MOUNT Gambier talent Bradley Harry added a national title to his resume when he won the junior category at the weekend’s Australian Motorkhana Championships in Bendigo.
He topped the field of eight junior drivers to claim the silverware and flew the flag for the South Eastern Automobile Club, as the only Mount Gambier based member who attended the event – joining a single Adelaide driver also registered with the club.
A total of 54 drivers competed at the championships, battling across a range of classes.
Harry has been racing motorkhana for four years, since he was first eligible at the age of 12.
He was pleased to have his hard work rewarded on the weekend and come home with the national title.
“I am pretty happy,” he said.
“It was reasonably tough, there was about eight juniors.”
Drivers faced 12 technical courses which were not revealed until the day of the event, with a mix of forward and reverse sections to challenge competitors.
“I do not mind reversing, it gets your brain thinking,” Harry said.
“With the title event you have to do a certain percentage of reversing, whereas a local round down here you do not necessarily have to.
“It was not too bad because I was used to it from down here.”
The 16 year old tackled the layouts in his trusty Toyota Starlet, which he has driven since he started the sport.
Coming through the 12 courses penalty free to claim the junior division win, Harry also finished fourth overall in Class B.
He said it was his biggest achievement in motorkhana so far and looks forward to hopefully defending his title next year.
“I have only competed in the state khanacross round, a couple of other Australian championship motorkhana rounds and the state motorkhana – I think that is it,” he said.
“This was one of my biggest.
“What we have heard is the next one is in Brisbane – that will be a long haul.”
Harry also competes in khanacross and in the future he is eager to branch out to other disciplines.
“I have been sort of wanting to do autocross, but I want another car with a cage for that,” he said.
“I would also like to do rallying one day.”
Harry comes from a family of rev-heads, with his brother and father also heavily involved in motorsport, through speedway and tractor pulls, among other things.
That has fuelled his passion and when asked what drew him to motorkhana, Harry said it was the technicality which appealed to him.
“It gets your brain working,” he said.
“It is a bit slower speed as such, but it’s got a technical side to it which I like.”
Looking forward, Harry now prepares for the next Limestone Coast khanacross round in a couple of weeks.
