Motorkhana series hits Glenburnie course

SEAC drivers enjoy challenging courses at saleyards

Round 3 of the 2023 South Eastern Automobile Club Motorkhana series took place at the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex eaerlier this month.

Weather for this round could not have been better with a lovely sunny day for the field of 13 eager competitors to tackle the course selection put together by Clerk of Course Bev Shute.

After the obligatory driver briefing, Course 1, titled ‘Dollar’, got underway, with Cohen Hamilton drawing the prized number 1 for the day’s activities. An enjoyable test layout, the usual suspects were fastest, with Jason Sims setting the pace at 28.04 seconds, from relative newbie, Brad Bliss next at 30.27 seconds, Geoff Wilson 3rd with a 30.95 seconds, Damien Wilson 4th with a cone penalty for 35.05 seconds.

Novice Junior, Harrison Bliss, sharing the Subaru with his dad came in next with 35.31 seconds, closely followed by Junior, Max Viitanen at 36.53 seconds.

Will Argoon came in 7th, driving his black AU Wagon with “style”, stopping the clock at 36.80 seconds, Henry Sims 8th, with a 39.39 seconds run including a cone penalty.

Cohen Hamilton made 9th with his opening run of 39.50 seconds and Simon Poynter rounded out the 10 with his tidy drive of 41.43 seconds.

Same layout, second attempt, Jason Sims 27.57 from Phil Wilson 28.56, Damien Wilson 28.73, Brad Bliss 30.18, Harrison Bliss 31.01, Will Argoon 31.65, Henry Sims 31.95, Simon Poynter 33.05, Max Viitanen 34.42 and Cohen Hamilton 35.24 in 10th.

Next layout setup was ‘Tee Garage’ and gave the driver more room to exercise some skill in car control, as that is what motorkhana is all about.

Quickest on this test, Damien Wilson’s flamboyant driving that has seen him a State Champion in years past, posted fastest time (33.02) from Jason Sims (33.29) Phil Wilson (also a past state title holder) close behind (34.68) in 3rd, Brad Bliss enjoying his outing (35.31) Simon Poynter (35.93) Henry Sims (37.41) Will Argoon (39.98) Cohen Hamilton (41.11) Marcus Brand (42.16) and Peter Gandolfi, having a day out in the impressive Skoda Wagon 10th with 44.98 seconds.

Second pass at this test, D Wilson (31.78) J Sims (33.18) P Wilson (33.75) B Bliss (34.46) Henry Sims (35.88) S Poynter (36.02) Max Viitanen (37.94) G Wilson (38.29) C Hamilton (38.33) and Will Argoon (40.01) rounding out the 10 at the top.

Corridor was the next layout chosen by Bev Shute to give some variation to the day and the top 3 were Damien Wilson (29.76) from J Sims (30.12) Phil Wilson (30.78).

Geoff Wilson enjoyed the longer course in the Magna for 4th (32.73) from Simon Poynter (32.95) Peter Gandolfi (33.14) Brad Bliss (33.16) Will Argoon (34.80) Harrison Bliss (35.52) and Marcus Brand in the tidy Subaru “555” 2WD RX rounding out the 10 with a 39.94 run.

Same layout, second run, Jason Sims first home (29.03) from Henry Sims (30.55) Phil Wilson (30.61) Geoff Wilson (30.70) Damien Wilson (30.78) Brad Bliss (32.12) Simon Poynter (33.16) Will Argoon (33.47) Max Viitanen (34.25) and Cohen Hamilton (39.07) to complete the 10.

Moth Balls is a variation to the previous layout, fairly open and flowing, suited to a good controlled drive.

Jason Sims enjoyed the fastest run (25.98) closely followed by Henry, showing a lot of improvement at each outing (27.23), Damien Wilson (27.49) Phil Wilson (27.50) Peter Gandolfi (28.70) Geoff Wilson (29.03) Cohen Hamilton (29.66) Harrison Bliss (30.16) Max Viitanen (30.48) Brad Bliss (30.56) completing the 10. Run 2 at this test, Jason Sims (26.28) from Damien Wilson (26.33) Henry Sims (27.99) Geoff Wilson (28.30) Phil Wilson (28.48) Peter Gandolfi (29.15) Cohen Hamilton (29.97) Brad Bliss (30.37) Simon Poynter (30.42) and Will Argoon (30.65). Close racing with places separated by 5/100ths of a second at the Top.

