Subaru stands heat of Gydo Pass race, beats Ultima for King of the Mountain crown

At 10 in the morning, Saturday, the Gydo Pass was closed for traffic. Grownups started to swarm the Prince Alfred Hamlet for the 2006 King of the Mountain tilt. There weren't any boys or girls in the crowd. The grownups had apparently taken without a grain of salt the organizer's claim that Gydo Pass would be inhospitable both to drivers and spectators.

In the first run of the uphill climb, 2003 King of the Mountain champ Stuart Kidgell clocked in a respectable and race-leading 2 minutes and 31 seconds. Aboard his Ultima GTR, Kidgell negotiated the deadly curves of the 6.5-km tar road and kept his shit together as he sped by one sheer drop after another. It was enough to keep him ahead of Dawie Olivier (2 minutes and 33 seconds), but off the mark of the record 2 minutes and 14 ticks he had set in 2003.

Kidgell on the second run seemed dead-set to improve on his time, going through the speed trap at 187 kilometers per hour, when the Ultima's left steering arm broke down. Hugging a tight left-hander just after the commentary position, Kidgell very nearly launched the Ultima into the Armco.

Kidgell survived the car to the finish, steering only on the right front wheel and the left wobbling along dangerously. He managed a creditable time of 2 minutes 42 seconds, but he was eliminated going into the third round and the car looked every inch like it needed a major surgery.

With the defending King of the Mountain winner out in the race, Olivier found the rest of the pack hot on his heels. His heavily turbocharged Subaru “Scooby” blew a radiator hose in fighting off the heat of the race. Anton Cronje immediately offered a replacement off his own Subaru, which had run its bearings on his first run, and the crew started in a frenzy to get the RA running in time for the third and final round.

Olivier and his crew got the Subaru ready just in time to make the final run of the day, standing up to the harsh-condition Gydo Pass. He matched Kidgell's best of 2 minutes 31 seconds, giving the title of King of the Mountain to Olivier and his giant-killing Subaru.