The South Eastern Automobile Club Khanacross Series for 2023 began with a mudfest at the Heywood Wood, Wine and Roses Festival, an annual event put together by the Heywood locals.

This year the normally grippy black clay surface turned into plasticine with the addition of water, which mother nature provided from early morning until mid-afternoon, creating a very slippery arena to challenge all that took to the track.

Director for this event, Paul (Keg) Height began setup – in the rain – at about 7am and continued to monitor, assist and place errant cones back to correct places throughout the day in the rain. What a legend!

The starter’s list for the day included 25 eager and clean competitors who were given a “recce” lap to show where the first track had been laid out.

Dillan Young, having a return to motorsport after a year or two off, made it look easy in the recently acquired Nissan Pulsar and set the best time on the opening lap, heading off Jason Sims and John Whitehead, all front wheel drives – with a big drive from Gary Brown enjoying the conditions in the shared FG Falcon.

Curtis Boyd showed some pace in the Celica, just behind Brown and just in front of Geoff Wilson’s Magna, Mark Jennings and Kyle Johnson, Josh Munn and Bradley Harry for the quickest 10 for the round.

Same track, second run, Boyd put a good lap together to head the list from Young, Sims, Bradley Harry, Mark Jennings, Brown, Henry Sims, John Whitehead, Josh Munn and Bruno Vadori completing the 10 spots at the top.

The reverse direction of the first layout proved to be a lot slower due to the sloppy conditions, but it was the same for all (almost, depending on when the rain fell) competitors.

Whitehead found his rally tyres had some grip and posted the quickest time from Sims and a hard charging Brown – enjoying the sloppy conditions in the big Falcon.

Harry posted a similar time to his early run in the Toyota Starlet just in front of Young, Wilson, Justin Devlin, Ian Johnson, Boyd and Kyle Johnson for tenth.

On the second attempt Whitehead again led the pack with the rally tyres proving the grip level from the street tyres of the rest, Sims, Boyd, Brown, Harry, Young, Devlin, Johnson, Henry Sims and Wilson making the top 10.

Course two was an extended track and allowed for more seat time for the driver to get into strife or enjoy, depending on the level of commitment and how much rain fell.

With the grip, Whitehead’s Celica listed at the top from Jason Sims, Brown, Jennings, Boyd, Johnson, Young, Vadori, Wilson and Henry Sims rounding out the 10.

On the same track, second blast and similar track conditions, Whitehead, Jason Sims, Boyd, Young, Harry, Johnson, Brown, Henry Sims, Wilson and Devlin were in the top 10 for this round.

Then it was time to reverse the long layout and line up after a short lunch break.

Harry found the shortest way from start to finish and posted the fastest time from Boyd, Young, Whitehead, Jason Sims, Wilson, Johnson, Jennings, Johnson, Henry Sims and Max Viitanen rounding out the top 10 for this run.

It was the same track, more slop, less grip in places, more in other areas just to keep the drivers on their toes, with Harry doing the job again from Curtis Boyd in the Celica, a developing junior Henry Sims getting the hang of things, Joshua Munn finally getting the 180BSSS to travel forwards more than sideways next, Wilson, Jason Sims, Whitehead, Johnson, Young and 4WD pilot Harrison Bliss getting the 10th spot.

In the final blast for the day the rain had eased and grip levels were improved, director Height assembled a loopy track for a quick finish.

Looking at the score sheets, about half the field turned up the enjoyment level a little too much and made contact with a cone or many, keeping the cone attendants very busy.

Harry scored one of the cones on his very quick run and even with the penalty added, he missed the first box in the score sheet by one hundredth of a second from Whitehead, with Wilson another two tenths behind.

Henry Sims again put in a good lap to finish three hundredths in front of Johnson’s tidy run, showing some of his chequered rallying history.

Brown finished his day as he started, sideways everywhere, scoring well in the big FG Falcon.

Young pushed the Pulsar to the limits all day, trying a little too hard on some courses but enjoying all the runs, finishing this one less than two tenths in front of Cohen Hamilton, who struggled for grip all day in the BF Falcon.

Jason Sims found a few loose spots along the way, got home in front of Kyle Johnson, completing the 10 top runners.

For the last run the track grip level, although a bit patchy, had improved in many spots, to give the drivers some more speed, causing for more “off” events and contact with track marker cones, when the greasy bits were found.

Boyd enjoyed the day and the last run in particular setting fastest time for this course by nearly a second from Harry, Ian Johnson, Young, Devlin, Wilson, Henry Sims (again quicker than dad), Jason Sims, Brown and Vadori rounding out the 10.

A huge vote of thanks goes to Height and his crew for persevering with the weather and running an enjoyable event.

Next event on the SEAC calendar is a Twilight Motorkhana on Saturday, March 4 at the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex, at 1pm.

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