Nulon Nationals - Buladelah Hillclimb

28 April 2014 / Words by Tony King
Photos by Jasmynne & Ashley of Still Motion Media and by Tara Allen of Tazphotography

The Nulon Nationals series has been designed to allow car clubs from across the eastern seaboard to get together and share their love of motorsport. The Mazda MX-5 Club of NSW was invited to participate in this series, along with teams representing Skylines Australia, Toyota 86/BRZ Club of NSW, EvolutionOz, Team BYP Racing (predominantly Hondas), Fords and HSV Owners clubs, plus a team made up of Nulon sponsored drivers (in mostly drift and time attack cars).

Tony King (Photo by Tazphotography)

 

The series starts with a hillclimb at Buladelah, followed by a track day at Wakefield Park and finishing with a high-speed airport run at the Cootamundra Airport.

Each team is represented by five cars at each round, and teams have some flexibility to select cars and drivers most suited to each discipline, however three out of the five cars at each round must run at the next round in the series.

Winners of each round receive product and cash as well as points towards their club. After three rounds, the 2014 Nulon Nationals winning club will receive a huge prize including $10,000 in product support from Nulon Oils which is available to each and every club member, as well as a cash donation to the club to support their local events.

Verne Johnson (Photo by Tazphotography)

 

Round 1 was held on Sunday 6th April 2014 at the Buladelah hillclimb, which utilises a closed 1200m portion of the old Pacific Highway (now the Wootton Way) for the event. The MX-5 Club team comprised Patrick Bramston (a Buladelah local and veteran of this hillclimb), Steve Green, Glenn Thomas, Verne Johnson and Tony King, with Keith Monaghan (in absentia) as Team Manager.

Scrutineering took place at the Buladelah Showground on Saturday afternoon and as teams began to arrive, news filtered through about cars being stopped and defected on the run up the highway. A number of cars were turned around by the Highway Patrol and sent back to Sydney, while a few hardy souls elected to proceed to Buladelah and then to trailer their cars home after the event. It was certainly not the “Welcome to Buladelah” that the organisers or the local Chamber of Commerce had in mind.

Glenn Thomas (Photo by Still Motion Media)

 

Team MX-5 arrived at the course early on Sunday morning and set up in anticipation of the day to come. Being part of the old highway, the course itself is three lanes wide and includes five corners, with two additional chicanes. An armco railing runs along most of the left hand side of the course, with a rock face along most of the right hand side. While the course is’t very technical, it is potentially very fast with little room for error.

The main concern however, related to the level of grip that would be available. Large eucalypt trees overhang the road, filtering out direct sunlight and dropping their leaves onto the pavement. In the shade next to the rock embankments on the shoulder of the road, moss was growing 20mm high in some places! The organisers did a great job cleaning most of the debris off the course, however moisture, dust and oils from the leaves remained trapped in the pavement surface. Showers of rain on Saturday evening combined to make a very slick track surface. Needless to say, the plan was to take it easy for the first couple of runs, allowing drivers to work out where all the corners went and to test out the available grip.

Steve Green (Photo by Tazphotography)

 

As Lady Luck would have it, the first run of the day for the 43 competitors was delayed due to issues with the timing gear and while it was fine and sunny, the humidity was rising and the clouds building. At around 10:45am Glenn Thomas led the team away with his first run up the course. The rest of the team completed their first (sighting) run without incident, but were all looking forward to getting serious on the second run.

Alas, it was not to be. Not long after the second run got underway, it began raining lightly and by the time the MX-5s approached the start line, a competitor had also managed to spray the entire course with power steering fluid. The third run was held on a drying track, however it would be fair to say that conditions remained challenging and grip was still difficult to find. Heavy rain started falling as competitors lined up for their fourth run, and conditions soon deteriorated to the point where the organisers suspended competition for the day.

The Nulon Nationals is an open class event with no handicap or capacity based classes, so places and club points are allocated on your unadjusted best time of the day. The event was won by seasoned hillclimber Phil Heafey in his Evo IIX with a time of 36.05 sec. The Evos AWD capability was well suited to the slippery conditions, and they filled four of the top five positions.

Patrick Bramston (Photo by Still Motion Media)

 

Patrick used his local knowledge to advantage and recorded a time of 43.27 sec (in the wife’s car!) to give him 15th place overall, 3rd placed rear wheel drive and 1st MX-5 home; closely followed by Verne Johnson with 43.41 sec in 16th place. The remaining Three Amigos filled positions 20, 27 and 31. A Nissan Silvia bought up the rear of the field with a time of 55.5 seconds.

Naturally enough, maximum club points for the weekend went to the Evos with 170, second was Team Nulon Motorsport with 157 and third was Team BYP on 126 points. The MX-5 Club narrowly missed out on a top three finish with a tantalisingly close fourth place on 121 points, then came the 86/BRZs with 110, Skylines on 108, HSV on 95 and finally the Fords with 52 points.

Even though they were frustrated not to have given the course a red hot go, Team MX-5 took some consolation in their performance relative to the mega horse power, AWD cars they were up against. One of the time attack Evos for example, reputedly had 800+ HP with the aero to match!

While it was a weekend that many may choose to forget for a variety of reasons, there was one incident that will be fondly remembered. A certain non MX-5 competitor, who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons, was heard to come and go from the motel, with great gusto, at all hours throughout the night; each time waking most people within a 300m radius. When quizzed the next morning by a fellow guest, he proudly proclaimed that he’d been out practicing, possibly because as he said, “that’s how I drive… flat out”. A brief conversation ensued before it became apparent that this galah had spent all night practicing - on the wrong hill! It came as no surprise when he placed within striking distance of last place on Sunday.

Round 2 of the Nulon Nationals will be held at Wakefield Park on 4th July 2014. More information about the Nulon Nationals can be found on their facebook page here.