Queenstown Car Club’s renowned Coronet Peak Hill Climb celebrates its 50th anniversary tomorrow.
In 1972, it was the first event to be run by the then-Wakatipu Car Club, which was founded just the year before.
Co-founder, Queenstowner Stuart Maclean, says it was started at the suggestion of a friend, Southland Sports Car Club member Colin Bunce — ‘‘he said, ‘this would be a grouse piece of road’’’.
Bizarrely, the sealed road at the time was administered by the former Ministry of Works, whose Alexandra office refused to allow the race.
Maclean: ‘‘By chance I happened to be talking with Warren Cooper, who was then the mayor, and Warren said, ‘just go ahead and keep on organising, it’ll be fine’.’’
Shortly after, Maclean was informed a telegram was waiting for him at the then-manual phone exchange which read: ‘‘Permission to use Coronet Peak Road for hillclimb for car club granted. P.B.Allen, Minister of Works.’’
Maclean says the race has always been run on the road’s final, windy 2.7km stretch.
‘‘It was very popular because it’s a great piece of road, the other thing, of course, is people love coming to Queenstown.’’
The most successful driver’s been Inky Tulloch, one-time Mataura, then Gore mayor, who won six years running, from ’76, till he crashed his car in ’82 and Christchurch driver Trevor Crowe won.
‘‘I once called Inky ‘the scourer from Mataura’, but he called me ‘the queen from Queenstown’, so I didn’t call him that any more.’’
A course-record 79 seconds was set by Andrew Waite in Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn’s Ford Focus in 2017.
The race had a hiatus for several years after two spectators were killed during the 1998 Queenstown Car Classic, and resumed after the car club was revived by Tony Adamson and Grant Aitken.
Maclean expects Timaru’s Graeme Vaughan, Christchurch’s Nigel Barclay and Crowe to be among the leading contenders.
Racing starts 10am with all drivers having three runs.
