Two-time Bathurst 1000 champion Tony Longhurst is set to duel with Toowoomba tarmac rally specialist Ray Vandersee, as the pair shoot to break all records for road registered vehicles at the November 10/11 Noosa Hill climb event on the Sunshine Coast.
Driving Vandersee’s self designed Skelta G-Force sports car, each driver has already secured major National and International honours and will certainly add a whole new variable to the Queensland motoring showpiece on November 10/11.
More recently Longhurst snared a lucrative second placing at Targa West in Perth during his debut drive of the Skelta.
The valuable time spent behind the wheel of the Australian made sports car has further convinced Longhurst of the overall potential the Skelta G-Force in tarmac competition.
Vandersee on the other hand gained second placing at Dunlop Targa New Zealand late last year, secured more stage wins than any other driver at Targa Tasmania in January this year and more recently was the winner of the Inaugural Aeromil Pacific Suncoast Classic tarmac event on the Sunshine Coast in July and of the Mount Buller Sprint at the weekend.
Last year Vandersee created Noosa Hill Climb history by mastering the quickest ever time set by a road registered vehicle up the 1.5km course.
Another class win in the annual Hillclimb feature is on the radar and Vandersee is also looking forward to Longhurst spending more time behind the wheel of his Toowoomba made creation.
“Noosa is always a favourite event for us as one of only a few held in Queensland and we love the fact that it’s our home event held in a very social, relaxed atmosphere on the Sunshine Coast, ” said Vandersee.
“Following on from Tony’s success in Perth it’ll be great to have him as part of the team for the weekend and of course with us both driving the Skelta it’ll make for some friendly competition in-house.
“As the winner of the Suncoast Classic we’re keen to get back there and wave the Skelta flag plus we’ll again be sponsoring Turn 2 so we’ll have a strong presence over the course of the weekend.
Longhurst will contest a number of exhibition runs in the Skelta G-Force as both he and Vandersee look to better the existing record for a road registered vehicle up the winding 1.5kilometre circuit.
On his way to claiming honours in the Future Classics Class and an overall 7th placing last year, Vandersee rocketed the Skelta G-Force to a 59.88 seconds run, the first ever sub-60 second pass by a non open-wheel competitor in the history of the event.
The Darling Downs competitor realises a third straight victory won’t come easy and expects one of the toughest ever fields assembled on the Sunshine Coast.
“There are a number of drivers who are competing a week earlier at the Australian Hillclimb Championship event at Mt Cotton who’ll be staying back to compete at Noosa, ” said Vandersee.
“Three straight class wins would be a great way to begin our campaign towards next year’s Targa Tasmania and we are also trying to put everything in to place for a start at Rally Tasmania. ”
The Noosa Hillclimb is a 1.5km section of winding bitumen road in the Tewantin State Forest and is coordinated by the Historic Racing Car Club of QLD and the Noosa Beach Classic Car Club.
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