Club Motori Italia's 2022 Lufra Hill Climb

August 2022's annual Club Motori Italia Lufra hill climb - conducted at Eaglehawk Neck, approximately an hour's drive east-south-east from Tasmania's capital city of Hobart - was held in fairly abysmal conditions with biting cold winds, rain that occasionally turned to sleet and only the briefest glimpses of sunshine. So spare a thought for the driver of this pre-war TA MG Midget, John Spilsbury, who not only braved the slippery course in his super-charged, cheese-cutter shod, four wheel drum brake equipped machine but also drove it from Hobart, in weather that was no better than at the event itself, without a roof!

No wipers, either!

According to the event's organisers, "CMI members finished in the top three places, with Italian cars coming first, second and fourth!" (https://cmitas.org/2022/07/lufra-to-lookout-regularity-hillclimb-saturday-20th-august-2022/). A great result for the club indeed!

Geoff Storr took out first place in his faithful Alfetta GTV (49 points), narrowly nudging out Tristan Roberts driving the Fiat 850 Sport Coupe that he's campaigned over the last several years (52 pts), in turn beating Becher Townsend and the Austin Healey 100 BN8 that he ran rather than his regular BMW 635 CSI (62 pts). Tristan also came first in the pre-1975 class, while Geoff secured the First Italian Car gong. Maserati driver David Capponi was awarded Driver of The Day. The Tungatinah Sheep Dippers - Maserati David being a member, along with Ed Newton, and Philip Thomson - achieved a First in the Teams competition, and the Spirit of Lufra went to Lotus Elan pilot Bill Griffiths. Congratulations to all place-getters and competitors!

What follow are a few photos and some very, very clumsy videos that I'm not yet competent enough to edit together, taken around the start line and staging area. Please enjoy! And if you do like what you see, please consider sharing this and / or any of the other articles found at uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au. The site is free, unsponsored and dedicated entirely to classic, sports and performance cars from Tasmania and the rest of Australia.

Mike C may have also driven this amazing 1923 Ansaldo to the course from his home closer to Hobart, although this is not confirmed. Either way, he also endured some quite challenging conditions during the competition stages of the event.

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

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