Limestone Coast Off Road Club (LCORC) stalwart Paul “Keg” Height led a small team of officials from this club to assemble and run what should have been round 2 of the South Eastern Automobile Club’s 2025 Series, along with the LCORC event.
Having to cancel the SEAC first event due to weather conditions at the Heywood Wood Wine and Roses festival, this event looked a bit shaky in the week leading up.
Mother Nature sent a warning on Saturday evening, but allowed the event to take place on a grassy paddock at the Boyds’ farm.
Track layout was fairly simple, but having damp green grass as a race surface, there is very little grip on offer, and care must be exercised to be able to turn the car where needed, to avoid track marker cones, or, slide way off the corner in the grass and lose heaps of time getting back onto the course proper.
David Coombe drew the coveted position number 1 and rose to the challenge, punishing the BA Falcon at every chance around the first track.
No surprise, the 4WD Subarus of Sam Thomas (1) and Brad Bliss (2) set the pace, with Dillan Young (3) close behind.
Second attempt at this layout, with all the drivers now well aware of how slippery the grass can be, Harry Bliss (1) tackled the course and set the bar quite high with an impressive drive in the family’s Subaru, nearly two seconds clear of Sam Thomas’s (2) rally prepped WRX, unable to use the immense power that is on tap.
Brad Bliss sharing the Subaru, posted another quick run, 6/10ths behind Thomas, for 3rd.
Reverse direction of this layout, Harry Bliss again set the time to beat, some two seconds clear of Sam Thomas, unable to find enough grip to use the available power, Dillan Young enjoying his Pulsar, Just 1 second behind in 3rd.
With a fairly strong breeze and a little sunshine, the grass had dried off considerably by now, so times began to tumble and those that had heaps of power were now able to use it a bit more.
Sam Thomas, now able to unleash the WRX in a couple of spots took four seconds off his first run and made the top spot on the score sheet.
Harry Bliss, using all his skills, managed to be within a second, but had to settle for second spot.
Dillan Young continued his tidy work and again made 3rd.
Small changes made to course 2 forward direction gave drivers subtle changes with some fresh grass to catch them out.
Sam Thomas made the top slot, Dillan Young in second spot just under two seconds behind, a very good effort considering the power differences between these two cars. Damien Wilson was 3rd.
The second drive of this layout saw the same trio finish in order again.
Course 2 reverse direction and Sam Thomas found grip where needed to post quickest time, Harry Bliss, just 2/10ths behind 2nd, with some aerobatics from a couple of ridges hiding in the grass.
Geoff Wilson also enjoying the track challenges in his Peugeot, made some good choices on the track and made 3rd, one and a half seconds behind Thomas.
Same course, second attempt, grass now grippy (mostly) and dirt showing on a couple of tight corners, Dillan Young made number one this time around, Geoff Wilson 2nd, Damien Wilson 3rd, 6/10ths behind, Scott Bradley 4th, Harry Bliss 5th, after collecting a cone penalty, costing him fastest time, Sam Thomas 6th, also knocking a marker, David Coombe 7th with his best drive of the day, Henry Sims 8th, Justin Devlin 9th and Brad Bliss 10th with a cone penalty also dropping him several spots.
Lunch on the run, a quick break for the track officials, back to racing with another course change, to use some fresh areas of grass.
Top of the time sheet, Sam Thomas found areas to use the power to hold out a Dillan Young attack for second, Damien Wilson 3rd.
Sam Thomas found more grip on the second run of this track, as did Damien Wilson, finishing a little over one second behind Thomas, Dillan Young 3rd, Charlie Evans 4th steering his Commodore well for the day and exploring the limits of adhesion.
Same layout, reverse direction, Thomas 1, Young 2, Max Viitanen showing good car control, made it to 3rd on this drive.
Sam Thomas again set the fastest time, Damien Wilson, 2/10ths behind made 2nd, Dillan Young 3rd, just half a second back.
Competition was completed and pack up done before any rain, Paul Height and his team of officials were thanked for a very enjoyable event, as was Curtis Boyd for the use of his land for the event to take place.
Next event of the SEAC Calendar is a TRE (Trial on open roads) to take place on May 31 between Tarpeena and Nangwarry.
Check the SEAC SA website for details of coming events, leading up to the Australian Motorkhana Championship, being held at the Glenburnie Saleyards complex in October.
