Back to the saleyards course

ACTION returned to the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex on March 2 with Round 1 of the 2025 Motorkhana series being held at the car park area.

Novice director Joshua Munn selected a range of tests from the “Bible” to supply a challenge to the small field of 16 entrants for the first round points on offer.

Also of interest, of the 16 starters, 9 were Juniors (12 to 18 years) and the future of the Club.

The first test layout was “Big Eyes”, a good challenge to get some adrenalin moving in the system.

Best of the bunch for the first run, Geoff Wilson managed to get his Magna around in 53.44 seconds, from Max Viitanen 53.63 seconds working the Commodore hard, for 2nd, Scott Bradley 3rd with a 53.89 seconds run in the Pulsar Wagon. Dylan Maloney (4th) put in a good drive with the Lancer for a 54.29 seconds, Henry Sims steering his Celica around for 5th spot with 54.59 seconds, Tristan Crowe 6th with 56.36 seconds, Rebel Skirving 7th (56.97), Charlie Evans 8th (57.21) Harry Bliss 9th (61.70) and Damien Wilson, Josh Munn, Henry Skirving and Jayden Maloney all driving a different track and incurring the dreaded WD time.

Same layout, second pass, Scott Bradley made it look easy and set the pace with his pass of 51.54 seconds good for top points, holding out Geoff Wilson in second spot with his 51.70 seconds.

Damien Wilson made it to 3rd spot with his 53.56 seconds closely followed by Henry Sims 54.13 in 4th.

Rebel Skirving made 5th with a tidy (as usual) drive in the Focus (55.55), Dylan Maloney 6th with (56.09) Max Viitanen 7th (56.43) Tristan Crowe 8th (58.03), Harry Bliss 9th (58.90) and Josh Munn, Charlie Evans and Levi Staude finding a different course home.

Next course set up is titled “Crossover” and is a long test.

Scott Bradley put his Pulsar through this test well and set quickest time of 50.48 seconds, holding off a big charge from Damien Wilson (51.54) in 2nd spot, Henry Sims, enjoying the drive with 51.91 seconds for 3rd spot points. Rebel Skirving made 4th spot with another tidy drive (52.10), Dylan Maloney also a neat and tidy steer, 5th with 52.45 seconds, Geoff Wilson 6th (52.93) Max Viitanen 7th (54.03) Tristan Crowe 8th (56.87) Josh Munn 9th (64.38) and Duke Bradley 10th with a well driven 67.55 seconds.

Run 2 of this layout, Charlie Evans got the top spot with an excellent drive of his track prepped Hyundai Excel, 49.14 seconds some 2 seconds clear of Tristan Crowe’s effort of 51.14 in 2nd spot.

Henry Sims made it to 3rd again, with a time of 51.29 seconds, Dylan Maloney 4th (51.40), Geoff Wilson 5th (51.93) Rebel Skirving 6th (52.36) Max Viitanen 7th (55.28) Harry Bliss 8th (56.25) Damien Wilson 9th (58.91) and Josh Munn 10th (59.28).

A classic test, “Straight Slalom”, was the offering for this round and being quite straight forward, times were very close at the top. Charlie Evans topped the list with a quick time of 22.09 seconds for 1st, from Scott Bradley 22.31 in 2nd, Henry Sims 3rd (22.52) Damien Wilson 4th (22.98) Dylan Maloney made 5th (23.17), Rebel Skirving 6th (23.94) Geoff Wilson 7th (24.27) Harry Bliss 8th (24.36) Blair Meek 9th (27.89) having a busy time at the wheel of the Falcon, as was Josh Munn in the Mazda, 10th with a 28.83 second run.

Second pass, Charlie Evans went even faster and held out Scott Bradley again, 21.32 and 21.55 seconds, from Max Viitanen in 3rd with a good run of 21.86 seconds for the reward. Tristan Crowe pulled this one together and got home in 4th (22.31) Harry Bliss 5th (22.53) Henry Sims 6th (22.66) Dylan Maloney 7th (23.11) Rebel Skirving 8th (23.51) Damien Wilson 9th (23.56) and Geoff Wilson 10th with a 24.04 seconds pass.

Next test layout, “Waltz Slalom”, involves reversing and the times reflect the ability (or lack of) of being able to back by mirror, something that the Juniors do not get much practice at.

Scott Bradley used the big windows to his advantage and set the pace with a well driven 36.19 seconds drive for the top spot, closely followed by Damien Wilson (36.42) with Henry Sims in 3rd (39.95) doing extremely well in a car that is almost impossible to see behind, even with mirrors.

Dylan Maloney made it look easy for a good drive in 4th (40.60), Geoff Wilson 5th (41.24) not enjoying the time delay in the Auto selecting reverse, Tristan Crowe 6th (41.81) Rebel Skirving 7th (46.68), Harry Bliss 8th (49.75) Josh Munn 9th (51.68), Blair Meek in 10th (52.87).

Second attempt at this, Damien Wilson got the Nissan S13 to “flick” around just right and topped the list with a 34.43 seconds pass, Harry Bliss, also getting the reverse change done well, made 2nd spot with 37.42 seconds. Scott Bradley tried hard to repeat his first run, but had to settle for 3rd with 37.97 seconds his time on the second go.

Dylan Maloney, getting better with each test he does, made 4th points again with a 38.93 seconds pass.

