Eddie and Vicky tackle a brilliant low speed event – the Minson Motorkhana – in this report by Eddie Lankhorst.
By Eddie Lankhorst
Being in charge of a car club you sometimes get unexpected email invitations to attend events. This was one of those invites, which I thought would be fun.
This event was actually one of a few motoring events being held over Saturday and Sunday in Northam as part of the Round the Houses historics race called the “Flying Fifty”, which is the main event on Sunday. The weekend’s events started on Saturday with a hill climb at Mt Ommanney, followed by the Minson Motorkhana. Vic and I weren’t particularly interested in the hill climb but having not done a motorkhana since Shepparton DECA in 2012, we thought this would be great to attend.
Arriving in Northam, we registered and got scrutineered before checking out the course. Viewing the course map and notes, we both thought “there’s no way we’re going to remember this” so we decided to walk the course with a few other competitors. The course started down Minson Road around a few cones before entering a carpark area where the real concentration was needed to navigate the slalom course and finish perfectly in the garage.
Being about fifth in line to start gave me a chance to see how good my fellow competitors were at this. No mistakes.. damn.
Then, it was my turn. Upon entering the carpark zone all I could think of was direction, direction, direction and not stuffing it up. Well, I didn’t stuff up the navigation part but finished in a big slide through the garage. Damn, I got a great time but got five seconds added for my braking exuberance.
Vicky was next. She was perfect and didn’t make a single mistake. Good on you Vic with an equally good time without error. As the day went on, we both achieved some good times compared to the others, but my failing was that garage area. I had at least another two slides through the area, but overall, Vicky came out ahead of me through her flawless driving. We ended up around 4th and 5th in the field, not bad for having little experience in these events.
We may not have won any important placings but we won the day in our minds, and thought we should do this again next year (with old tyres next time).
