This past weekend saw close to 50 competitors taking part in the inaugural Knysna Hillclimb. Unlike traditional motorsport events, a hillclimb pits man and machine against the stopwatch. The event took place on a challenging 1.85 km climb up to the acclaimed , and set on a picturesque hill overlooking the renowned Knysna Estuary and Heads.

A variety of vehicles battled it out over the two day event, from road cars such as VW Golf’s, a pair of Fiat Uno Turbo’s, C55 and CLS 63 AMG Merc’s to thoroughbred race cars such as the trio of V8 Ford Mustang’s from the Owen Ashley V8 Masters Series, to an Oval Track racer and even 125 and 250cc karts.

Practice and qualifying runs took place on the Saturday, with drivers quickly getting to terms with the steep and twisty road. Suspension, tyre pressures and camber were all tweaked in search of the fastest time, but in an uphill battle against gravity there is no substitute for horsepower. By the end of the day it was clear who the top contenders would be in Sunday’s final, with the fastest qualifying run of the day, 43.272 seconds, being set by Anton Cronje in his wide-body Subaru Impreza WRX, followed by the V8 powered Ford Mustang of Sarel van der Merwe.

Sunday’s action took place in cooler, over-cast conditions with dark clouds gathering over head. Three more qualifying runs took place before the final title chase. 21 Drivers made it through the elimination rounds to do battle for top honours. But the battle for outright victory was fought between motorsport legend Sarel van der Merwe in an immaculately turned out V8 Masters Ford Mustang and a highly modified Subaru WRX superbly driven by Anton Cronje. The two were separated by fractions of a second throughout the qualifying runs, with Cronje marginally ahead throughout Saturday and Sunday qualifying.

In the final, however, ‘Supervan’ displayed his immense talent and experience to produce his best run, pipping Cronje by just over half a second to claim the first Knysna King of the Hill title. He covered the course in 43.0 sec, reaching a top speed of over 230 km/h.

Cronje’s Subaru was disadvantaged with a cracked exhaust manifold, but despite losing the overall fastest time up the hill to Supervan, he still won his class.

Third fastest overall went to Capetonian Fanie Theron in the Owen Ashley built V8 Master Mustang, with Cronje’s class rival Thouca Mechanicos fourth in his Mercedes C55 AMG.

Proving that dynamite does indeed come in small packages, John Amm was a crowd favourite aboard the fifth placed PVP Rotax 250cc Superkart – not bad for a projectile that could almost fit in the boot of the winning car! Former rally champion Enzo Kuun rounded off the top six in his Audi R8 V8, which attracted attention wherever it was parked. Both won their respective classes.

The 2009 Knysna hillclimb proved to be a roaring success. Organisers expected to host around 2 000 motorsport enthusiasts over the weekend, but in fact that number turned out to be over 6 000, and from where we were standing it was easy to see why.

The Simola Estate is a beautiful setting in itself, but coupled with the backdrop of the Knysna Lagoon, the Knysna Heads and surrounding mountains, the event was picturesque to say the least. The 1.85 km course offered excellent and safe viewing of the cars, as all spectators were located on the inside of the corners and sitting above the road. Despite the popularity of the event, traffic to and from the venue was never an issue and various food and drink was available along the length of the course to keep spectators satisfied.

The organisers have told us to expect bigger and better things next year and we will definitely return to support the event, take in the action and who knows, maybe even have a go at racing up the hill ourselves.

Special thanks must go to Amanda and Ryk Cloete from for hosting us for the weekend. Their comfy B&B is situated right on the Knysna lagoon and is less than 5 minutes from Simola and Knysna’s Restaurants and Pubs.

Top ten results:

RPM TV will be showing highlights from the 2009 Knysna Hillclimb on DSTV channel SS6 next Wednesday at 20:45.