19th September 2021 Khanacross
and Junior Motorkhana
The nineth round of
the 2021 Club Championship was held on Sunday 19th September, after
it was postponed from the previous weekend due to wet weather.
Three kids lined up in the junior Motorkhana with new members Kai
Furche and Yamato Garate making their debut.
Furche and Eli Smith battled it out for most of the day with both
drivers recording multiple fastest times. With only three runs left
Smith lead Furche by less than a second.
Unfortunately, a five second garage penalty cost him the lead and
Furche was able to take the win by two seconds, a great effort at
his first event.
Yamato Garate also recorded a couple of fastest times to finish
third.
Eighteen drivers lined up in the Khanacross. The pits sometimes
resembling a Subaru dealership with the All Wheel Drive class making
up over half of the entries.
Dave Parkinson, Simon Taylor and Heath Barry all arrived with new
Subaru Impresa’s and set the scene for battle for the top spot.
Neil Temperley provided some early entertainment putting his
Forester up on two wheels and nearly on its roof. A last second
steering correction just stopping his Suby from going over. And
right in front of all the spectators too.
As with the Motorkhana it was a tale of what could have been in the
khanacross. Going into the last run Shane Buchanan held a narrow
lead over Rick Ranscombe and looked set to pick up his second win
for the year.
Exiting the chicane Buchanan ran wide, hit a marker and incurred a
five second penalty. That was enough to hand the win to Ranscombe.
Relative new comers Dave Parkinson and Simon Taylor impressed to
finish third and fourth respectively.
In the end, only eleven seconds separated the top seven drivers.
With second to nineth places all taken with all-wheel drives,
Ranscombe’s win in a front wheel drive car was impressive but for
how long he can hold them at bay remains to be seen.
Mackenzie Barry won the Ladies class ahead of Anet Ridley and Tully
Smith.
Not to be out done by Neil’s earlier display of stunt driving, Rob
Bassett decided to have a go as well, running off the track and
parking his Toyota MR2 on top of the embankment at the bottom of the
hill. Sitting in the pits and not being able to see anything because
of the dust it sounded far worse than it ultimately was but still a
scary moment. Fortunately, Rob was ok although the MR2 will be in
dock for some time. Speaking late on Sunday night, Bassett expressed
his gratitude to the people who came to his aid. “Obviously I’ve
been analysing this disaster for some time, but what I never did was
thank all the people who came to my rescue and I am ashamed about
that” he said.
Club Members head up to Herberton this weekend for the second round
of the inter club Challenge against the FNQ Motor Sports Club and
then on the following weekend the club hosts the fourth round of the
NQ Khanacross Series
