Of all the vehicles competing in the annual Jaguar Simola Hillclimb, taking place this year from 3 to 5 May, the Road-going Saloon Cars and Supercars are often the most relatable to the spectators, as they are street-legal machines that you can buy off a showroom floor.
Unlike their mild-to-wild race-bred counterparts that compete in the ‘Class B’ Modified Saloon Car category, the ‘Class A’ entries are standard production models without any modifications permitted, including the limitation of using original-specification road tyres.
However, that doesn’t suggest that the line-up of cars, or the show that the drivers deliver, is anything less than truly spectacular – as the category’s King of the Hill shootout has proven in recent years.
Revealing just how competitive the class is, reigning double King of the Hill champion, Reghard Roets won last year’s final Top 10 Shootout by a mere 0.075 seconds over Jaguar’s Dawie Olivier, setting a new Class A record of 44.631 seconds over the 1.9 km course in the process.
Roets will return to Knysna once again this year in an attempt to claim a hat-trick of King of the Hill titles in the latest iteration of the venerable Nissan GT-R. However, as the lone GT-R in the category, he faces an even more intense challenge from title sponsor Jaguar, thanks to a uniquely intriguing two-pronged assault.
The new rivalry comes in the form of the Cronje brothers, Mark and Gavin, who are considered amongst South Africa’s fastest and most talented crop of current racing drivers. Between the pair, they have claimed multiple championships in a wide range of motorsport formulas, encompassing everything from karting to production car and endurance circuit racing, rallying and cross country.
