With thirty years under his belt racing at Kelowna's annual Knox Mountain Hill Climb, Alberta's Cory Ussyk set a new personal record in a car he'd never driven before the May long weekend.
"It's been a real learning experience," Ussyk said, noting the first time he sat behind the wheel of the race car built by Brian Browning and Allen Reid. "With so much experience driving different race cars, you just adapt and learn very quickly."
Ussyk set his new personal best during run six of nine with a time of 1:55:815, finishing 12 overall.
The vehicle, a red 1970 MGBGT, Browning and Reid said they spent four years building.
Browning commented that the old vehicle used to need lots of work between runs, and Reid noted that's how the three of them became friends sharing tires and vehicles when Reid's car broke down.
Reid also competed, coming in just one spot ahead of Ussyk with a time of 1:54:860.
With all three racers having a few decades of experience at the annual race in Kelowna, each said not much has changed over the years aside from fewer drivers and more grey hairs.
"The cars are changing and evolving," Browning added electric vehicles have joined the competition. "We're kind of old school, but there's a hardcore group of old school cars here too, so a nice mix."
Chief organizer Bryan Fulton has held the role since the 51st annual climb and said the vehicles have been the biggest change over the years.
"The rule book, the classifications of cars, and the technology of cars, so the speeds are an awful lot higher than they would have been back in those days."
The event started in the early 1960s through the Okanagan Sportscar Club. "It wasn't always at Knox Mountain," Fulton said. "It was just local sports car and hot rod enthusiasts that got together and formed a club and decided that one of the things they could do was have a hill climb."
The weekend competition saw 52 drivers, eight of whom were new registrants, complete the 3.5-kilometre speed race up Knox Mountain over May 17 and 18. Fulton noted that the number of drivers registered used to be around 70 to 80, but that the technological advancements in cars have made racing more expensive over the years.
"It takes a lot of commitment, money, time, passion to build a car that's a race car and then to train yourself and equip yourself to ride at Knox."
The best time of the weekend was Trevor Yip in a green 2017 Tesla Cobra EV at 1:46:121.
The current Knox Mountain Hill Climb record is held by Aran Cook who clocked a time of 1:34:903 in 2023.
