Argyle not quite the quickest up Whariti

Manawatu driver Geof Argyle has been clocked at 219kmh in a rally car on a special stage.

But despite winning the 11th Whariti Hillclimb near Woodville on Sunday, he never got close to that speed in his 2003 Mitsubishi Evo 8. He did get up to 180kmh.

But some machines were clocked at 220kmh on the first straight. They were the daredevil riders on the super quad bikes.

Even Argyle, a former national rally champion, conceded he wouldn't take that on.

His aim had been to be the fastest up the hill.

"That was my target, to beat them [the quad bikes]."

The official results clocked Argyle's fastest time as 6 minutes 9.2 seconds.

The quad bikes have a ton of power on light bodies.

Quad bike winner Ian Fitch, of Canterbury, managed 6min 5.4sec on his yellow 1000cc BRM. Even so, only one other quad bike, Jason Jepsen (South Auckland) was quicker than Argyle at 6:09.1.

Third was Bush Riders member Chris Hilleard in 6:14.4 on his Honda TRX450.

Argyle won the cars' section by five seconds from Wairarapa's Richard Mason in his 2009 Subaru WRX STi.

"I was totally happy with the car," Argyle said. "We made a few more changes with the handling and we took four seconds off the hillclimb record."

He could have gone faster had he used a harder tyre because he was leaving black marks on the road.

Argyle said it was important to have the top-end national championship cars at the event. Mason was always on the pace, but told Argyle later he had no more time left in him.

Argyle has now had two outings in his car and has won them both.

Rotorua's Sloan Cox, in his 2008 Evo 10, was third, 0.7sec behind Mason. Wanganui's Andrew Spier was next in 6:14.9 in his 1998 Mitsubishi Evo 6.5 from Hawke's Bay's Grant Blackberry in 6:16.6 in his 1998 Mitsubishi Evo 5.

South Auckland's Andrew Hawkeswood withdrew on Sunday because of a pressing work issue.

- © Fairfax NZ News