Top of the Hill debut delivers high-octane excitement

Top of the Hill debut delivers high-octane excitement

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Events like the Simola Hillclimb have grown in popularity on the racing calendar, with vehicles from various manufacturers competing at high speeds to be the first to cross the finish line. 

Then there’s the new thrilling Top of the Hill racing event, which took place at the legendary Zwartkops Raceway over the weekend. Unlike the traditional hillclimb format, there was no mountain to conquer here. Instead, racers faced a challenging 2.4-kilometre-long anti-clockwise track. It was a completely different task, pushing competitors to their limits and delivering heart-pounding excitement for all involved.

The Top of the Hill event, organised by Zwartkops International World of Motoring, the same organisation that organises the annual Extreme Festival racing event, featured a diverse lineup of vehicles, ranging from ICE-powered cars and EVs such as the formidable Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance to historic, standard production cars, racing machines, sports cars, and single-seaters. Notably, Volkswagen Motorsport's Jonathan Mogotsi competed, demonstrating his ever-impressive speed. 

On top of that, VW included its Rookie Cup entrants and hosted a media challenge with Brendon Staniforth, Jacob Moshoka, Fanele Bengu, and Rebaneilwe Semakane skillfully driving Vivo GT cars. The media pack recorded a time of 1.12.182, 1.14.296, 1.14.768, and 1.31.424, respectively.

The race kicked off at the traditional Turn 4, concluding just after the 5th corner, the highest point on the track. Competitors first tackled the sweeping Turn 3, followed by the tight Turn 2 hairpin. They then accelerated up the blind rise at Turn 1, passed the start/finish line, and headed towards Turn 8. The course became more technical from here, with a kink at Turn 7 and two challenging left-handers at Turns 6 and 5, before finally crossing the finish line.

After a day of thrilling competition, Reghard Roets emerged as the King of the Hill in his Nissan GT-R R35 after clocking a time of 53.257 seconds. This is the same Nissan GT-R that won the 2019 Simola Hillclimb with a time of 44,092 seconds. Right behind Roets was Pieter Zeelie in his Toyota MR2-based racer, and on the third podium was Charl Joubert in his potent Lotus Elise. 

At the VW Cup Shootout, Judd Bertholdt emerged victorious, steering his VW Polo GT to the finish line ahead of Dhivyen Naidoo and Uzair Khan, also in a Polo Vivo GT.

While the Top of the Hill racing event may sport some similarities with the Simola Hillclimb, the Knysna Speed Festival, which owns the Simola Hillclimb, released a statement in September distancing itself from the event. 

“We are issuing this statement to clear up any confusion in this regard. To be clear, the Simola Hillclimb has no involvement whatsoever in this race meeting. While we encourage the running of additional hillclimb events in the country, the use of our regulations, classes, naming conventions, event format, competitor selection process, graphics, and other intellectual property in which we have invested many years of time, effort, experience, and money without permission is unacceptable, and we have communicated this to the event organisers accordingly," reads the official statement. 

Speaking to TGSA, Tanya Human of the Zwartkops International World of Motoring said the Top of the Hill event will become an annual event, and the next race is earmarked to take place in November 2025 at the Zwartkops circuit.