Round 3 of the 2023 South Eastern Automobile Club Motorkhana series took place at the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex recently.
After the obligatory driver briefing, Course 1, titled “Dollar”, got under way, with Cohen Hamilton drawing the “prized” number 1 for the day’s activities.
An enjoyable test layout, the usual suspects were fastest, with Jason Sims setting the pace at 28.04 seconds, from relative newbie, Brad Bliss next at 30.27 seconds, Geoff Wilson 3rd with a 30.95 seconds, Damien Wilson 4th with a cone penalty for 35.05 seconds.
Same layout, second attempt, Jason Sims 27.57 from Phil Wilson 28.56.
Next layout setup was “Tee Garage” and gave the driver more room to exercise some skill (or otherwise) in car control, as that is what “Motorkhana” is all about.
Quickest on this test, Damien Wilson’s flamboyant driving that has seen him a State Champion in years past, posted fastest time (33.02) from Jason Sims (33.29).
Second pass at this test, Damien Wilson (31.78) J Sims (33.18) and Phil Wilson (33.75).
Corridor was the next layout chosen by clerk of the course Bev Shute to give some variation to the day.
The top 3 were Damien Wilson (29.76) from Jason Sims (30.12) Phil Wilson (30.78).
Same layout, second run, Jason Sims first home (29.03) from Henry Sims (30.55).
Moth Balls is a variation to the previous layout, fairly open and flowing, suited to a good controlled drive.
Jason Sims enjoyed the fastest run (25.98) closely followed by Henry, showing a lot of improvement at each outing (27.23).
Run 2 at this test, Jason Sims (26.28) from Damien Wilson (26.33).
Course change to “Eccentric”, which is quite tight in a few spots, which should be of an advantage to the smaller cars.
Damien Wilson took line honours on the first run (36.88) from Jason Sims (38.07).
Run again and Jason Sims took the Top spot with his run (36.71) from Brad Bliss (38.11).
“Offcentric” is a variation of the previous test setup.
Damien Wilson set fastest time on this layout with his time of 29.89 seconds, Jason Sims close behind with 30.99 seconds and Simon Poynter putting in his best effort for 3rd spot with a 33.93 seconds run.
Pass 2 of this test, Damien Wilson drove a similar line to the first run, posting the fastest time for this test, with a 29.69 seconds, good enough to hold off a big charge from brother Phil Wilson, 29.89 second layout.
Test layout #7 is titled “Bandit” and is a quick, tight test that can come undone if you have had too much lunch and not concentrating on the job!
Brad Bliss took the Suby around this test well and got the fastest time of 23.67 seconds, from Damien Wilson (24.07) and Phil Wilson (24.94) with Peter Gandolfi (25.83) close behind.
Second pass at the “Bandit”, Damien Wilson did the job well and stopped the clock at 23.01 seconds for fastest time this round.
Brad Bliss again did the course well in the Subaru, trimming another 4/10ths off his early run, but had to settle for 2nd quickest this time.
Test 8 layout is “Manoeuvring” and is difficult to spell and to drive.
Damien Wilson, now well awake after lunch, set fastest time for this run, 28.34 being the time to beat.
Attack the course again, Damien Wilson, a little slower on this run (28.48) still did enough to hold 1st spot from Phil who was marginally quicker (28.87) than his first run, with Gandolfi 3rd (31.02) with a little improvement.
Course changed to “Pine Tree” for layout number 9, is a simple course to drive, but will catch you out, if you drive too hard.
Fastest time is listed to Damien Wilson (20.68) from Brad Bliss (21.21), Phil Wilson (22.61), Will Argoon (23.13), Peter Gandolfi (23.57), Cohen Hamilton (23.58) – yes, 1/100th of a second between these two on this run!!
Second run at Pine Tree, Brad Bliss drove well to get fastest time (20.61) from Phil Wilson (21.15).
Next layout change “Reverse Lazy Eight” is a good drive and responds well to some “attack”.
No surprise that Damien Wilson set the pace on this test with his showy style, stopping the clock at 26.05 seconds, Brad Bliss next with a 26.57.
Run number 2, Damien Wilson (24.90) 1st, W Argoon (25.84) 2nd, Phil Wilson (26.45) 3rd.
Double Hat was the next layout set up to drive – fairly straight forward, nearly half the runners chose to drive their own track and copped the “WD” penalty for their effort!
Fastest on this layout, Damien Wilson (26.85) set the pace, Brad Bliss (28.98) 2nd, Phil Wilson (29.28) 3rd.
A second go at this test, Damien Wilson (27.51) 1st, Phil Wilson (29.18) 2nd, Will Argoon (29.83) 3rd with another good drive in the biggest car on the track.
Last course layout, “Crazy Square” is one to attack, if you dare!
Damien Wilson, fastest time for this test (20.38) 1st, Phil Wilson nipping at the heels with a time of 20.68 in 2nd place, Brad Bliss (20.94) 3rd.
Last run for the day, Damien Wilson drove his Nissan Sylvia a little quicker and stopped the clock at 20.14 seconds, to just beat Brad Bliss’s time of 20.19 seconds in 2nd spot.
Phil Wilson (20.61) got 3rd spot; Geoff Wilson close behind (21.58) for 4th.
