mx5cartalk.com

This thread is a follow-up to de Bounce's thread on the Victorian Motorkhana Championship 2013.

Yes, there is a NSW Motorkhana and Khanacross Championsip series too! The home of these events in NSW is HERE. The 2013 Motorkhana Championship consists of six rounds held at Awabawac Park at Awaba (dirt), Nirimba at Quakers Hill (tarmac) and Ansell Park at Windsor (dirt). The Khanacross series is exclusively on dirt, also uses Awabawac Park and Ansell Park, but adds a few rounds at Hampton (near Jenolan Caves).

There have been several club members express interest in motorkhanas. With our club's heavy commitment to holding trackdays at Wakefield Park and Sydney Motorsport Park, we currently don't have the resources to also organise motorkhanas. So I would encourage those members to get involved with the state series organised by other clubs (and you can compete under your MX-5 Club memebrship).

A bit of history ...

Many would be unaware that the MX-5 Club of NSW used to organise our own motorkhanas. Starting in 1993, Iain Boyd organised the MX-5 Motorkhana Cup (7 rounds) held in the carpark at St Marys Rugby League Club. The motorkhanas attracted between 8 and 13 entrants for each round (membership was about 100 at the time). The series continued in 1994 (2 rounds), 1995 (3 rounds), and 1996 (2 rounds). Current members who competed in the motorkhanas include Lindsay Burke, Colin Caldwell, Dave Perin & Jean Cook.

Thanks Bryan.

I have done the Tarmac Motorkhanas at Nirimba Tafe and it was great.

I have been cautious to enter a dirt motorkhana.

Can anyone on here share their experience with Dirt Motorkhanas at Awaba and Ansell Park?

Are they hard on the car?
Most pictures i see are old Datsuns and Commos.
You would not really want to bounce all over the place with dirt, stones and Rough ground in a nicer car.

I would love to enter the Motorkhana championship as it is cheap and good fun but no point if i am only going to do the Nirimba days.

dweezle ive done countless motorkhanas at ansell park mainly in datsun 1200's and 121 bubbles(think you liked a video i put on facebook of my old121 there) since i was 12 and would think it would be fine there in a mx5 as long you have a decent bit of ground clearance it would be fine. ive seen near new renaults, golfs etc run there with no issues.
ive done one dirt motorkhana/ khanacross in my mx5 at nowra archer race course with SKDAC (Shoalhaven & kiama district auto club) and its alot rougher then ansell park and i only had 80mm ground clearance and it handled that fine.

Here is some great motorkhana action from the Mini Nationals at Hay in 2012 . The action starts at 4:30.

Awaba events are generally populated by the host club westlakes auto club, most drive cars that upon first inspection you wouldn't expect to be scrutineered.. But they all get in and have a go and have fun.
I've found the test areas vary in grip, surface and flatness. Some tests are on a slope, some tests were quite sandy, but is in true essence a dirt khana.

Ansell park is grassy to start the day off, and I have found it rather bumpy in previous adventures. After several runs, a dirt line becomes evident, and cars down the end of the cue can go around like a train on rails in the ruts that remain. Of course when they change layouts you get the occasional jump mid test..

I'll have a go at the Tarmac events this year if theres time and budget. But looking at buying a house and getting my car race ready and those two things will be coming first.

Iam happy to help any members interested in having a go for the first time or lowering your pb's
If you YouTube my username, it should bring up some vids of me overdriving my Mx at Nirimba. I'm sure ill be quicker this year with the new diff in.

Scotty

I might come up for a round or two of the tarmac events. Have done a bunch here in Canberra as run by the local MG Club.

Keep us posted when the mg events are on. I might come down for one or two.

For what it's worth I started motorsport by doing Motorkhanas, always held in a 'Pastures Protection Board' reserve not far from Wagga. Given the size of the city a normal roll-up would be 25-30+, most cars back then [1972] were 'daily drives'

If it rained you kept on going, the only damage was the mud under the car - the course was laid out using flags attached to wooden stakes about 4ft high!! Believe me, you learned 'car control' very quickly!! Events were in accordance with CAMS and also CAMS approved events

Generally, after the 'khana events an 'Autocross' was held, didn't matter whether dry or wet, it went ahead!! Massive BIG gum trees littered the reserve but I never saw ONE car hit one!

Nostalgia now rules!! If we went to Young, it was thistles!! If we went to Batlow it was wet grassy downhill events, no flat ground and that made things interesting!! Just start turning for the flag 50-60ft BEFORE it!!

The one I would rather forget was one held at Adelong on the Snowy Mountains Highway not far from Tumut - very wet, very soggy and in an Autocross I got bogged!! To this day I am reminded of it!! [BASTARDS!!]

As for bitumen/concrete, to me that's harder on the car, my opinion!

I like to think that over the years, the experience gained from those early days has paid off !!

LONG LIVE MOTORKHANAS HELD ON DIRT!!

Just a friendly heads up that the first Tarmac round is on this Sunday at Nirimba tafe.

Check the website Guran linked in the initial post for more info.

I'd be happy to come and help out any other members but doubt I'll be having a steer

... and it conveniently clashes with our club trackday at SMP South. Bugger!

Ill be there in the Clio for some fun.

Hope to see some mx5s!!

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

Guran wrote:... and it conveniently clashes with our club trackday at SMP South. Bugger!

I think that this year, all but one of the NSW motorkhana rounds clashes with either a MX5 club day or a NSW supersprint round.