Emotional King of the Hill

The 15^th edition of the Simola Hillclimb was characterised by difficult emotions matched to brave competition at the highest level during the King of the Hill challenge. Sunday’s shortened programme was dedicated to Pieter Joubert who sadly passed away following an accident during the day’s opening run.

While Pieter’s brothers and fellow competitors Charl and 2024 winner Dawie withdrew from the event, they insisted that it continued in his honour.

Ultimately two new King of the Hill winners were crowned, while a former winner blasted his way back to the top with an exceptional performance that set an impressive new record.

In the Modified Saloon Car category, 2021 winner Pieter Zeelie not only defeated the mighty four-wheel drive Nissan R35 GT-Rs of Reghard Roets and Franco Scribante in his immaculately prepared rear-wheel drive Toyota MR2 Super GT, but he slashed an astonishing 1.039 seconds off Scribante’s previous record of 38.129 seconds from 2022 during the all-or-nothing Top 10 Shootout with a truly impressive winning time of 37.090 seconds.

Zeelie was the first tin-top competitor to break the 40-second barrier during qualifying with an astonishing time of 37.553 seconds. An unexpected electrical glitch in his car during the Class Finals ended that run prematurely, but it was a faultless affair in the all-important final run of the day to secure the 2025 King of the Hill victory. He finished 1.280 seconds ahead of Roets.

“We worked hard on the set-up of the car, and everything just came together today,” Zeelie said. “The performance of the car and the team was phenomenal, and I’m ecstatic with the result. We turned the boost up for the Class Final, but we couldn’t find out what caused the engine to cut out, so I decided to turn the boost down for the Top 10 Shootout, so I’m confident that a 36-second time is definitely possible after today,” Zeelie said. “I won this event in 2021 with a time of 40.402 seconds, so it shows how much things have progressed.”

While Roets finished second overall with a time of 38.370 seconds in the BB Motorsport GT-R, this year’s event was truly electrified by Volkswagen bringing seven-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson to take on the Simola Hill. The Swedish ace blitzed the electric vehicle record with his fastest time of 39.001 seconds during the thrilling final run in the Volkswagen Polo RX1e that he drove to the WRX championship victories in 2022 and 2023.

“I was very motivated to get into the 39-second mark today, and we have been fine-tuning the car throughout the weekend to make it progressively faster,” Kristoffersson said. “We nearly made it into the 38s at the end, and I’m very happy with the job the team did today.”

Highlighting his on-the-edge driving antics with perfectly controlled four-wheel drifts through many of the corners, Kristoffersson revealed the tyre choice that made his third place possible. “We obviously use special rallycross tyres and tried a radial pattern which didn’t appear to be the fastest way up the hill, so we switched to the cross-pattern tyre which allows the car to move around more and that worked well. With this car you have to drift it just enough for the fastest speed through the corners but not too much or you lose lots of time, and we got it perfect in the end.

“Thank you to everyone from Volkswagen and Simola Hillclimb who made it possible for me to come and showcase our electric WRX car for the first time,” he said. “I really enjoyed the event which has an amazing atmosphere. Pieter Joubert’s accident certainly put a cloud over the event and made it a tough day, and our thoughts are with his family.”

Franco Scribante and his team worked on a new suspension setup for his Nissan R35 GT-R throughout the weekend in an attempt to cope with the bumps on the uphill straight. However, they struggled to find any decent pace and had to settle for fourth in the Top 10 Shootout with his best run of the weekend of 39.631 seconds – 1.5 seconds off his best result to date.

Silvio Scribante was fifth in his Audi RS3 (40.409 seconds), ahead of Wade van Zummeren in the Nissan R34 GT-R (41.037 seconds), George Evans in the R35 GT-R (42.179 seconds), Volkswagen Motorsport’s Jonathan Mogotsi in the Polo SupaCup (43.579 seconds) and Anton Cronje who rounded out the top 10 on 54.098 seconds in his Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Cronje also received this year’s Spirit of Dave Charlton Award for his professionalism and dedication to motorsport.

Single Seaters and Sports Cars

A new King of the Hill was crowned in the Single Seater and Sports Car category as Byron Mitchell surged to victory in the Top 10 Shootout in his Reynard Formula VW. He was always in contention for a podium finish, but with two big guns out of action this year it handed him a comfortable win with a time of 41.770 seconds.

Unfortunately six-time winner Andre Bezuidenhout missed King of the Hill for the second consecutive year, with the engine of his 2006 Gould GR55B being repaired and rebuilt in the UK.

Reigning champion Robert Wolk looked set to score his second win in the Investchem team’s newly acquired 2005 Gould GR55B, after posting a decent time of 36.140 seconds during the second qualifying session on the opening day – despite having only had a single shakedown test and working hard throughout Saturday on setting the car up for the challenging Simola Hill course. Eventually, a failed electronic sensor resulted in him having to retire the car first thing on Sunday morning.

Mitchell’s win was well deserved as he never put a wheel wrong throughout the weekend, securing both the King of the Hill title as well as the class C2 victory with an even faster time of 41.696 seconds.

Rick Morris finished second overall with a time of 47.444 seconds in the Formula Ford, 0.258 seconds ahead of 16-year-old Klayden Cole Ensor-Smith who debuted the MSA4 which was introduced in March at Kyalami as South Africa’s new premier single-seater championship.

Allen Meyer was fourth in a Formula VW (48.343 seconds), followed by Simphiwe Mohlahlo in a second MSA4 car (53.568 seconds), with Stefan Wintershoven rounding out the category on 54.793 seconds in his Chevrolet.

Road Cars and Supercars

The standard production vehicle category also saw a new King of the Hill emerging, as Clint Weston took the title in the hybrid-powered Mercedes-AMG GT 63 SE E Performance.

As the head of the AMG Driving Academy, Weston topped the category throughout the weekend during the sleek two-door coupe’s South African debut, and he emerged victorious with his best run of the weekend in the final Top 10 Shootout, blasting through the timing beam in 43.174 seconds.

Cristiano Verolini from the BMW Driving Experience pushed Weston during every session in the latest BMW M4 Competition, but the huge power difference between the two cars was impossible to overcome. The BMW driver still wrapped up his weekend with a superb time of 43.872 seconds and the runner-up spot.

Courtney Nicholl – also from the AMG Driving Academy – was third-quickest in the Mercedes-AMG C63 SE E Performance at 44.599 seconds, while BMW’s Leyton Fourie was fourth in the latest two-door M2 (45.932 seconds). Simola Hillclimb regular Gordon Nicholson finished fifth in his Audi R8 V10 (46.103 seconds), ahead of Garth Mackintosh in the McLaren 720s (47.018 seconds), and AMG’s Natalie Weston in the Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 SE E Performance (47.436 seconds).

Yash Rampersad was eighth on 47.789 seconds (Porsche 718 Cayman), followed by Paul Munro with a time of 48.738 seconds (Toyota Supra). Cars.co.za motoring journalist Ashley Oldfield completed the top 10 in the all-electric MG Cyberster roadster on 49.231 seconds.