Originally scheduled as a Twilight Khanacross in mid march, heavy rains in the 24 hours leading up to the event forced us to postpone until April.
Finding a new date was tricky with everything else on our calendar, however we changed the date to the 12th of April and ran a daylight event instead. Ten tests were set and 23 drivers lined up to make the most of the nice weather.
Many drivers were on their first ever khanacross and a good portion of the field were juniors too. The first tests gave everyone a warm up. one test was fairly fast and open, whilst the second was more technical. Tim Ralli would set the fastest time on test 1 in his Lancer, however Mika Connor in his super charged Corolla snatched the win on test 2 by tenths of a second. It was a sign that the competition was strong and many would be trading fractions of a second during the day.
Along the way, a few went the wrong way and collected the odd marker or two, however there were no problems. At the lunch time break curious competitors were keen to see if they could better or consolidate their positions.
By late afternoon all that started the day finished the last test and many commented on the good day of racing.
Richard Nowell brought his green Excel to tenth place, having not driven at a club event for nearly a decade. Jace Van sar loos was ninth in his shared red Excel behind team mate Rohan Keltie who had rediscovered his form and finished eighth. Some mods to Ben Kitchen’s blue Lancer had helped him to a seventh and Neil Trethowen took his white Excel to sixth. Bob Percival drove well in his green Excel to be fifth, just 0.16 seconds in front of Neil. Mika was further down at the midway point, however a lunge in the afternoon tests moved him up to fourth. Mark Keltie (red Excel) drove as committed as always and was rewarded with third. Neal Johnson used his Hyundai Lantra to good effect, “having a blinder” was one competitor’s description on Neal’s drive for the day. In the end he finished second and took the LCC championship points. Tim Ralli was consistently quick all day, however was slightly slower on the last couple of tests. He had enough of a buffer to ease the car home and win the day by just over ten seconds.
The next Khanacross is scheduled for the 14th of June. Details can be found here
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