Henry Sims was only 6/100ths slower than his previous run but had to settle for 5th this run (40.01), Tristan Crowe 6th (41.59) Max Viitanen 7th (42.00) Geoff Wilson 8th (42.09) Rebel Skirving 9th (42.97) and Josh Munn 10th (49.65).

“Waltz Clover” was the next layout chosen and also has some reversing to contend with.

Struggling with the Subaru on the early tests, Harry Bliss set the pace on this one with a 39.23 seconds run good for top spot, from Damien Wilson 2nd (39.49), Dylan Maloney a well driven 3rd spot (40.21), Geoff Wilson 4th (40.60), Henry Sims 5th (44.43) Rebel Skirving 6th (46.07) Scott Bradley 7th (47.79) Tristan Crowe 8th (51.74) Max Viitanen 9th (53.56) and Josh Munn 10th (54.11).

Same test, second run, Harry Bliss pulled another second off the previous run to set the time to beat at 38.05 seconds. Scott Bradley made a good job of this run (38.26) but had to settle for 2nd spot.

Damien Wilson 3rd (38.86), Geoff Wilson 4th (40.64) Dylan Maloney 5th (41.34), Henry Sims 6th (43.41), Tristan Crowe 7th (47.90) Rebel Skirving 8th (50.17) Blair Meek 9th (51.17) and Max Viitanen 10th (51.74).

“Loopy Slalom” was directors choice for the next test. Tristan Crowe likes this one apparently, setting the quickest time with a well driven Commodore (quite a handful) getting around in 36.36 seconds, closely followed by Scott Bradley (36.97) for 2nd, Henry Sims 3rd (37.03), Max Viitanen 4th (37.77).

Harry Bliss made 5th spot with a 37.83 seconds pass, Rebel Skirving 6th with another clean run (38.85), Geoff Wilson 7th (38.88), Duke Bradley 8th, drove very well on this test, (42.46), learning how to drive a manual car, front wheel drive, and a dad that has been known to advise where not to go occasionally, sitting in the passenger seat!

Damien Wilson, having a hot and cold day, got another cone penalty on this test, pushing him out to 9th (42.76) from a 5th placing, that is how important a clean run needs to be with so many drivers so close in times.

Josh Munn, again enjoying the Mazda way too much, made 10th with his 43.62 second skid.

Second go at this test, Geoff Wilson found the energy to “drive” the Magna a bit quicker, setting the time to beat at 35.47 seconds – not too bad for an old bloke?!

Henry Sims got 2nd with his 35.84 seconds pass, Harry Bliss 3rd with a good drive (35.90), Scott Bradley 4th (35.94) Tristan Crowe 5th (36.61) Max Viitanen 6th (37.37) Rebel Skirving 7th (37.40) Damien Wilson 8th (37.46), Josh Munn 9th (43.37) and Dylan Maloney 10th (44.20).

Track change this time was to “Eccentric”. This test has some “tight” areas on the slalom up to the top and is quite tricky to get through without hitting any marker cones.

Scott Bradley did the job well and got top spot with a quick time of 36.63 seconds, Charlie Evans nipping at his heels with his time of 36.87 for second spot.

Damien Wilson showed a bit of flair, sliding through the gaps for 3rd spot (38.20). Geoff Wilson had an arm wrestle for 4th (38.89) Tristan Crowe made a good job of it in the Commodore for 5th (38.96) Henry Sims 6th (40.00) Rebel Skirving 7th (42.43) Harry Bliss 8th (43.50) Josh Munn 9th (44.18) and Dylan Maloney 10th (44.42).

Second run at this test, Scott Bradley again set the pace with a tidy 37.12 second drive, followed this time by Dylan Maloney finding a good groove for 2nd (38.09) and Damien Wilson 3rd (38.38). Tristan Crowe made 4th with a 38.81 seconds trip, Harry Bliss next with a 40.02 for 5th points. Rebel Skirving 6th (41.71) Henry Sims 7th (42.52) Max Viitanen 8th (45.47) Geoff Wilson 9th (45.52) and Josh Munn 10th (47.86).

Last change was to “OFFcentric”, with Charlie Evans setting the pace for this test with a tidy 36.13 seconds the time to beat. Harry Bliss rose to the challenge but could only manage 36.83 seconds on his “go”, so had to be content with 2nd spot. Scott Bradley, enjoying his day at the wheel, set 3rd spot with his 37.52 seconds pass.

4th spot went to Tristan Crowe (39.84), Damien Wilson 5th (39.94) Dylan Maloney 6th (40.52), Henry Sims 7th (41.15), Rebel Skirving 8th (42.39) Geoff Wilson 9th (46.92) and Blair Meek 10th (47.35).

Looking through the times, there was not a dominant drive by any one person for the day.

Some of that would be which track suited which driver/car combination for ability or size or whether good at reversing (or not).

Whilst it was a bit windy, all enjoyed the day of competition.

Thanks must go to Josh Munn for putting his hand up and taking on the role of Director, under the capable supervision of “seasoned” Director Bruce Hamilton.

Also, thanks to go to Jody Viitanen for taking on the Motorkhana Coordinator position for a big year of action with the Australian National and a couple of State Rounds to organise through the year.

Volunteers make or break an event, especially the “big” ones.

Please let Jody know if you can help when events are to be run, as these big events will require quite a few to run each one. Make contact with any club member and offer your help for any event.

Next event on the SEAC Calendar is an Autocross (Round 1) to be held at the SEAC Park Complex at Compton on March 23.

Entries will be on the Motorsport Australia Website in a week or two.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE JOHNSON