The South Eastern Automobile club hosted a round of the South Australian and Victorian Motorkhana Championships, as well as one of its own series on a big weekend of tyre-screeching action.
With a good attendance from the Victorians and a dozen or so from the Adelaide area, joining the local die-hards and director, Bruce Hamilton, a strong field of 40 eager drivers were entertained for the day.
Mount Gambier’s weather gods were a little kinder compared to what the rest of the state received with only one shower of hail and strong winds, just to prove the track markers would not stay in place – along with many light showers through the day.
Officials for the day had their work cut out, keeping an eye on the competitor doing the course and looking for the track markers that were hit or run over completely, as well as those the wind blew over, in the rain.
Specials are a small steel tube frame with an engine and four wheels, but no roof or windscreen, so the drivers of the four specials were open to the rain at each outing.
Overall it was no surprise to see three specials pilots leading the results after the 14 tests completed in atrocious weather conditions.
Michael Exell was well clear of David Beames, having a mediocre day, doing enough to hold off Edward Lewis with the times of 478.11, 500.75 and 501.47 seconds respectively having to be tempered with “how much rain” encountered on their runs.
Next home, Anthony Wallis proved to be the quickest of the tin tops after recording 519.81 seconds for his day, heading off Mathew Webb in the “original brick”, 540.59.
They were hotly pursued by Bendigo’s Brian Shanahan pushing his Nissan Pulser in his usual fashion for sixth outright at 540.66 seconds.
Always pushing hard local club member Phil Wilson enjoyed the wet tracks in the big Soarer and put in a good day to get home in seventh outright with his total of 543.07 seconds.
Junior, Declan Webb shared the family Mini and also had a good day in the wet to push hard to get home in eighth outright with his total of 557.53 seconds.
Adelaide regular, Wayne Casey, in his red MX5 Mazda is usually at the pointy end of the day, but a rare WD moved him down the order to finish in ninth spot with a total time of 564.95 seconds.
This was just good enough to hold off a big charge from Ken Trimnell in the yellow Suzuki Swift, finishing in 10th spot with a total time of 565.86 seconds.
Kerry Delaney was the quickest in the ladies class, finishing in a credible 20th outright and a well driven total time of 626.84 seconds for her effort in the black and red Mirage.
When the handicap system scoring is applied, Wallis snatched the number one spot from Wilson, Exell, Lanham, Webb, Shanahan, Trimnell, Casey, Beames and Lewis.
Scoring for this multi-club championship round will change somewhat when the “club” drivers are separated into their own score setups.
Considering the awful weather experienced there were quite a few smiles through the day from those participating with very odd driving styles throwing up the odd challenge or two to keep on course.
