SEAC Park hosted the 2022 South Australian State Autocross Championship on the weekend.
Organisers had to tackle a build up of water, cutting some drains to redirect where possible.
Assured the base was solid, a good field of 40 odd competitors did a couple of track pack laps to shift some of the slop on the top and give the full field some chance at a good lap.
Class ‘S’ Buggy driver Matt Muir drew the number one spot and set the bar high with a good line up of 4WD pilots from both sides of the border keen to chase him down.
In the 2WDs Nicholas Cagney was out in his AE86, Glen Campbell steering a Renault Clio, Damien Wilson in his well-worn Nissan Silvia, Dion Becker in the big XR6 Falcon and a couple of others took on the slippery conditions and put in some quick laps.
On Saturday a short outer lap gave all drivers a challenge to miss the track markers and get home intact and undamaged to set a quick time.
Muir set quick times in tests one and two, Simon Feil in test three just ahead of Windus by 0.04 of a second.
The next placings were shared among the Clements pair and Feil for the daylight runs. Nicholas Cagney, Glenn Campbell and Damien Wilson were close all day with Nick and Glenn separated by about a second.
After the direction reversed and three more runs in the dark, Muir made it three from three.
On Sunday, now using the long course, Clements took the top spot, from Feil and Cagney.
On the second long track, Cagney led the pack home from Muir, with Windus also showing some speed for 3rd spot to hold off Feil and Clements.
Next run Windus stopped the clock at a 1:45.62 seconds, Feil also put in a good lap with 1:46.35 and good enough to keep Muir behind in third spot with Cagney and Clements the next pair home.
Competition resumed with a “double lap” format for the last two runs for the day.
Muir set quickest times in both of these runs to finish on a high.
Cagney headed Brad Clements in the first double lap, with Windus and Feil second and third in the second double lap, ruing the blunders in the first double that would prove to be very costly in the results.
Summing up the two days of competition, Muir had done enough to claim the top spot with a total of 17:23.49 seconds, his reward for a challenging weekend and adding South Australia Number 1 to his resume.
Dale Cagney proved consistency pays off, with his total of 17:47.94 seconds rewarded with second outright.
Bradley Clements was also up and down the list, a total of 17:50.47 seconds for his full-on outings all weekend good enough to get third outright.
Michael Clements, driving the family Subaru WRX he shares with Bradley, came home with a total time of 17:57.52 seconds and fourth outright.
Simon Feil finished in fifth outright with his total time of 18:18.03 seconds, while Darren Windus was seventh outright with a total time of 18:32.63 seconds, including penalties.
First of the 2WD home, Nick Cagney’s all black AE86 was eighth outright for his total of 18:37.45 seconds, followed by Glenn Campbell’s Renault Clio in 18:55.68 seconds for ninth outright.
Damien Wilson’s Nissan Silvia had a total time of 19:07.76 giving him 10th outright.
Teresa Lipscombe drove a faultless weekend in the Family XR6 Falcon and scored the ladies award for her efforts.
Up and coming junior Ollie Pohlner drove well in the challenging conditions at SEAC Park, keeping the Subaru Liberty on track all weekend.
