Sunday’s weather could not have been better for the action returning to SEAC Park, being the first round of the South Australian Autocross Series.

Paul Height put on the Directors Cap and with assistance from his team of officials watched on while 42 eager competitors enjoyed what the SEAC Park layout has to offer.

With minimal holdups through the day, Paul managed to get through six heats and still pack up before the sun got too low in the West.

Recent track maintenance had been done after a day or two of sunny weather dried out the majority of the race surface enabling some grading and rolling to form a solid track that only had a couple of soft spots that had to be monitored through the day.

Heat 1 got under way after the driver briefing and the pressure was applied straight off with Warrnambool competitor Matt Kirby showing to all the track was quite drivable setting a quick opening lap in his laser after being awarded the “coveted” number 1 for the day’s activity.

Current State Champion, Dale Cagney, put his “local” track advantage to his best outing, scoring a 1:49.37 seconds on the good surface with Ryan Poel nipping at his heels with a 1:49.66 seconds opener.

Visitor Oscar Farnden also opened his day with a tidy 1:53.68 second lap on his first attack of the park, showing the “junior” was able to steer the Subaru WRX quite well.

John Whitehead’s Phoenix buggy has seen quite a few laps around SEAC Park and when the driver/car/tyre combination clicks, the results are right up there with the four-wheel drives.

Sunday’s outing had John “on song” and a 1:55.03 seconds lap was his first run time and good for fourth spot on the score board.

Nicholas Cagney, returning to the “cheaper” class of racing, shared a Commodore with Patrick Hughes and the pair enjoyed most of the day with Nick pushing a lot harder than Patrick.

The first round for Nick got him points for fifth with a 1:55.81 seconds lap, from Matt Kirby in 6th with his opener of 1:56.31, Adam Jesse, from Bordertown next, at 1:56.38 seconds.

Adelaide visitor, Glenn Campbell made the trip down with the bright green Nissan Micra and pushed the little beast as hard as conditions would allow, to lock in eighth spot with a 1:56.82 second run, Dion Becker a smidge behind in the big Falcon with a 1:57.53 seconds lap for ninth.

Rounding out the Top 10 for the first lap, Jayden Edwards locked in 10th spot with his 1:57.71 second lap.

Straight into Heat 2, track soft spots were either clearing or hollowing out, but the track grip generally had improved and Dale Cagney bettered his first outing by a couple of seconds to hold the top points on offer from a quick Ryan Poel jumping into his car in between entry duties in the official’s den, the times of 1:46.94 and 1:49.63 good for another 1-2 finish.

John Whitehead got in a good run in the little buggy, getting home in 1:51.94 seconds and third spot, with Farnden’s near identical time to his opener lap, 1:53.66 seconds, holding fourth.

Dion Becker improved on his first run by three seconds and moved up to fifth spot, with Damien Wilson in sixth, while Nicholas Cagney’s second run was a slight improvement on his first run, but dropped back to seventh, with Adam Jesse two-tenths better in eighth.

Chris Simmons had his first look at the park and wisely used caution in the Magna, but got it going the second time around, setting a 1:56.22 second lap for ninth, just in front of Gary Brown in the Falcon he shares with Mark Jennings, getting the big bird home with a 1:56.91 seconds lap for 10th.

Heat 3 continued the action and Dale Cagney pulled another second off his previous run to set the pace at 1:46.00 seconds.

Ryan Poel tidied up his run and improved for second, while Oscar Farnden also improved on his previous outing for third spot from a hard charging Adam Jesse’s Subaru Liberty.

Whitehead’s run was only half a second slower than his previous effort but he had to settle for fifth, Damien Wilson continued to trim off his lap times for sixth to hold out Dion Becker in seventh.

Magna Pilot Chris Simmons pulled another two seconds on this lap and gave him eighth, with Jayden Edward and Matt Kirby close behind to round out the top 10.

After a quick lunch break, action returned for the fourth heat and Dale Cagney continued to set the pace, with this lap scoring the top points with an extremely quick 1:44.59, showing the track had plenty of grip to those that wished to go on the attack.

Ryan Poel improved again, to a 1:47.07 pass, which would be a winning time on previous outings, but had to again settle for number two points, holding out the Farnden WRX’s 1:49.19 run for third, Damien Wilson’s 1:49.66 run a big jump forward after a couple of changes during the lunch break getting him fourth.

Dion Becker scored himself fifth spot in his Falcon, with Nicholas Cagney close behind stopping the clock at 1:52.19 in sixth.

Adam Jesse scored seventh with a 1:52.53 to hold out on the Simmons Magna’s 1:52.54 and Matt Kirby in ninth.

Finally getting some pace, Geoff Wilson’s Peugeot set the time for 10th spot with a 1:53.28 run.

Dale Cagney continued his day with the fastest time for Heat 5, stopping the clock with a blistering lap of 1:44.10 which should see another entry in the lap record at SEAC Park.

Ryan Poel, still looking for the best line to catch Cagney, made it another second spot with a quick 1:46.18 lap time.

Oscar Farnden continued to enjoy the SEAC Park layout and locked in third, with Damien Wilson’s long-suffering Silvia fourth ahead of Dion Becker’s charge in the Falcon at 1:50.69, Nicholas Cagney in fifth followed by Matt Kirby, Adam Jesse, the Simmons’ Magna and Jayden Edwards in his Commodore.

Heat 6 got under way with the lowering sun in the west creating a couple of problem spots, but Cagney continued to make it six wins from six passes, setting a 1:44.97 seconds as the target time for the final tour around the track.

Farnden was closest on this run, his 1:47.84 lap his best for the day, followed by Ryan Poel’s 1:48.38.

Damien Wilson continued his good run for fourth quickest ahead of Dion Becker, Adam Jesse, Glenn Campbell in the Nissan for seventh as the top 10 was rounded out by John Whitehead, Jayden Edwards and Chris Simmons