What is the Race to the Sky?
A hillclimb that ran for 10 years and was last held in 2007. It has been revitalised by Highlands Motorsport owner Tony Quinn and his management team.
It runs up the Snow Farm access road in the Cardrona Valley. The course is 14.5km, with 135 turns as it climbs from 450m to 1500m above sea level.
Why is it a big deal?
Since the world-famous Pikes Peak International Hillclimb was sealed, the Race to the Sky is now the world's longest gravel hillclimb.
Who is doing it?
There are 105 entries racing in cars, utes, motorbikes, quads and buggies, all competing for the King of the Mountain title.
The unlimited class has attracted eight huge-horsepower vehicles. Among them are: eight-time event winner Nobuhiro ''Monster'' Tajima, of Japan, in a 670hp 4WD Super 86 hillclimb car; Possum Bourne's ex-World Rally Championship Subaru hillclimb car with Scottish rally star Alister McRae driving it; and Rotorua's Sloan Cox in an ex-Andrew Hawkeswood 706hp space frame Evo 8.
Are there any locals entered?
Yes, plenty.
In the open 4WD class, there are five: Andrew Graves (Gore) Glen Frew (Mosgiel), Mike Turfus (Outram) and Mike and Steve Wellington (Dunedin).
In the open 2WD, look out for Chris Hey (Mosgiel) and Grant Aitken (Cromwell).
Rallycourse competition division 2WD and 4WD, where there can be one or two drivers in the same car, has John MacDonald (Queenstown), Dean Bond (Balclutha), Joseph and Grahame Begley (Arrowtown), and Paul Beattie with Milne Horn (Cromwell).
Allan Dippie (Wanaka), Dan Barlow with Andrew Wardell (Queenstown) and Ian Begg (Cromwell) are in the historic and classic rally division.
The off-road racer division includes Carl Gardner (Dunedin) and Donald Preston (Winton), and the motorcycle division features Andrew Kirk (Gore), Chris Manson (Oamaru), Jon Pagan (Queenstown), Justin Shaw (Winton), Matthew Edgar (Wanaka) and Paul McHaffie (Gore).
Interestingly, there are no Otago riders in the 25-strong quad bike division.
What's that car?
After announcing in February that he was potentially looking for a driver to pilot his new 850hp hillclimb car, Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn decided he was capable of doing the job himself.
''As you can imagine, I had a lot of new `friends' keen to get the drive. How could I have selected one over the others?'' he said.
The man behind the Race to the Sky's resurrection had the Ford Focus-bodied, Nissan R35 twin turbo-engined beast built by Australian race car engineer Paul Ceprnich. The brief was to produce a car capable of breaking the 8min barrier.
''And when Cepi [Ceprnich] said a circuit driver who can keep the car in a straight-ish line will do just as well, if not better, with the aerodynamics than a rally driver who wants to go sideways, it was a no-brainer for me for drive it myself,'' Quinn rationalised.
He will test the car, dubbed ''Monster Tamer'' by Race to the Sky fans, at Highlands today, before undertaking the course reconnaissance in a road car - like all other competitors - tomorrow.
''Then I'll just drive it as I see it. If I can beat Grant Aitken driving my new Toyota 86 rally car, I'll be happy,'' Quinn said.
