Photo credit (2 images above): Brent Martin
First of all let me thank all of the Club 456 sponsors:
Invision Auto Imports, all the associated brands (see page footer) and TAKATA Canada - who joined the team this year (2017).
On the Mr. Lancer Project side - Alberta Geomatics, B-Pro JDM Imports, Metegrity Inc. - my long standing group of sponsors.
On the Slowboi Racing side - Valley Mitsubishi (Kelowna, BC) - for their help during this event.
Also huge thanks to Al and Bev for all their help during the event, providing a comfortable place to sleep, eat, and relax! You two are the best!
Through the collaborated efforts of Mr. Lancer Project (Marcin D. - that would be me), and Slowboi Racing (Aaron W) we prepared two Evo IVs, acquired all safety gear and put together a plan to attend the 60th anniversary Knox Mountain Hill Climb in Kelowna, BC.
The event was held on May 20th, and 21st in 2017.
It was a great effort and many hours spent in garages, in front of computers, reading documents, to have everything align with specs, time schedules, and life in general.
We headed out early from Edmonton, AB on Friday the 19th to make it in time for registration and tech inspection.
Aaron hauled his Evo IV on a UHaul trailer, I ended up driving mine (it wasn't as terrible as I suspected to drive that far, and back).
Photo credit (2 images above): Club 456
With minimal pit stops we got there early enough to set up our space in the pits, put Aaron's car back together (the bumper/splitter had to come of in order to transport the vehicle on the trailer), pass tech, and go "home" to get some well needed sleep.
Day 1, Saturday 20th:
Early morning we started in the first run group to do our practice runs.
We already run a bit faster than expected pulling in a 2:16.400 (Aaron) and 2:14.060 (Marcin) on the practice run - this was good news as we expected to run somewhere around the 2:15.xxx - 2:10.xxx mark overall.
Photo credit (4 images above): Al and Bev
Unfortunately during the first official run Aaron experienced a mechanical failure on his car which resulted in a crash and the vehicle was put out of commission for the event (and entirely thereafter) - he came out ok just a little sore but no real injuries.
An oil cooler line fitting sheered off and begun to spray pressurized oil into the wheel well (front right tire) which ultimately (and very quickly) coated the DOT slick tire - as you can imagine the loss of traction pulled Aaron into the wall coming up onto and around turn 9 at around 80kph.
Here is a quick spectator and on-board video from Aaron's run (not the crash):
The car was hauled offsite and we went to deal with some of the carnage (which was quite substantial).
Here is a photo of the cast wheel that took the majority of the impact:
Photo credit (1 image above): Club 456
We made it back to the event just in time for me to squeeze in another run up the hill.
Fastest run for the team for day one was 2:08.486 (already surpassing our expectations).
Day 2, Sunday 21st:
On day two, short a car, we headed back to the hill to continue racing.
It was a lot warmer this day but the white Evo held it's own and I managed to run a 2:06.549 making this the Club 456 Team Hill record and my fastest run up Knox Mountain thus far.
On-Board fastest run:
I know for a fact the car has a lot more in it and we're very excited to return in 2018 and beat the team record (ideally run around the 2:00.xxx mark or less if possible).
The entire event was a great experience and I highly recommend coming out to either watch or to drive (if you want to take it to the next level).
Results
Aaron:
due to the incident the only official time we have is form the practice run at 2:16.400 and a DNR (Did Not Run) for the rankings.
Marcin:
Class position (SP-3): 3 / 7
Overall position: 36 / 72
Photo credit (1 image above): Al and Bev
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