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The Citizen

New king awaits crowing as Knysna readies for Simola Hillclimb

Won last year overall by Robert Wolk, the 2025 edition of the Simola climb promises to be even more spectacular. A familiar and still growing in popularity fixture on the local motorsport calendar, the 18th running of the Simola Hillclimb kick-off this weekend with the aim of crowing a new King of the Hill. Event unfolds An accolade currently held by Robert Wolk, who last year set a time of 37.403 seconds up the 1.9 km stretch of Knysna road in his Pilbeam MP58 single-seat prototype, the 18th edition officially starts on Saturday (3 May) with practise and qualifying before the main event on Sunday (4 May). ALSO READ: Simola crowns its new king Event scrutineering and the traditional late afternoon parade through the streets of Knysna on Friday (2 May) kicks the event officially off, campaigned by cars in 20 different class ranging from A1 to C6. Among the headlines, which this year includes multiple World Rallycross champion John Kristoffersson in his official all-electric Volkswagen Polo RX1e, long-time event sponsor, Suzuki, will fuel three vehicles in two classes. Suzuki ready Competing in the A1, well-known motoring personality, commentator, racing driver and Ignition TV presenter, Ernest Page, will be out in the latest generation Swift powered by the firm's new three-cylinder 1.2-litre engine. In the same class, former woman's land speed record holder, Group N driver and current Wiele2Wiele journalist, Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger, will be out in the previous generation Swift Sport motivated by the 1.4-litre Boosterjet engine. Long time sponsor Suzuki will field three official vehicles; the previous generation Swift Sport for former Group N driver and journalist Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger, the latest generation Swift for motoring personality and TV presenter Ernest Page, and a Jimny for motoring journalist Sean Nurse. Image: Suzuki Finally, the specialist B9 class for standard bakkies and SUVs will be the domain of AutoTrader journalist, Sean Nurse. The reigning champion of the Toyota GR Cup media section, Nurse will field the three-door version of the Jimny GLX fitted with the five-speed manual gearbox. Besides the headline international act of Swede Kristoffersson and reigning champion Wolk others include outright Simola record holder Andre Bezuidenhout (Gould GR55B), Pieter Zeelie (Toyota MR2 Turbo), Franco Scribante (Nissan GT-R Hillclimb), Reghard Roets (Nissan GT-R), Dawie Joubert (Lotus Exige) and Charl Arangies (Porsche 911 GT3 R). Co-sponsored this year by bp for the first time, more information can be found at NOW READ: Bezuidenhout retains Simola Hillclimb King of Hill crown