2023 season kicks off with a mudfest

The South Eastern Auto Club Khanacross Series for 2023 began with a “mudfest” at the Heywood “Wood, Wind and Roses” Festival, an annual event put together by the Heywood locals.

This year the “normally” grippy black clay surface turned into plasticine with the addition of water, which mother nature provided from early morning until mid-afternoon, creating a very slippery arena to challenge all that took to the track.

Director for this event, Paul (Keg) Height began setup – in the rain – at about 7am and continued to monitor, assist, place errant cones back to correct places etc, etc all day – in the rain.

What a legend!! Starter’s list for the day, 25 eager and “clean” competitors were given a “recce” lap to show where the first track had been laid out.

Dillan Young, having a return to Motorsport after a year or two off, made it look easy in the recently acquired Nissan Pulsar and set the best time on the opening lap, heading off Jason Sims and John Whitehead, all front wheel drives – with a big drive from Gary Brown enjoying the conditions in the shared FG Falcon.

Curtis Boyd showed some pace in the Celica, just behind Brown and just in front of Geoff Wilson’s Magna, Mark Jennings and Kyle Johnson, Josh Munn and Bradley Harry for the quickest 10 for this round.

Same track, second run, Curtis Boyd put a good lap together to head the list from Dillan Young, Jason Sims, Bradley Harry, Mark Jennings, Gary Brown, Henry Sims, John Whitehead, Josh Munn, Bruno Vadori completing the 10 spots at the top.

Reverse direction of the first layout proved to be a lot slower due to the sloppy conditions, but it was the same for all (almost, depending on when the rain fell) competitors.

John Whitehead found his rally tyres had some grip and posted the quickest time from Jason Sims and a hard charging Gary Brown – enjoying the sloppy conditions in the big Falcon.

Bradley Harry posted a similar time to his early run in the Toyota Starlet just in front of Dillan Young, Geoff Wilson, Justin Devlin, Ian Johnson, Curtis Boyd and Kyle Johnson for tenth.

Second attempt and John Whitehead again led the pack with the rally tyres proving the grip level from the street tyres of the rest, Jason Sims, Curtis Boyd, Gary Brown, Bradley Harry, Dillan Young, Justin Devlin, Ian Johnson, Henry Sims and Geoff Wilson making the top ten.

Course 2 saw the track extended and more seat time for the driver to get into strife or enjoy, depending on the level of commitment and how much rain fell.

With the grip, John Whitehead’s Celica listed at the top from Jason Sims, Gary Brown, Mark Jennings, Curtis Boyd, Kyle Johnson, Dillan Young, Bruno Vadori, Geoff Wilson and Henry Sims rounding out the 10.

Same track, second blast, similar track conditions, Whitehead, Jason Bradley Harry, Kyle Johnson, Gary Brown, Henry Sims, Geoff Wilson and Justin Devlin in the top 10 for this round.

Reverse the long layout and line up after a short lunch break, Bradley Harry found the shortest way from start to finish and posted fastest time from Curtis Boyd, Dillan Young, John Whitehead, Jason Sims, Geoff Wilson, Ian Johnson, Mark Jennings, Kyle Johnson, Henry Sims and Max Viitanen rounding out the top 10 for this run.

Same track, more slop, less grip in places, more in other areas just to keep the driver on their toes, Bradley Harry did the job again, Curtis Boyd next doing enough in the Celica, from a developing Junior, Henry Sims getting the hang of things, Joshua Munn finally getting the 180BSSS to forwards more than sideways next, Geoff Wilson, Jason Sims, John Whitehead, Ian Johnson, Dillan Young and 4WD pilot Harrison Bliss getting the 10th spot.

Final blast for the day, rain had eased and grip levels were improved, director Paul assembled a loopy track for a quick finish.

Looking at the score sheets, about half the field turned up the enjoyment level a little too much and made contact with a cone or many, keeping the cone attendants very busy!! Bradley Harry scored one of the cones on his very quick run and even with the penalty added, he missed the first box in the score sheet by one hundredth of a second from John Whitehead, with Geoff Wilson another two tenths behind.

Henry Sims again put in a good lap to finish three hundredths in front of Ian Johnson’s tidy run, showing some of his chequered rallying history.

Gary Brown finished his day as he started, sideways everywhere, scoring well in the big FG Falcon.

Dillan Young pushed the Pulsar at the limits all day, trying a little too hard on some courses but enjoying all the runs, finishing this one less than two tenths in front of Cohen Hamilton, who struggled for grip all day in the BF Falcon.

Jason Sims found a few loose spots along the way, got home in front of Kyle Johnson, completing the 10 top runners. Last run, the track grip level, although a bit patchy, had improved in many spots, to give the driver some more speed, causing for more “off” events and contact with track marker cones, when the greasy bits were found.

Curtis Boyd enjoyed the day and the last run in particular setting fastest time for this course by nearly a second from Bradley Harry, Ian Johnson, Dillan Young, Justin Devlin, Geoff Wilson, Henry Sims (again quicker than dad), Jason Sims, Gary Brown and Bruno Vadori rounding out the 10.

A huge vote of thanks goes to Paul and his crew for persevering with the weather and running an enjoyable event.

Final Scores are yet to be checked and show that the fastest for the day were:

Total Time: 1st Outright Jason Sims 656.72 Seconds 2nd outright Curtis Boyd (pictured top left) 659.90 seconds 3rd outright Dillan Young 670.44 seconds 4th outright Bradley Harry 671.57 seconds 5th outright Geoff Wilson 696.43 seconds 6th outright Henry Sims 705.51 seconds 7th outright Gary Brown (pictured bottom left) 707.99 seconds 8th outright Ian Johnson 723.72 seconds 9th outright Kyle Johnson 738.23 seconds 10th outright Justin Devlin 739.38 seconds Class points were: Class A – Jason Sims Class B – Curtis Boyd Class C – Geoff Wilson (M) Class J – Henry Sims Class F – Harrison Bliss PHOTOS COURTESY OF GEOFF WILSON