Dunedin Mitsubishi drivers brought the Kaitangata Bob Scott Memorial Hillclimb's top three trophies home on Saturday, with Craig Molloy whisking away the title by the skin of his teeth.
He was the only competitor in the 44-car field to break the 57sec mark and recorded his fastest run of four a 56.98sec on his Evo 3's penultimate race up the 1.2km gravel road.
It was a narrow victory over Mike Wellington, who was only 0.16sec off the pace. In fact, he and Molloy recorded exactly the same time on their final sprint.
"It was nice to have a good close battle," Molloy said.
He made a small mistake at the top of his first run in the slippery conditions and admitted "it was just lucky there were three more chances".
Wellington also enjoyed the fight for the podium places.
"I was happy to be leading for the first two runs but with very tough competition from Steve and Craig, it was going to be close racing and we ended up all being within half a second on the final run," Mike said.
His brother, Steve, in a similar Evo 6, was third in his debut at the Whites Rd event.
Neville Krammer, of Wallacetown, near Invercargill, did a superb job in an elderly Subaru Legacy to finish fourth, 0.04sec off third place.
Dunedin's Brian Scott, son of the late Bob Scott whom the event honours, was fifth after setting his best time on his fourth blast up the hill. The top-five result for the recently crowned South Island Pre 65 Saloon Champion showed Scott can pedal on gravel just as proficiently as on the country's motor racing circuits.
However, he proved his Evo 1 was far more suited to the City Forests hillclimb than the title-winning V8 Falcon, in which he did a demonstration run.
The other two Scott brothers had a successful day in their respective classes with Robert emerging victorious in class E for sports and racing cars in his CEA Special in front of Gregory in the Scott Special.
Mosgiel's Chris Hey was the first 2-wheel-drive car home and his turbocharged, Nissan-powered Toyota MR2 was sixth after running as high as third overall in the early runs.
David Kirk, of Gore, was seventh in his Mitsubishi while Paul Goatley (Balclutha), Duncan McCrostie (Kaitangata) and Damian Vincent of Stirling rounded out the top 10.
Last year's winner McCrostie had powered down from his 2010 charger, a highly modified Mitsubishi EVO to a 2-wheel-drive Nissan Bluebird Turbo.
