Rob Roy had a family atmosphere with husbands, wives, and siblings competing. Brothers Ken and Arthur Wylie would often enter for Rob Roy meetings. Ken's car was a supercharged Austin A40 Special.
Arthur Wylie won the 1947 Australian HillClimb Championship in a Ford A Special he had built in 1938, a “midget” based on the latest American design of the day, fitted with an "A" Ford engine and a completely chrome plated chassis.
Arthur Wylie was a road, rally and hillclimbing driver, already well established in 1930s when he and his brother Ken, who joined him in motorsports, were pioneers of oval track racing and the "Mighty Midget" cars.
BackgroundThe
Rob Roy Hillclimb, Australia’s oldest purpose-built Hillclimb, was established in 1937 at Christmas Hills, about 30 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne. Hillclimbing, in which cars are driven uphill one at a time against the clock, is one of motorsport’s oldest events and was first held in 1897 in France.
Cut out of the bush, the Rob Roy course included an uphill, half-mile, graded dirt road. In 1939, the track was sealed and became one of only three bitumen-surfaced purpose-built hillclimbs in the world, the other two being the Shelsley Walsh and Prescott courses in the UK.
The Rob Roy Hillclimb attracted professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs, along with their often specially modified Bugattis, Elfins, MGs and Holdens, and has a special place in Australia’s motoring history. Drivers who competed here include Jack Brabham, Harry Firth, Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, Reg Parnell, Stan Jones, Lex Davison, Bill Patterson, Doug Whiteford, Peter Whitehead, Reg Hunt and Len Lukey, drivers who also tackled and in some cases vanquished the Formula One circuit.
In 1962, bushfires ravaged the Rob Roy course, and it lay in disuse for 30 years until the MG Car Club of Victoria secured a lease on the property and faithfully restored the track to host a bustling schedule of Hillclimb events every year.
Sources: Leon Sims,
A history of Rob Roy Hillclimb - 1937 to 1961 - The Hill, The Drivers, The Cars. And,
the MG Car Club of Victoria
