After traversing the length and breadth of the state since the opening round at Bathurst in March, Doug Barry finished second in the 2016 NSW Hillclimb Championship.
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His bid recently came to an end at the final round, the Huntley Hill round at Dapto, with the Bathurst Light Car Club member finishing second.
After the eight rounds driving his Lola T8750, Barry finished 15 points behind Dean Tighe.
The somewhat bumpy and rough Huntley climb is one of the most challenging on the calendar. Coming into the event, Tighe with his Dallara Judd and Barry were the only drivers that could win the title.
On the day it was ever so close as the pair continually exchanged the lead throughout.
After the prescribed four runs the Mudgee grazier led his Queensland opponent by just 2/100th of a second, but as the event was running ahead of time, competitors received a fifth run.
As Barry momentarily bogged down at the start, Tighe leap-frogged him to take a deserving win by a mere 11/100ths of a second.
Following the event Barry complimented his rival on a fine performance.
"Dean really deserved the win, for he had not competed on several of the climbs before and he's had to do a lot of travelling all year to just take part. We really formed a great relationship throughout the year, and I really hope he returns next year," Barry said.
"It's a top car, particularly with the electronic aids such as traction control and launch control.”
The title battle began with the Bathurst double, The Esses climb and the Mountain Straight climb the following day.
While many of the rounds were far from suited to Barry's large and powerful Lola, which would have been more at home on the wide open race circuits of America where it came from, it was certainly at home on Mount Panorama's Mountain Straight.
However, it was this event that may have ultimately cost him the title which he first won in 2012.
Following a third place finish in the previous day's Esses event, he came out on maximum attack the on Sunday.
On his first run of the day it all came unstuck when he had a huge accident after clipping the wall through the notorious Reid Park left hander at 235km/hr.
His single run still netted him third outright, but it also seriously damaged the car, particularly in the suspension region. Barry had a major and rebuild and his Lola never handled quite the same.
"Since the accident we'd been chasing a rear end breakaway, and it had a real flow on effect, particularly on bumpy surfaced tracks like Dapto,” he said.
