place at the event with only around 200 spectators permitted.
Last year crowd restrictions were also in place, so event organizers trailed a live stream on Facebook and were encouraged by the results.

More than 10,000 views were accumulated by the live stream across the three days and Readel said SEAC hopes to make it even better in 2021.

“There is a limit of spectators, so we can just do what we can do,” he said.

“We are only allowed to have 1000 people in the venue.
“But people come and go so it is not too bad and we have the live stream anyway.

“We aim to improve it with better cameras and footage, so it should be a good thing.”

With Victorian competitors such as three-time winner Kevin Mackrell still unable to race due to COVID-19 complications, the fact car entries across the three days were exhausted well in advance of the weekend speaks to how significant the event has become on the South Australian motorsport calendar.

All 200-plus drivers are South Australian and organisers never anticipated the event to grow so big.
Although the coronavirus has been circulating for almost two years, Readel said the 2021 edition has been even harder to pull together due to the advent of the Delta strain

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“The majority of the year has gone ahead which has been good, but it has been worse than 12 months ago,” he said.

“It has been harder with snap lockdowns and restrictions around the corner.

“That is why there is not much going on this year and we are concentrating on the drivers getting their runs up the hill.”