Tauranga's Phil Campbell has come away from the opening round of the New Zealand Hillclimb Championship, held near Gisborne over the weekend, having topped the two-wheel drive time-sheets at both events.

After campaigning the Lett's Builders Ford Fiesta in the New Zealand Rally Championship, Phil moved into the team's V6-powered Mitsubishi Mirage for the Hillclimb championship.

Phil Campbell's Mirage. Photo: Greg Henderson.

The move paid off with Phil comfortably the fastest two-wheel drive car on Saturday's tarmac event.

Sunday's gravel event was even better for Phil, who described the road as perfect for the powerful Mirage.

He powered to fourth place overall, only eight seconds behind the winning four-wheel drive car of Sloan Cox and four 10ths of a second off a podium spot.

Again, the result left Phil as the top two-wheel drive and sees him leading the newly formed two-wheel drive class within the national hillclimb championship with one more qualifying round and the final left to run.

'This was our last event for the year, so it was good to get a good result,” says Phil.

'The roads were really good fun, the gravel road on Sunday is the best hillclimb I have ever done – it suited the Mirage perfectly.

'It was a bit disappointing that only 12 cars entered, but it was a really fun event and we will definitely be back to do those roads again.”

Phil now turns his attentions to round two of the series in Hamilton on February 25-26.