MOTOR SPORT
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TWO-time Australian champion Brett Haywood will be out to join an elite group of five that have won three titles when he contests the Bathurst Real Estate Australian Hillclimb Champion-ship at Mount Panorama on November 2-4.
The 42-year-old Victorian won both the 2009 and 2011 titles on home tarmac at Bryant Park in Victoria. If he can win in this year’s event, being organised by the Bathurst Light Car Club, Haywood will join Lex Davison, Paul England, Ivan Tighe, Peter Holinger and Gary West as three-time winners.
Davison was a four-time Australian Grand Prix winner, England went on to race Formula One and Tighe was a front running open wheel racer for many years, but possibly better known for his engineering. He was the original owner of Tighe Cams.
Holinger was a very keen hillclimb enthusiast but like Tighe also an amazing engineer, famous for the Holinger gearbox. West is a talented hillclimb competitor who won two of his championships at Bathurst.
Haywood is also an engineer and will drive a car of his own design at Mount Panorama, a Haywood 09 built in 2009. It has a chrome/moly chassis, powered by a 1598cc 250hp Suzuki Hayabusa engine, with a six-speed sequential gearbox and all up weighs only 340 kilograms.
The Victorian has had the perfect preparation for the Bathurst event as last weekend he won his second South Australian Hillclimb Championship at the legendary Collingrove track and broke Peter Gumley’s outright record in doing so.
“I won last year’s [2011] South Australian championship but was pushed all the way by Peter, though this year he wasn’t there, so I was even more determined to win and of course break his record,” Haywood said.
“We didn’t use our best tyres as we’re saving them for Bathurst, but we’ve been playing around with the car a bit and it worked well.
“I’m looking forward to Bathurst, but I’m a realist. I think it will be a race in two [with Tim Edmondson and Doug Barry], however, the battle for third will be between about six or more of us, but we’ll be very close.”
To go with his two Australian and two South Australian titles, Haywood has also won the Queensland Championship twice – in 2011 and 2012 – and the 2011 Victorian Championship.
Haywood has built six open wheel hillclimb racers at his Haywood Engineering workshop in Leungatha and three are competing in the Bathurst Australian Hillclimb Championship.
The Haywood cars have been extremely successful and this year hold the top three positions in the Victorian Hillclimb Series.
Surprisingly enough Haywood is only one of two Australian champions still competing and at this point in time the second – West Australian West – has not entered as he struggles to finish the building of his new car in time for the event.
The Haywood 2009 is sponsored by Haywood Engineering, Gordon Leven Tyres and Shell Racing Solutions.