Timothy Wilkins has enjoyed a brilliant comeback to motorsport with the New South Welshman securing victory in the Westlake Automobile Club’s David McGraig Memorial State Khanacross
It’s been around 18 months since Wilkins has done any form of competitive motorsport, and more than three years since he last ran at a khanacross, but despite his lack of recent experience, he showed no signs of having slowed down or lost touch.
Heading into the eight-test event as one of 67 drivers, Wilkins got off the mark early with the first test win before Bill Brown won the next two tests to the take the early lead, setting up an entertaining battle in the process.
Barely anything separated the duo for the remaining five tests, however a penalty on the penultimate test for Brown saw Wilkins hold a lead of five seconds with just one test to go.
Despite Brown bouncing back in the final stage, it was too late for him as Wilkins took out the event with a hard fought four second victory.
“It was my first khanacross, in that particular vehicle, in three years so not a bad result to be honest. I had a lot of fun,” Wilkins said.
“I sort of knew it would be a battle between myself and Bill and it proved to be a tough fight as well, which was great. He was quite quick all day.
“It was really great to get back. I missed it so much. I was hoping to do some rallying earlier this year but obviously that didn’t happen, so I felt this event would be a great way to get back into motorsport.
“The club put in a great effort to get the event up and running as they had a lot of rain beforehand, but they handled it really well. They were also very efficient in getting through everything. It was a really good event and they outdid themselves.”
While four seconds separated the top two, less than half of that decided the final podium position as Glynn Elliott’s efforts in the final three stages saw him pip Stephanie Brown for third place.
Brown had been leading for much of the event as Elliott slowly brought back the deficit, but his four second win in the sixth test saw the duo equal with two tests two go. With everything on the line, the Suzubachi pilot then went on to win the final two stages and secure third place by one and half seconds.
Rounding out the top five behind the fastest woman was Stewart Wilkins, while Ryder Shimmon was the fastest junior, with the Hyundai Excel driver finishing 31st respectively.