After a short break due to the winter weather, the South Eastern Automobile Club returned with round 3 of the 2022 Motorkhana Series at the Glenburnie Saleyards complex last week.

Team Sims put together an interesting and different set of tests to keep the lucky entrants on their toes for the day.

The “Old Dogs” who have been doing Motorkhana’s for many years were tested with the different tests, which had hardly been seen before.

Test Layout 1, titled Overcross, is a mirrored layout to the popular “Crossover” and did not cause any problems with the drivers, apart from the odd cone penalty.

Quickest on the first outing was Ken Trimnell who pipped Tony Wallis for line honours with Phil Wilson, Damien Wilson and Jason Sims following.

In the second attempt Wallis improved by some three seconds in the family Volkswagen coupe to pip Trimnell with his Suzuki Swift, a little quicker than his first outing.

Damien Wilson also trimmed a couple of seconds off the previous run to get third spot from Phil Wilson’s Soarer.

Dale Tucker, had a go for the first time in many years and put in tidy runs in his tidy Nissan S14.

Layout 2 titled “Garages Twin” is a simple layout with some Slalom forward motion into a “garage”, then reversing into a second section then forward is a ‘U’ turn to the finish box.

Phil Wilson proved to be the quickest by 0.03 seconds from Wallis, while Trimnell was a couple of seconds back in third.

When the drivers completed the same test for a second time Wallis got home by 0.03 seconds from Wilson with both drivers improving their speeds.

Damien Wilson found a shorter way home and improved his time by three seconds to complete the podium.

The east end layout titled “Eyes Big” is a variation to the “Big Eyes” test and caught out quite a few with the layout having a mirror difference each side which resulted in six “WD” entries on the first outing and four on the second run.

Of those who did read the map correctly, Wallis made it two from two for the test while Phil Wilson and Sims swapped places.

Trimnell was consistent scoring a couple of third and fourth placings and Ashton Slotegraaf impressed to jump into the top five.

Heather Parker, sharing the Volkswagen with Wallis, drove well in the earlier tests to snare sixth spot for her first go.

The “Twin Garages” course had been set up as a mirror image of the previous test at the Western End.

There were a couple of “WD’s” due to drivers missing a turning point, but Wallis continued to collect fastest times.

However, he only topped the time sheets on his first test attempt with Sims excelling in the second pass.

Sims knocked it out of the park from Phil Wilson and Trimnell.

After a short lunch break and some course layout changes made, drivers were presented with “Half Dozen Gates” at the east end and “Renno Diamond” at the west end.

“Half Dozen Gates” consisted of six openings in a rectangle with two to be entered from the inside of the box, outside the box and reversed through.

Of the 15 competitors to front for this test, there were 12 different executions.

Trimnell got quickest time on the first go, with Will Argoon next, followed by Damien Wilson, Sims and Phil Wilson.

But when the second pass was completed, Argoon took the chocolates from Trimnell and Sims.

The “Renno Diamond” was a diamond shaped course with three double gates and a turn through between two cones.

Being a simple and fast test, some people got caught in the wrong gate entry – resulting in five WD’s in the first run and three for the second go.

Damien Wilson stole the show on the first run with Dale Tucker nipping at his heels, Jason Sims, Dion Becker, Ken Trimnell and Geoff Wilson.

The second pass went to Phil Wilson from Dale Tucker and Geoff Wilson – this time missing all the cones – in third.

The last test layouts were “Four Leaf Clover” and “Dollar” with the former arriving first being the same layout as “Half Dozen Gates” but driven in a series of four loops.

Phil Wilson cranked up the Soarer and set the pace from Tucker and Trimnell.

Pushing hard, Sims got the top spot in the second run from Trimnell and Phil Wilson, who all recorded 34-second times.

“Dollar” is a good test for those who push the limits and Trimnell took top honours for the first attempt from Sims and Tucker.

Trimnell then made it two from two with Sims, Phil Wilson, Tucker, Geoff Wilson and Will Argoon making up the remainder of the places.

It was enough for Trimnell to claim overall honours after an entertaining day of action.

He took out the outright and Class B victory with a total of 589.95 seconds.

Trimnell was the only driver to finish under 600 seconds with runner-up Jason Sims registering a time of 614.87 seconds which was enough to win Class D honours.

Phil Wilson was a consistent force and was able to comfortably score a podium finish after 618.40 seconds of steering.

Damien Wilson just missed out on the rostrum after edging out Dale Tucker by 12 seconds to snag fourth and the Class C victory.

Geoff Wilson, Bruce Hamilton, Ashton Slotegraaf, Dion Becker and Argoon rounded out the top 10.

Once the handicap was applied, the top two positions were reversed with Sims heading Trimnell and all other spots as per outright.

Novice Junior points went to Henry Sims from Max Viitanen with Maddox Pochec having his first outing.