ENTRIES have closed for the Bathurst Real Estate 2012 Australian Hillclimb Championship (AHC), which will be conducted by the Bathurst Light Car Club at Mount Panorama.
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In just over a week, there will be 142 cars facing the starter. One of the leading contenders for outright honours in the Bathurst hillclimb is a former Formula One race engineer Malcolm Oastler.
Oastler spent 20 years in Europe. First racing, he then worked as designer before moving to F1 with BAR as the team technical director. Soon, he moved to Jaguar as chief engineer. Content with what he had achieve, Oastler moved back home to Australia in 2004 to assist in setting up a rural venture with his family.
He got back into motorsport reasonably quick. He built and drove a magnificent V12 Auto Union replica he called Union Jag, and had it at the last AHC conducted at Bathurst in 2008.
At next week’s event at Mount Panorama, the Sydneysider will drive his new weapon – a Dallara F394 which, as one would expect, has been touched by the Oastler magic.
“The Dallara was an F3 car, but I ditched everything apart from the tub, the front wing, and some of the front suspension,” said Oastler. “I’ve built a spaceframe rear chassis to take the stock 1300 Hayabusa motor, rear suspension and rear wing. It has 165 bhp and 310kg, very exciting.
“The aero package I’ve designed and built myself, and is what I would describe as inspired guesswork.”
While he is certainly better known as an engineer, Oastler was no slouch behind the wheel. He raced initially in Australia in Formula Ford in 1983/84, finishing second in the national championship on debut.
After he had obtained a degree in mechanical engineering at Sydney University, Oastler moved to England in 1985 where he was a mechanic for Formula Ford 1600 and 2000 teams. For a time, he drove in the 2000 category.
In 1986 he joined Reynard Motorsport for what was the start of his involvement in the design of successful racing cars, which lasted almost two decades.
At Reynard, he designed the Formula Ford 1600 and 2000 chassis and worked with Adrian Reynard to design their first Formula 3000. Subsequently, cars of his design went on to win five international titles.
Reynard then moved into the design of Champ Cars in 1994. Oastler led the team with the design of chassis 951, and was subsequently rewarded with 13 pole positions and eight race wins, including the Indianapolis 500.
During the late 90s, CART cars designed by Oastler and the Reynard design team won four championships and took 60 race wins. While still with the Reynard company, the Australian joined the BAR F1 team as technical director and, in 2000/01, the team achieved a fifth and sixth in the championship and two podium finishes.
He then joined the Jaguar organisation as a consultant on the design of the thennew R4 chassis, before being appointed Jaguar chief engineer in 2003.
Next weekend’s event has attracted another engineering genius in Ron Hay.
Hay, a retired engineer, has built several hillclimb racers over the years, including a RH Honda, which is still a very competitive car.
The car he will drive at the Bathurst hillclimb is one he calls a synergy Dallara.
It started off as a Dallara F3 car racing in Japan. Hay purchased it as a rolling chassis late in 2010.
With the help of Oastler and Synergy New Zealand, Hay adapted one of the Synergy engines to the car. The engine is 2.4 litre with electronic fuel injection and weighs just 100kg.
At a practice hillclimb at Mount Panorama in August, the car ran and performed well.
As if the combined brainpower of Oastler and Hay wasn’t seen lurking around the car that day! Advising Hay was one of the smartest mechanics ever to put a spanner on a car in this country, the one and only Peter Molloy.
From next Thursday, expect the city to swell with motorsport enthusiasts expected to flock to Mount Panorama for the hillclimb.
There have been scores of hillclimb competitors testing at Wakefield Park of late, particularly yesterday. So the drivers are keen and, frankly, there is interest all around the nation.
One of the biggest talking points is the expected high speeds to be reached by the competing cars, with several expected to average 100 mph on the 1700-metre course.
The event headquarters, as usual for these events, will be in McPhillamy Park at the top of the circuit. It will be in use from Thursday, when all of the cars are scrutineered and documentation is checked.
It is expected the area will resemble a small village. As well as being used as a co-ordination point, it will serve as the pit area with overnight camping facilities as well. It’ll be worth a walk through at some stage over the weekend!
Admission to the 2012 Bathurst Real Estate 2012 Australian Hillclimb Championship is by gold coin donation, with all money going to the Centre for Kidney Research.