- The BB Motorsport team left the 2025 Simola Hillclimb with a class win and two podium positions.
- Both the Nissan GT-R and Nissan Patrol Blackhawk set personal best times up the hill.
- For BB Motorsport the Simola Hillclimb remains a highlight on the local motorsport calendar.
BB Motorsport, the performance arm of the BB Group, brought out the big guns for the 2025 Simola Hillclimb and had an extremely successful weekend securing a class win and two podium positions.
Reghard Roets, behind the wheel of the BB motorsport Nissan GT-R was one of the fastest cars overall all weekend long. Roets continued to improve session by session and took a convincing Class B5 win on Sunday afternoon with a personal best time of 37.968 seconds.
While the team did face some hurdles ongoing improvements were possible, aided by a drastic reduction in pool noodle antics, all-weekend long as Roets and the team built up to delivering their best times of the weekend in the final sessions, when it counted most.
In the overall King of the Hill battle, Roets and his BB Motorsport GT-R delivered an incredible performance but were relegated to second place in the overall King of the Hill Shootout when Pieter Zeelie, driving a highly modified Toyota MR2 set a blistering time of 37,090 seconds in the weekend’s final session.
“We are very happy with our class win. Although we would have liked to claim the overall King of the Hill victory our first objective was to keep the car in one piece. The car was also very reliable, which is something that has been a big hurdle for us in the past as we battled with mechanical issues. Most of our development work in the last year was focussed on sorting that out,” said Roets.
“Well done to all the competitors especially Pieter Zeelie who won overall and gave us a new benchmark to chase. In this sport the development never stops and the goal posts have been moved once more. Fortunately, the BB Motorsport team is up for the challenge and we already have some plans up our sleeve,” added Roets.
Nissan Patrol Blackhawk secures podium finish
BB Motor Group Owner and CEO Arnold du Plessis campaigned the large, yet extremely powerful Nissan Patrol fitted with a supercharger and Black Hawk kit reliably all weekend long and to second place in Class B9 with a best time of 54.93 seconds, which was also a personal best for this car.
The road legal Nissan Patrol Black Hawk has shown massive improvements thanks to ongoing development of the gearbox throughout the past year. The car was driven to and from the event, all the way from the teams’ home base in Pretoria and performed faultlessly on the road and during event.
The Nissan patrol Black Hawk kit has been developed in house by BB Motorsport and includes the fitment of an aggressive body kit and a supercharger kit, transforming the 4×4 icon into a seriously sporty SUV.
“While maintaining performance, our goal for this event was to focus on reliability and it paid dividends. Both cars ran in the majority of the sessions across the two-day event, with minimal hiccups allowing us to slowly build and improve towards setting personal best times for both cars,” said BB Motorsport manager Demar du Plessis.
The Simola Hillclimb is an event like no other and for that reason it remains a highlight on the calendar for the team at BB Motorsport. The spectators are passionate and the competitors always bring their A-game, forcing the top teams to continue to find new development solutions in order to remain competitive. Couple this with one of the best livestreams in the country and you get an event with a vibe and stature like no other in South Africa.
“The Simola Hillclimb is truly the pinnacle of motorsport in South Africa and a great platform on which to showcase our brand to the wider public,” concluded du Plessis.
Such a remarkable weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the support of loyal sponsors. BB Motorsport enjoys a beneficial relationship with partners BB Group, Sparco, Motul South Africa and Linney Tuning.
