Haunted Hills :: CCRMIT Christmas Break Up

It is Christmas break up time of year again and the CCRMIT club was lucky enough to score the haunted hills hill climb track for their end of year ‘come and race’ fun day. With a less than desirable weather forecast, things did not look promising.

On the drive out to the track I drove though several storms. Thinking all the rain and bad weather was behind me, I was confident that day would turn out just fine.

I had only been at the track 10 minutes when a great big cloud moved over the top of us all. Driver briefing was hurried up due to the pending rain. Someone from the crowd started a count down and yelled 30 seconds! 10 seconds! 5 seconds!

Bang! The rain hit like a crazy tropical storm and with the temperature at 35 degrees and drops of rain the size of 50 cent pieces it quickly got pretty humid. The rain didn’t stop for a good 20 minutes.

Once the rain cleared, a huge line formed as everybody wanted to get out on the track! Even though it was still really wet nobody wanted to waste a minute of precious track time.

Zac in his KE20 Corolla didn’t mind that the track was damp. He launched the car as if it were a dry day and didn’t hold back.

Many different cars were lining up to take this track on, including this Christmas modified Corolla. The mix of serious track cars and daily drives was impressive.

With an advan inspired paint job, this rare Levin was a real surprise to see on track. It was by no means the normal type of Levin you would see on the streets.

Haunted Hills is a truly beautiful track with long sweeping corners, perched on the side of a hill, this track has it all.


Out on track were a few Datsuns. This one was in great condition and I couldn’t believe how straight all of the classic cars were for being weekend track cars, they were all very impressive.


This Chrysler Lancer was thumping around the track and the boys were loving it! Not only is this car unique, it was the only car rocking the retro ‘poo brown’ colour scheme. I’m not sure if this was the 2.0 litre version but it certainly went like one.

A full rally spec Hyundai Elantra. This thing was flat out crazy with the driver entering corners at speeds that I didn’t think were possible on such a track! There was some serious skill behind the wheel.

After walking through lots of tall grass I found a spot to shoot from. It was just near a rise coming into a sweeping corner. Not 5 minutes after getting to this spot I see a Volvo coming over the hill and think to myself that he was going a little fast. Within a couple of seconds the car was on its’ side and it gently fell back down on all for wheels! I helped to push it out of the embankment and back on to the track.

Not everybody could keep their cars on the track in these challenging wet conditions, but I did see many spectacular saves that averted disaster on some hairy parts of the track.

Because Nissan! That is why there was some good drift action going on at the track that day.

Yet another clean S series Nissan running around the track. I was glad to see some of the more popular car types doing some track time rather than hard parking time.

A rally modified Stanza was cutting some clean lines around the track and always seemed in control.

After the crash, the Volvo made its’ way back to the pits. Tools were soon sourced to pull the radiator out and clean the clay blockages that had inundated the whole front of the car.

The line continued all day and the track was never empty. Some people didn’t even stop to eat lunch, taking every possible chance to get in some solid track time.

There were not many 4wd cars on track but this wrx was a great clean example of the perfect weekend track car.


There were a few rally style Hyundai Excels buzzing around the track. They are probably one of the cheapest and most fun ways to get into rallying and track events, with such cheap parts and being very easy to drive. This Ion sponsored Excel was one of the fastest and most daring of the bunch.

The best thing about the CCRMIT Christmas breakup, was the ‘come try’ aspect of racing. Some families were sharing a car between three siblings and pushing each other for faster times.

This very customized CRX had one of the best brake setups I had seen all day and the owner took good care of this car, both on and off the track.

Another standout driver of the day was Michael in his Datsun. He was linking corners and drifting with great speed and precision.

These very passionate club members live and breathe racing and rallying. From the track open to track close, not a moment was wasted. The enthusiasm and drive behind this club is very strong and I will definitely be attending more CCRMIT events in the future.
Thanks for looking,
Grant