Auto club’s Khanacross

THE Pakenham Auto Club held its first Khanacross in about five years recently.
For the first time, the Clerk of the Course was allowed to compete, and it was also the first time the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) had allowed over 12s and under 14s to compete, under strict guidelines.
The Khanacross was held in perfect weather and the club was delighted that 33 turned up.
The club was sanctioned by CAMS to allow juniors to run if it was made sure they were in little danger. The club achieved this by putting in a “Designated Drivers” (not a family member but must have a CAMS licence as well as a Victorian driver’s licence, all being current) as a passenger to supervise and made it clear that the junior had to prove they were competent in handling a vehicle.
The timeframe is diverse, as some show some competence very early while others work at it. Their progress is watched and discussed with the Clerk of the Course. At the appropriate time their licence would be signed by the clerk. This would allow them then to drive with a parent or guardian until the age of 14. However, they may still be required to have supervision as required.
Results: The FWD class had a large turn out of ten competitors, and for Aaron Brown it was his first ever car racing event. He did not beat his wife who was responsible for coaxing him to compete. It was a fight to the finish all the way for first place, but Bruce Rawlings managed to fight off David Isherwood by just 3.55 seconds in the final result to take first place. Well done Bruce.
RWD class also had a fight to the end between Adam Bloomfield in his “Crowd Pleaser Commodore” and Keith Wells’s nice escort, with Adam winning by just 3.23 secs. However in the third run after completing 2/3 of the course, Adam was unable to complete the run, as he had a meltdown in the steering department.
The specials had a good turn out of nine competitors. Jollie Middleton showed how to get the power to the ground in the turbo powered WRX, however Peter Morrison in his rally Hyundai gave her a run for the money. Jollie took first place but Peter was only 0.89 secs behind.
Bruce Dunn in his 260Z knocked over more cones with his rooster tail than anybody else did by actually hitting them.
Bruce said he didn’t care because he was having too much fun. There were also two new members on the day, Rus Hamill and Russ Bryant and although they had a nice V8 powered ute, they had trouble getting the power to the ground.
Unfortunately they both had to leave early because of family commitments. Next time guys you will need to get your priorities in line (just joking).
Upcoming Events: The next scheduled event is a Motokhana on Sunday 28th June. This event will include a “Come & Try” for Juniors who want to learn about motorsport and try a motorkhana test before committing to compete.