Bathurst Khanacross
July 10, 2022
Bathurst Light Car Club ran a club-level khanacross at the John Windsor Motorsport Park ("The Quarry") on Sunday, July 20. This was another not-a-rally event that I went to because everything else had been cancelled due to bad weather.
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.)
I went out just to take photographs on July 10. Just about the first person I met was John Fraser (whom I codrove for at Orange). The second thing he said after "Hello" was "Do you want to drive my car?". As my helmet and the appropriate licences are among the stuff I take to these events, I could only reply "Why not?".
Then I started thinking:
- The last time I drove a manual car was when I sold my Eunos 30x coupe in 2005
- That was also the last time I drove a front wheel drive car
- The last time I drove in a competition on dirt was in 1981 before I sold my Datsun 1600 rally car
- The last time I drove in any form of competition was early 1982 when I did an Amaroo Park lap dash in the V8 HZ Holden wagon that I used to tow the rally car with.
- When someone said "It's like riding a bike - you never forget" I remembered that I had never actually had a bicycle.
I had a lot to think about while driving the car (such as "What is that pedal over at the left for?" and "So this is the torque steer that they talk about") so I managed to make a few navigation mistakes because my mind was elsewhere. I didn't break anything and I was quite pleased that I only stalled the car once by forgetting to push the clutch down when bring the car to a stop. (Riding a bicycle years ago wouldn't have helped there - bikes don't have clutches.) I didn't feature in the results that matter (I'm calling it "9th in class") but I had a good time. As someone pointed out, driving someone else's car almost constitutes a works drive.
Would I want to do it again? Well, that's a silly question. Now I just have to work out how to afford a small, cheap, registerable car that I can drive in events like this. Did I mention cheap?
Picture is of Gwyn Mulholland driving John's Corolla. I didn't have a selfie stick long enough to get a shot when I was driving.
