Closing off the competition year, the Limestone Coast Off Road Club hosted a round of the McPherson Mechanical Khanacross Series being part of the South Eastern Automobile Club’s 2022 Year.
Round 5, the last round of the series, was set up at the Mount Gambier Showgrounds, utilising the bitumen and hot mix areas the sideshows are normally set up for the annual show.
Director of the Day Paul (Keg) Height, set out a reasonably straight forward track to get the attention of the 19 eager competitors and it did just that.
Fastest for Test 1, Ken Trimnell got straight into action in the Black Subaru WRX to be two seconds clear of Bruce Hamilton and Damien Wilson, with Curtis Boyd another second back followed by Josh Munn, Lindsay Beare, Dion Becker, Sarah Coates, Bruno Vadori and Kyle Johnson.
Second attempt at this layout, Damien Wilson found a better line and pulled out nearly two seconds from his first-round time to edge out Josh Munn, also some three seconds quicker on this run.
Ken Trimnell had to settle for third spot, being four-tenths slower on the second go.
Bruce Hamilton bettered his first run time as well by a second, but filled the fourth spot on this round, followed by Dion Becker also quicker by two seconds in fifth, Curtis Boyd next on a similar time with Geoff Wilson a second behind, picking up four seconds from his first attempt, Lindsay Beare 8th, Bruno Vadori ninth and David Coombe rounding out the Top 10.
As is “normal” with khanacross, the test is run both ways before any changes are made, so reverse Layout 1 was the next test to be tackled.
Ken Trimnell took to the layout and set the pace for this run from Damien Wilson, Bruce Hamilton, Geoff Wilson, Curtis Boyd, Dion Becker, Bruno Vadori, Lindsay Beare, Justin Devlin and Sarah Coates.
With an almost identical time, Trimnell again set the pace from Damien Wilson, Joshua Munn, Dion Becker, Geoff Wilson, Curtis Boyd, Bruno Vadori, Lindsay Beare, Justin Devlin and Kyle Johnson.
Minor variation changed the layout and Trimnell again set the pace from Damien Wilson, Bruce Hamilton, Geoff Wilson, Curtis Boyd, Kyle Johnson, Lindsay Beare, Justin Devlin, Max Viitanen and Sarah Coates.
Second attempt on this layout, Joshua Munn set the pace from Damien Wilson, Dion Becker, David Coombe, Geoff Wilson, Curtis Boyd, Kyle Johnson, Max Viitanen, Bob Byham and Sarah Coates.
Reversing the direction and Ken Trimnell set the pace again from Damien Wilson, Bruce Hamilton, Curtis Boyd, Dion Becker, Geoff Wilson, Joshua Munn, Kyle Johnson, David Coombe and David Byham.
On the same layout the second time around, Joshua Munn took the pole from Damien Wilson by less than a tenth of a second from Curtis Boyd, Dion Becker, David Coombe, Geoff Wilson, Kyle Johnson, Lindsay Beare, Bruno Vadori and Zachary Byham rounding out the Top 10.
After a lunch break, “Keg” the ddirector tightened up the course with some clever cone placements and after a “drive around” by all the competitors, Ken Trimnell set the pace from Damien Wilson, Joshua Munn, Curtis Boyd, Bruce Hamilton, Dion Becker, Geoff Wilson, Justin Devlin, Kyle Johnson and Lindsay Beare.
Second attempt and Trimnell again was the quickest from Damien Wilson by a tenth of a second followed by Curtis Boyd, Dion Becker, Geoff Wilson, David Coombe, Justin Devlin, Kyle Johnson and David Byham rounding out the top 10.
On the reverse layouut Damien Wilson found the pace to go quickest from Trimnell, Dion Becker, Joshua Munn, Bruce Hamilton, Curtis Boyd, Geoff Wilson, Lindsay Beare, Kyle Johnson and Justin Devlin.
On the second pass Trimnell got the top spot from Josh Munn, Bruce Hamilton, Geoff Wilson, David Coombe, Curtis Boyd, Kyle Johnson, Lindsay Beare and Zachary Byham followed by Bruno Vadori.
On the final test, minor changes made by the director and another drive through run was taken for the drivers to know where to go.
Bruce Hamilton set the pace for this layout from Damien Wilson, Dion Becker, Joshua Munn, David Coombe, Curtis Boyd, Justin Devlin, Bruno Vadori, David Byham and Lindsay Beare, while on the second time around Damien Wilson found a better line to get the fastest time from Bruce Hamilton, Joshua Munn, David Coombe, Geoff Wilson, Lindsay Beare, Sarah Coates, Kyle Johnson, Bob Byham and newcomer Harrison Bliss arriving home in 10th place to a round of applause.
When all the scores had been listed for the day’s outings of the good runs and the bad runs, where penalties for wrong direction not stopping in the finish garage, hitting track markers were applied, the finishing positions changed somewhat.
Outright positions for the day were Damien Wilson in first with a time of 449.96 followed by Josh Munn (466.32), Geoffrey Wilson (479.62), Curtis Boyd (479.80), Dion Becker (481.14), Ken Trimnell (482.11), Bruce Hamilton (484.64), Kyle Johnson (489.76), Lindsay Beare (490.38) and David Combe (499.30).
With this event completed, the South Eastern Automobile Club activities are now wrapped up for 2022.
A presentation dinner and awards will be held at a venue to be advised in late January.
The 2023 calendar is being finalised with the first event being the popular “Twin Peaks” Hill Climb at Port MacDonnell to be held in early February.
