Day chasing new blue heights
The blue Subaru of Dan Day has become synonymous with the biggest motorsport event in the Blue Lake City, the Trident Tyre Centre Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb, and he hopes to scale even greater heights than ever this year.
A loaded field of 245 cars will be roaring up the 1.4km Valley Lakes course at Mount Gambier across the next three days starting this Friday.
But all eyes will be on Day, who has already written his name into Legend of the Lakes folklore, but has a new record in his sights.
After winning a seventh straight title in 2022 by breaking his own lap record set in 2017, another win for Day would put him in unprecedented territory.
He currently shares the all-time wins record with former Bathurst 1000 driver and Mount Gambier local Peter Gazzard, who dominated much of the event’s first decade.
But one more success would put Day on his own, but despite the dominance, he still has a lot of respect for the fast stretch of road overlooking Mount Gambier’s Valley Lake.
“The Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb is in my eyes the best hillclimb event in Australia,” Day told the SE Voice newspaper in Mount Gambier.
“I have competed in many motorsport events over the last decade, Kevin (Raedel) and his team really do such a world class job running this each year.
Dan Day exits the bus stop chicane on his way to rewriting the record books at the 2022 Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb. Image: Steve Walters SE Voice
“The piece of road offers all sorts of challenges and is very well suited to a mix of cars.
“It is a real driver’s track with a nice flow of high and low speed sections.”
Every time Day has conquered the mountain, he has done it with the same set of wheels, his unmistakable 2013 Subaru Spec C STI.
Last year he broke the lap record with a blistering 49.45s run, almost two and a half seconds faster than nearest rival Kevin Mackrell.
The event has been running since 2006 and Day is the only driver to break the 50s barrier.
He said driver and car clicked with the track instantly and he has since refined the modified Subaru into a powerful beast.
“Its first debut event in 2016 (Legend of the Lakes) was a win, showing the potential of the car and me combined,” Day told the SE Voice.
“These days the car is definitely at the extreme end of the scale for its style build, but that has naturally happened in the eight years making it faster each year.
“The acceleration and overall power is probably my favourite part of the car. It’s brutal and a handful to drive fast, but the handling sharpness allows for many fast micro adjustments throughout any course or lap.”
The opening day of the event run by the South Eastern Automobile Club is on Friday which centres around historic cars, marque sports cars, front engine clubmans and replicas of older cars.
The weekend is opened up to cars of all kinds and is where things get serious with 10 runs on offer to get the perfect time ahead of the top 10 shootout where the fastest go one on one with the mountain.
Images: Steve Walters/SE Voice
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