Last Sunday saw the Island Car Club 2011 Hillclimb Championship kick off with the traditional Mizieb season opener.

An entry of 46 eager drivers and their cars were lined up to start with the first practice run starting at 9.30am. F

eedback from the drivers after this run was that the sand deposited by Friday’s rain was causing extremely low levels of traction. With many struggling to get power down and resorting to short shifting to prevent wheel spin.

The second run consisting of a timed practice run saw most drivers running lower tire pressures in an attempt to scrub more hear into the rubber and also saw the sun come out, raising the temperature of the asphalt with the result that times dropped significantly.

Times showed that James Dunford had taken the lead in Group 1, Mario Agius lead Group 2, Edward Calleja was the fastest in Group 3 and groups 4, 5 and 6 were lead by Joseph Cutajar, Jason Muscat and Zach Zammit respectively.

The third run of the day saw little changes in ranking with Didier Bugeja posting the fastest time in Group 2 after a remarkable improvement in his time.

For the last run the road condition had improved to a point where drivers could push their cars to the limit.

The competition was intense as all competitors were keen the grab the points lead in their respective category. As the drivers completed their runs all eyes were on the Group 6 drivers jostling for overall honours when defending champion Hubert Camilleri clinched victory with just a tenth of a second to spare.

The next race is scheduled for 15 May, with the venue to be announced closer to the date.

Further information can be found on: www.islandcarclub.com