The historic entrants provided some spectacular action on the tricky 5km Slovenian ascent, which features a roundabout and two artificial chicanes alongside fast, sweeping sections of the climb.

In Category 1, the runaway winner was Austria’s Harald Mössler, this season’s overall championship leader, who notched up his fourth win in the five events held so far this season at the wheel of his Daren Mk3.

Finishing in second place – also for the fourth time this season – was Slovakian Marcel Beník in his BMW 2002, whose total time for the two runs was 38.807 seconds slower than that of Mössler.

Behind the top two men in the points came the third and fourth placed contenders in this year’s standings. Frenchman Philippe Vernay, fourth in the points before the Slovenian round took his Ford Lotus Cortina to third place just 1.15 seconds behind Mössler, almost two minutes clear of the Jaguar XK120 of Jans Jud, thereby closing the gap to the Austrian in the points standings to just three points

It was an all rear-engined contest for honours in Category 2 with points leader Brando Motti and his sonorous Porsche 911 Carrera RS taking on his nearest rivals, Czech drivers Petr Strnad and Jaroslav Mikeš in a pair of Škoda 130RS coupes.

The Italian prevailed to maintain his 100% record of four wins from four starts in the 2022 season, beating Mikeš by 20 seconds.

Further Italian success came in Category 3, where runaway points leader Giorgio Tessore took his Porsche 911 SC to its second win of the season ahead of the Skoda 130 RS of Czech Jirí Hubek and the similar Porsche of Austrian Reinhold Prantl.

In category 4 however, points leader Piero Lottini’s Osella PA 9/90 could finish only second after rain affected his overall time, handing victory to the Volkswagen Golf Rallye of Austrian Reinhard Sonnleitner, with the BMW 325 of local driver Matiaž Korošek in third place.

The results in Slovenia have closed up the majority of the title battles throughout the 2022 FIA HHC, but with one round remaining, the Buzetski dani in Croatia on September 17-18, Italy’s position in the Nations Cup looks assured. The Ryder Cup-style contest embracing all competing nations sees the Czech Republic 57 points behind with Slovakia, Austria and France disputing third place.

For full standings and background information on the FIA HHC please visit HERE (https://www.fia.com/events/historic-hill-climb-championship/season-2022/2022-standings)