Gauteng-based driver Dawie Olivier, hanging tough and finding luck in the unlikeliest of places, scored a magnificent come-from-behind victory in the recently concluded King of the Mountain tour. Olivier found himself early in the race running hot on the heels of race-leader and 2003 King of the Mountain winner Stuart Kidgell. He pushed the Subaru until it found enough elbow room to make a push and beat Kidgell's highly touted Ultima GTR.
Surviving a blasted radiator and the scorching heat of the Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Olivier conquered the inhospitable Gydo Pass and the 40 other entrants to this highly competitive race.
The brand-new Subaru Impreza RA, owned by Mike Beseling, lord it over uber-cars in the 2500cc division, clocking in 2 minutes and 24 seconds. This giant killer averaged a speed of 152 kilometer per hour on a twisty mountain road where the longest straight is less than 500m.
Gydo Pass, with its 27 nasty turns and sheer drops on one side and unyielding rock face on the other, was the first really hard trail that tested the shit out of the Subaru Impreza. Its only previous run is comprised of 1.5 shakedown laps at the Gosforth Park circuit in Johannesburg, and both driver and crew were on a steep learning curve.
The heavily turbocharged "Scooby," as Kidgell's Ultima GTR was fondly called, ran up to 1.6 bar of boost. This purpose-built racing car was the fifth chassis built by Lee Noble at Ultima in Hinckley, Leicestershire, before he left to found Noble Cars. It was powered by a 3.4-litre, twin turbo, Alfa Romeo V6 engine and blessed with phenomenal brakes and road-holding.
Kidgell's tough hold on the lead came to a head when, poised to finish a quick second run after zooming on a speed trap at 187 kilometer per hour, the Ultima's left steering arm broke. Hugging a tight left-hander just after the commentary position, Kidgell and the Ultima very nearly crashed into the Armco. Kidgell completed the run, but it damaged the GTR in a fashion that left Olivier breezing through to the lead.
Run after run of matching the Ultima's lead, it was then Olivier's turn to land on a bad luck when the Subaru Impreza blew a radiator hose on the start line for its second run. Anton Cronje, at the tail of the pack, immediately offered a replacement off his similar Subaru. Cronje's Subaru had run its bearings on his first run, and the crew frantically got busy in an attempt to get the RA running in time for the third and final round.
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