MOTORSPORT enthusiasts raced to One Tree Hill in Ararat for the Queen's Birthday long weekend where round five of the Victorian Hill Climb Championship was revving up.
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Ararat Car Club hosted the event and vice-president Chris Harwood said the hill has a reputation that draws competitors from far and wide.
"It's the longest, fastest hill climb in Victoria," he said.
"It's very unforgiving and it provides a really good challenge for people."
Eighty competitors from Victoria and interstate took part in the event and of those, around 30 were from Ararat and surrounding districts.
Competitors raced a range of vehicles up the hill and some of them were blasting up the hill in 30 seconds.
"You can have your daily driver - it might be a Commodore or a Falcon, or you might have something that's a little bit more special," Harwood said.
"We've got one gentleman here that's racing a three cylinder Subaru Sherpa. It's not necessarily very quick, but is he having fun? Absolutely.
"We've got other people that have got pretty standard Commodores, some really nice minis ... lots of Subarus and four wheel drives, and some time attack cars."
Time attack racing is a best lap time competition.
"Time attack cars have got massive big wings and things like that ... and are generally very quick," Harwood said.
Results of the competition will be posted on the Ararat Car Club website.
The car club has also started bringing young people into motorsport with its youth development program.
The club currently has about 22 junior members.
Trevor Ellington oversees the program.
"We've got kids as young as 11 working on the cars, but they can't get their CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsport) license until 12 (years old)," he said.
"Then they come in and drive from 12 upwards.
"Because it's a really tight and controlled environment it's great for the kids, especially disengaged kids because they've got a set of rules they've all got to abide by and it's connected to something bigger than themselves."
The sport was seeing an influx of junior enthusiasts which Ellington said helped keep it competitive for them.
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