November 5th 2006. Andrew Howell has very kindly invited Martin Groves to drive his new GR55 2.65ltr NME car at the Australian Hillclimb Championship event at Bathurst nsw. Andrew took the car to a new track record at the Rob Roy hillclimb in his very first event despite very poor track and weather conditions. This will be Andrews first run at Bathurst with the car and he will be up against stiff opposition from nine time champion Peter Gumley who knows both car and track very well . Two time UK champ Martin Groves, who has had vastly more experience with this car albeit with the 3.5ltr engine will try to help set up the car for this event in the small amount of time available. The track is very steep with large amounts of full throttle acceleration and so we need to be much faster through the corners to beat Gumley's 4ltr supercharged car at a reputedly 420kg weight. David Gould is on hand to help but they will be in the lap of the gods, as the weather looks bad with rain forecast. It will difficult for both drivers learning the track and car respectively and we wish them the best of luck, but what ever happens this weekend, Andrew can look forward to a great season as he dials himself into his new car.
Andrew Howell at Morwell