The 22nd April 2018 Khanacross and Motorkhana results

After the first two events of the year were washed out, members from the Douglas Shire Motor Sports Association finally hit the track on Sunday 22nd April for a khanacross and junior motorkhana.

Following the wet season the track had been in a fairly poor state of repair with a number of large trees down across the track and several sections badly rutted out and untrafficable.

Enter Trevor White from T & C Grader Hire. Trevor kindly donated over a day of his time and fuel to grade the track and remove the fallen trees an effort that was greatly appreciated by the club members.

As a result of Trevor’s efforts the Reef and Rainforest Track was smooth and fast for the first days racing of the year and after a break of over four months everyone was keen to hit the dirt and get it sideways.

Nine juniors including three new members entered the Motorkhana, a record number for the club.

With the clubs regular junior club car sidelined for repairs the kids all took to the track in a new club car a Holden Astra. When it broke down they were able to use another Astra that had been donated to the club just that morning.

Young Oliver Macdonald started the day well with a fastest time on the first run of the Motorkhana. He set a further four fastest times over the day to take the win on a time of 538 seconds. Cain Perry was second on 554 seconds with Max Erwin rounding out the top three.

New drivers Amber Yendle, Izac Barham and Journey Castro-Clarke all showed some nerves to begin with but all improved their times throughout the day.

It was a tight fort battle in the Khanacross with all of the top four drivers recording fastest time at various points over the day.

Heath Barry was blindingly quick all day, but uncharacteristically untidy hitting several witches hats and incurring a fifteen second penalty to finish fourth on 428 seconds.

Andrew Horn had his repowered Toyota Corolla on the rev limiter for much of the day to finish third on 426 seconds.

But at the top it was a battle of the Ford Hatch’s. Old v new, young v not so young, Greg Erwin’s 2005 Fiesta v Shane North’s 1997 Laser.

The two drivers ran neck and neck all day with their times sometimes only hundredths of a second apart.

After nine runs North was able to prove the old saying, Old Fords never die they just go faster, by taking the win over Erwin by just two seconds. It was North’s first round win in more than ten years.

After receiving his second placed trophy, Erwin paid tribute to North’s well earned and deserved win. “Northy does a hell of a lot for the club and for the juniors and to see him win today was just fantastic” he said.

The Associations next event is on 20th May.