Course change to ‘Eccentric’, which is quite tight in a few spots, which should be of an advantage to the smaller cars.

Damien Wilson took line honours on the first run (36.88) from Jason Sims (38.07) Peter Gandolfi (39.39) Brad Bliss (39.57) Phil Wilson (40.06) Cohen Hamilton (40.94) Geoff Wilson (41.60) Simon Poynter (41.79) Henry Sims (44.53) and Max Viitanen (44.85) completing the 10 top runners.

Run again and Jason Sims took the Top spot with his run (36.71) from Brad Bliss (38.11) Damien Wilson (38.59) Phil Wilson (38.66) Peter Gandolfi (39.69) Geoff Wilson (40.92) Simon Poynter (41.19) Harrison Bliss (41.60) Will Argoon (42.00) and Max Viitanen getting in the Top ten again (43.59).

‘Offcentric’ is a variation of the previous test setup. Damien Wilson set fastest time on this layout with his time of 29.89 seconds, Jason Sims close behind with 30.99 seconds and Simon Poynter putting in his best effort for 3rd spot with a 33.93 seconds run. Phil Wilson pushed the Falcon for a 35.10 seconds pass to head a hard charging Will Argoon in the big Falcon Wagon, stopping the clock at 35.62 seconds for 5th.

Henry Sims next with his tidy run of 36.51 seconds, Brad Bliss 37.88, Geoff Wilson 38.41, Peter Gandolfi 38.99 and Cohen Hamilton filling the 10th spot with a flag penalty added to a good run for his time of 40.96 seconds.

Pass 2 of this test, Damien Wilson drove a similar line to the first run, posting the fastest time for this test, with a 29.69 seconds, good enough to hold off a big charge from brother Phil Wilson, 29.89 seconds, being some 6 seconds better than his first run at this complex layout.

Peter Gandolfi, having his first motorkhana for many years and steering a very tidy Skoda Wagon, took a while to follow the map of the tests, but when he “got it right”, the Skoda showed that it was very capable in good hands, this test he filled the 3rd spot with a 32.43 seconds run, another to knock 6 seconds off the previous run. Simon Poynter also went faster than his first go but the 32.88 seconds pass saw him in 4th this run, with Brad Bliss chasing him with a 33.63 seconds run.

Geoff Wilson moved up the list a couple of spots with a better run of 34.87 seconds, Will Argoon showing excellent car control in the big Falcon Wagon, next home with his 35.04 seconds run.

Harrison Bliss made 8th place with his 35.61 seconds pass, Henry Sims, Max Viitanen and Marcus Brand next with equal times of 40.61 seconds.

After a well-earned lunch break, the second set of tests were handed out to the competitors to peruse.

Test layout #7 is titled ‘Bandit’ and is a quick, tight test that can come undone if you have had too much lunch and not concentrating on the job!

Brad Bliss took the Suby around this test well and got the fastest time of 23.67 seconds, from Damien Wilson (24.07) and Phil Wilson (24.94) with Peter Gandolfi (25.83) close behind.

Cohen Hamilton did well for a 26.44 run, Simon Poynter next (26.56) Harrison Bliss (26.59) just behind and just in front of Will Argoon (27.01) in 8th spot.

Max Viitanen drove well for his 28.29 run, Marcus Brand’s 30.69 good for 10th spot.

Second pass at the ‘Bandit’, Damien Wilson did the job well and stopped the clock at 23.01 seconds for fastest time this round. Brad Bliss again did the course well in the Subaru, trimming another 4/10ths off his early run, but had to settle for 2nd quickest this time.

Phil Wilson had a similar time and made it a pair of 3’s, holding out a good charge from Simon Poynter with his 25.21 in 4th.

Geoff Wilson did all the course as laid out by the director on this run and picked up 10 seconds to get 5th spot, with the ever-improving Peter Gandolfi’s 26.21 just behind Wilson’s (26.04), but 2/10ths faster than Will Argoon could manage in the big “Bird”, stopping the clock at 26.47 seconds in another well driven course.

Eighth spot went to Max Viitanen with a tidy run of 27.40 seconds, Henry Sims next with his 30.72 and Harrison Bliss 10th with a 31.46 second total, including a cone penalty on the way.

Test 8 layout is ‘Manoeuvring’ and is difficult to spell and to drive. Damien Wilson, now well awake after lunch, set fastest time for this run, 28.34 being the time to beat. Brother Phil took to the course