The 03 April 2016 Khanacross and Motorkhana results

A smaller than usual field assembled last Sunday for the 3rd round of the Douglas Shire Motor Sport Associations 2016 championship.

Held under sunny skies the Reef and Rainforest Track was dry and fast although a little rough in places.

The low number of entrants meant that the drivers were able complete fourteen runs on the day.

Strangely most of the field suffered reliability issues over the course of the event and by the last run of the day several race cars had retired, with their drivers borrowing a fellow competitors car just to finish the event.

Cairns driver Steve Van der Brug was on fire literally, as an oil line on his Nissan Silva caught alight causing an under bonnet fire. Quick thinking by fellow competitors quickly extinguished the fire and after some running repairs Steve was able to continue racing.

The fire did nothing to slow him down and he went on to take the win on a time of 13 minutes and 39 seconds.

It was not an easy win though, as he was pushed all day by the Ford Laser of Matt Coulson. Despite having some brake issues Matt finished less than a second behind Steve in second place.

Matt’s father Dave was a further six seconds back in third spot with Ben Van der Brug and Shane North rounded out the top five.

The junior club car was back on track again after having the engine rebuilt. The Club had received a grant from the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) as part of their Junior Development Programme to rebuild the engine and the work was carried out by Luke McMullen and the team at Burmack.

Ella Dunn wasted no time in testing out the new engine using all the extra power to post some impressive times in the junior motorkhana.

Nine club members are travelling down to Proserpine to compete in the first of four rounds of the NQ Khanacross Series at the end of the month. They include five times Australian Rally Champion, Ross Dunkerton who has just been inducted into the inaugural Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame.

The Associations next event is on 22nd May.