Mount Gambier turned on its usual mix of weather for Sunday’s running of a motorkhana by the South Eastern Automobile Club at the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex. Round 2 of the local competition as well as a round of the State Motorkhana series attracted some of the more serious competitors from the other side of the hills, with the field split 50/50 with Adelaide’s best and SEAC’s regulars.
Mother Nature welcomed the start of competition with some steady rain, then a couple of showers, just to add more interest to the test surface, catching a few out with the moisture and painted lines, resulting in a spin or two.
Adelaide master Tony Wallis put on a display of car control with his excellent driving style resulting in 14 fastest times out of the 16 tests done. Local Patrick Hitchcock has been unable to cross the border and compete for 18 months, but showed that he has not lost his ability to push the 205GTI Peugeot along to keep Wallis on his toes finishing second.
Another of the Motorkhana Senior squad, Graham Vanderhoek competed faultlessly all day in his Volkswagen Superbug and then drove it back home with a huge grin on his face after scoring a podium place.
Ken Trimnell had his Suzuki Swift on song all day and had a clear run to finish in fourth spot, half a second in front of Adelaide/Mount Gambier local Wayne Casey in his MX5. Karien Heimsohn in the first of the “Specials”, less than 3/10’s of a second behind Wayne.
Craig Williams in the same special paid the price of a couple of flags and ended up in seventh outright. First of the junior competitors to finish, Edward Wallis driving Dad’s Mini Cooper made it home with 11th outright.
Hitchcock will stay outright first in the SEAC championship with a total of 525.04 seconds for the day followed by Trimnell with 547.03 seconds. Tristan Crowe had a very busy day at the wheel in his Commodore, got “lost” a couple of times and paid the price. First of the Club Juniors to make the list, Cohen Hamilton also drove the family Falcon and also suffered a “WD” penalty during an otherwise clear day, resulting in a total of 722.20 seconds.
A presentation took place at the Drivers Brief, by Adelaide Senior Official, Adrian Flynn, who handed over the South Australian “AutoTest Official of the Year 2020” Trophy to a surprised and deserving Allison Height.
Allison does a huge amount of behind the scenes work in all disciplines of SEAC events and Limestone Coast Off Road Club and is one of the many “Gears” in the clock that help to get these events to the start line.
Next event on the SEAC Calendar is a TRE(Trial) starting at the Borderline Speedway Complex on , Saturday, May 1.
LCORC are also hosting a Khanacross on the following day at Curtis Boyd’s Property.
