Reid wins third Knox Mountain Hillclimb title

Three clutch repairs, a new set of brakes and recurring carburetor troubles kept Allen Reid and his pit crew hopping all weekend.

Still, such time-consuming inconveniences weren't enough to stop Reid and his MGB GT from winning the Knox Mountain Hillclimb for the third time.

Reid, who also won in 2001 and 2003, raced to the top of Knox Mountain one minute 52.616 seconds to claim the 52nd edition of Kelowna's storied hillclimb.

It was one of the narrowest victories in the history of the 3.5 km race as Reid edged out David Saville-Peck of Chemainus by a mere .155 of a second.

"After all the troubles we had, I beat the time on the very last run on Sunday," said Reid, who shares the car with partner Brian Browning. "It wasn't pretty, I went off on corner six, but kept her on course and brought it home. It was more of a working weekend than I would have liked, but still very rewarding."

Saville-Peck had troubles of his own and only managed to complete one official run before an accident sidelined his car for the weekend.

"Dave swerved to miss a marmot and crashed on a corner on his last run on Saturday," added Reid. "Being the animal-lover he is, he wasn't going to run it over.

"It's too bad he didn't get to finish the weekend up right."

A total of 83 drivers, including a record nine rookies, from B.C., Alberta and Washington competed in the 2009 race.

For Reid's part, it was more of a family affair than at any time in his 23 years as a driver at the Knox Hillclimb.

"All four of my children, my wife, my son-in-law...even my ex-wife was there," Reid said with a laugh. "It was a real family event." Reid said all 45 volunteers should be commended for their efforts over the four days of set-up, racing and clean up of the venue.

While Reid captured the GTO class and Saville-Peck took the Formula Libra Class, the other winners were:

- SP1--Sheridan Empey, 2:05.395

- SP2--Jared Powell-Williams, 2:00.977

- SP3--Johnny Sandhu, 1:59.165

- GT1--Tom Edwards, 2:01.055

- GT2--Dennis Thoney, 2:01.636

- GT3--Cory Ussyk, 2:04.875

- GT4--Dan Dionisio, 2:14.474

- GT5--Fred Delpero, 2:01.507

- GTU--Branco Turic, 2:04.345

- GTX--Chris Andrews, 1:57.698

- SPX--Gavin Aitken, 2:10.24

- SPX2--Sead Causevic, 2:01.052

- Truck--Bob Nyeste, 2:09.542

- Vintage--Roger Flescher, 2:09.039.