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Toowoomba’s Ray Vandersee has piloted the Skelta G-Force sports car to number one in the Prologue stage of the inaugural Aeromil Pacific Suncoast Classic today.
Driving his self designed Honda S2000 powered creation, the former Queensland rally champion took little time to reacquaint himself with the 1.5km Noosa Hill Climb circuit, with three runs serving as the Prologue stage.
The timed average over the three runs rocketed the Skelta to front running among 118 competitors, who will all take to an untested 25-stage tarmac rally assignment over the next three days.
“Everything just ran nicely, we had great grip on the tyres and that was especially satisfying although the prologue was marred by a couple of offs which was disappointing, ” said Vandersee.
“Knowing the road is traditionally quite slippery we took the first run easy and from there we pushed a little harder and came away happy.
“Today was all about ensuring the car was in good condition so we’ll be race ready when it counts.
“It’s been great to get behind the wheel on a very relaxed day here on the Sunshine Coast.
“The weather’s been brilliant and I’m sure we’ll be rearing to go for tomorrow’s competition start.
The Skelta’s performance wasn’t a total surprise considering the efforts of Vandersee during last year’s annual Noosa Hill climb event where he mastered the quickest ever time set by a road registered vehicle up the 1.5km Noosa Hill Climb circuit at Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast.
On that occasion the Darling Downs driver 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.
Competition stages in the Suncoast Classic will start each day with a run up the regular Noosa Hill Climb circuit. Tomorrow that run will be followed by 10 stages (start at Noosa then South to Wamuran/Mt Mee and Kilcoy), eight stages Saturday (start at Noosa then North-west to Gympie) and seven stages to close off the event on Sunday. (start at Noosa before heading South and closing off at Noosaville)
