Khanaoorss signs off for 2023 season

Beautiful weather on Sunday was the icing on the cake for Paul Height and his team of officials from Limestone Coast Off Road Club (LCORC) to finish off the season 2023 khanacross series.

The side show alley bitumen at the Showgrounds, including the skid pad area can provide many challenges to a driver to tackle a course layout set up using imagination, knowledge of what a car can and cannot do or what reactions can be caused by having some minor direction changes around the ‘U’ shaped track layout.

Each of the four layouts, run in both directions, made for an entertaining outing for the 21 drivers that had made the effort to come and play.

First layout, straight up the roadway, 4 offset gates to keep the speed under control, a tight left turn through a narrow gate, into another pair at the turn left onto the skid pan a 360 degree turn around a square of cones, then three more offset gates and into the finish box.

Peter Gandolfi has been using his Skoda Wagon for a while now and made the top of the time sheet for this run (33.22), followed by one of the club’s up and coming juniors Max Viitanen (pictured above centre) (33.92), Paul Razum third (33.98) Dillan Young (34.14) Josh Munn (34.41) Aaron Bowering (34.45) Bruno Vadori (34.56) Murray Height (34.91) Harrison Bliss (35.81) and Jason Sims (36.22) rounding out the top 10.

Same test, same direction Paul Razum was quickest (32.40) from Dillan Young (32.61) Peter Gandolfi (33.23) Josh Munn (33.46) Harrison Bliss (33.61) Max Viitanen (33.78) Geoff Wilson (33.99) Jason Sims (34.07) Murray Height (34.11) and Aaron Bowering making the top ten (34.26).

Layout the same, reverse direction for Test 3 and Dillan Young (31.58) set the pace, with Murray Height finding some grip/speed next (32.69) Gandolfi (33.10) Max Viitanen (33.44) Jason Sims (33.59) Aaron Bowering (33.63) Josh Munn (34.16) Geoff Wilson (34.33) Bruno Vadori (34.76) and Patrick Hughes (35.58) coming to terms in his Nissan S13 rally prepped car, rounding out the 10.

Second pass and Murray Height (32.20) topped the list, Jason Sims (33.00) Paul Razum (33.07) Josh Munn (33.25) Geoff Wilson (33.57) Bruno Vadori (34.19) Michelle Razum (34.25) Justin Devlin (34.88) Henry Sims (34.95) and Hughes (35.49) again in the top 10.

Drivers were taken on a tour to show where the track had been re-worked and Test 5 got underway.

Murray Height made another fastest time (31.16) from Paul Razum (31.54) Dillan Young (31.58) Gandolfi (32.06) Josh Munn (32.33) Devlin (32.47) Jason Sims (33.06) Aaron Bowering (33.09) equal time with Geoff Wilson (33.09) and Max Viitanen (33.32) completing the 10 at the pointy end.

It was same, same as Dillan Young (31.54) was the one to beat from Paul Razum (31.90) Gandolfi (31.94) M Height (32.00) G Wilson (32.22) Viitanen (32.25) J Sims (32.28) A Bowering (32.98) Hughes (33.53) and Devlin (33.66) having another tidy drive for the 10th spot.

Run reverse of the previous layout, Murray Height again topped the list with his tidy effort (32.19) from Gandolfi (32.28) Josh Munn (32.97) J Sims (33.06) A Bowering (33.25) Viitanen (33.29) Wilson (34.02) Michelle Razum (34.07) Devlin (34.17) and Hughes (34.38) in 10th.

The next run saw Paul Razum (32.10) the quickest from Dillan Young (32.68) A Bowering (32.76) Michelle Razum (32.97) M Height (33.13) Harrison Bliss (33.49) Hughes (33.71) Vadori (34.28) H Sims (34.99) and Denvor Herbertson, another Junior having a drive, making the 10th spot with his clean run of 35.62 seconds.

Another minor track change and Jason Sims liked what he saw on the look around lap and set the fastest time for this test with a 33.49 seconds run, Paul Razum (33.59) right behind and Geoff Wilson also liking the course (34.05) Josh Munn (34.51) Gandolfi (34.57) Height (34.64) Young (34.83) A Bowering (35.00) H Sims (35.29) and Max Viitanen 10th with a 35.54 second pass.

Second run of this layout, Sims again set fastest time with a 32.39 second pass, Paul Razum (33.14) Josh Munn (33.26) A Bowering (33.47) Wilson (33.58) Gandolfi (33.94) Young (34.07) Height (34.23) Viitanen (34.35) and Henry Sims making it 10th with his 34.43 seconds run.

Top time for the next run, Jason Sims (31.95) continued with his penalty free runs, Young (32.87) Viitanen (33.18) another good run, Wilson (33.91) equal with Gandolfi (33.91) Height (34.08) Hughes (34.64) Munn (34.98) Devlin (35.24) and Henry Sims (35.30) into the Top 10 with another clean drive in the family Celica.

Pass two of this layout saw Jason Sims again liking the test, setting a 32.54 second time to beat. Josh Munn had a big go in the Datsun 180BSSS and managed a 33.01 second pass for second spot.

Max Viitanen again pushed the Auto Commodore quickly around all the markers and picked up third spot with his 33.07 seconds drive.
Paul Razum made fourth with his 33.23 seconds effort in the pretty Hyundai Excel, Young next (33.47) Gandolfi (33.72) Height (33.74) A Bowering (33.87) Wilson (34.01) and H Sims (34.55) in 10th.

Changed layout for the last drive of the 2023 season and Dillan Young made the most of this run with his effort in his Pulsar (27.61) good enough for FTD, M Height (28.55) Paul Razum (28.77) Gandolfi (28.99) G Wilson (29.07) Viitanen (29.38) J Sims (29.65) Harrison Bliss (29.86) Henry Sims (29.93) and Hughes (30.06) for 10th.

On the final lap, Peter Gandolfi made it to the top spot with a quick run of 28.19 good enough for first spot on the time sheet, Paul Razum right with him (28.61) J Sims (28.72) A Bowering (28.85) Geoff Wilson (28.86) Young (28.93) Viitanen (29.03) – Note spots 1-7 separated by less than one second, Height (29.46) for 8th, Hughes (30.15) and Henry Sims 10th (30.85).

A huge thanks goes to Paul and Alison Height for their continuing Khanacross organisation, doing the job for both SEAC and LCORC and the dedicated officials that stand out in the weather to watch us competing and track around to reposition the cones that jump into the path of the vehicles.

RESULTS:
1 Murray Height457.09 E
2 Jason Sims 460.13 C
3 Dillan Young 461.60 C
4 Peter Gandolfi 464.14 E
5 Paul Razum 466.33 B
6 Josh Munn 469.53 C
7 Max Viitanen 470.11 E Junior
8 Aaron Bowering     473.19 C
9 Geoff Wilson 476.60 E M
10 Patrick Hughes     482.22 E
11 Henry Sims 485.94 C Junior
12 Bruno Vadori 487.79 F
13 Justin Devlin 495.32 E
14 Michelle Razum 495.70 B
15 Harrison Bliss 515.58 F Junior
16 Glen Shephard     520.09 B
17 Katelyn Bowering 530.15     C Junior
18 Lindsay Beare 534.64 E
19 Denvor Herbertson 539.84 B Junior
20 Dylan Bowering      619.13 C Junior
21 Charlie Shephard 703.67     B Junior

PHOTO COURTESY OF CURTIS BOYD