THE South Eastern Automobile Club kicked off its 2022 Motorkhana Series as a twilight event on Saturday at the Glenburnie Saleyards complex car park.
Some new faces have appeared for this season, with Jason Sims, ably assisted by Bev Shute, putting his hand up to coordinate for the season.
Suzanne Crowe made the decision to direct the first round, under the watchful eye of long term secretary/director Ken Trimnell and those who made the effort to enter were not disappointed with the selection of tracks.
While the starting list was small, with 15 competitors on the final list, it included some of the regular hard chargers, plus four new competitors.
A full day of competition included 12 different test, with some standout performances.
Phil Wilson set the fastest time in the opening test but had plenty of opposition, with Patrick Hitchcock pushing him to the limits.
Crowe scored fastest time in the next test, a director’s choice, where almost half of the competitors lost their way around the course.
However, on the second run Hitchcock improved to claim fastest and stake an early claim for top honours.
Hitchcock continued his strong runs, broken up by Phil and Damian Wilson, with Ken Trimnell also among the front runners.
Down to test eight and Phil Wilson put on a display in the Soarer worked, almost two seconds clear of Damien Wilson.
He continued that pace on the second pass, with Trimnell next and Hitchcock relegated to third.
The competition continued to heat up for a short test, with Phil Wilson home again ahead of Hitchcock.
Phil Wilson had found his groove and continued to set fastest times, completing his day with another win ahead of Hitchcock.
With all the penalty times for the wrong directions encountered, the results sheet had Phil Wilson in his Toyota Soarer at the top with a penalty-free time of 662.00 seconds.
Patrick Hitchcock was next in his Peugeot 205 GTI with 684.65 seconds, after setting some blistering times across the various tests.
Damien Wilson rounded out the podium with 712.75 seconds, ahead of Jason Sims in his first outing in the family Toyota Celica.
Ken Trimnell came home fifth with a total of 720.37.
In the Novice Juniors category out for their first run, Ollie Pohlner and Henry Sims completed a busy day and clearly enjoyed the competition.
Class points saw Trimnell claim the B category, Hitchcock in C, Phil Wilson in D and Crowe in E.
