Bathurst Khanacross
March 20 2022
Bathurst Light Car Club ran a club-level khanacross at the John Windsor Motorsport Park ("The Quarry") on Sunday, March 20. This was another not-a-rally event that I went to because everything else had been cancelled due to bad weather and I wanted to see what sort of event can introduce people to motor sport.
Where it all happens.
Click to see the Supplementary Regulations.
The Motorsport Australia National Competition Rules define a khanacross as "A Competition complying with the Khanacross Standing Regulations conducted on a sealed or unsealed surface or a combination of both and involving a series of timed tests". (Rather remarkably, the Khanacross Standing Regulations carry the definition as "As defined in the National Competition Rules", what the logicians call "a circular argument".) Basically a khanacross is a speed event conducted on either gravel or tarmac which is designed to test the ability of a driver under a variety of tight conditions. If this sounds like a cross between a short rally, a rallysprint, a hillclimb and a motorkhana you would be almost right. It uses skills from the various forms of short-course motor sport (but without the reversing and garages of motorkhanas.)
The weather couldn't have been better for this event, and as usual BLCC should be congratulated on the organisation. I had a particular interest in this one because younger drivers were encouraged to enter and one of my concerns is how to get more young people interested in motor sport. It has also been my belief for a long time that events like this teach the basic skills needed for everyday driving. I do not regret a single second of the time I spent in motorkhanas and other similar events, even though I had training in circuit driving and long-distance rallying. It was encouraging that out of the 17 entries, nine were classed as "Juniors".
I'll let the pictures tell the story.
I've broken the pictures into two groups to speed up page loading;
Click for the first group of photos.
