The Hervey Bay Motorsport Association (HBMSA) has enjoyed one of its biggest turnouts in recent times, as more than 55 competitors took part in the third round of its khanacross series.
With the khanacross being HBMSA’s second official outing since Government restrictions were eased in Queensland last month, it was the first event where drivers outside from the club were invited.
Competitors were allowed 12 attempts at the course, which had multiple formations throughout the weekend, meaning there were more than 650 starts in total and club President Phillip McHardy was thrilled with the way the event panned out.
“In our June event, we had just 34 competitors as it was a club only event. This was our open club event and it was a fantastic effort from all involved,” McHardy said.
“It’s pretty much business as usual now for us considering we had 55 competitors and we still punched out 12 runs, whereas last month the 35 competitors got 13 runs apiece.
“Now that we have had the experience of running events with our COVID-19 measures put in place, we were way more efficient and experienced when it came to this week and I think everyone had a good time.
“We are hoping to do another one next month and I am confident we are going to get a good turnout again as it can only get better from here and we’ve been getting good feedback.
“It seemed to be a weekend that favoured the all-wheel drivers, but other than that it was a very close results with everybody, especially the front runners. It was very entertaining across the weekend.”
Polaris RZR 1000 driver Peter Bugeja eventually came away with the win after edging out John Butler in the Subaru Liberty, while another Subaru driver in Jacob Martin rounded out the podium.
The top two were very close throughout whole event, but it was Bugeja who managed to break away in the final few runs to win his first event since the restart.
“It was good to be back racing again,” Bugeja said.
“I wasn’t sure how I was going to go as it was my first event back. I had a good few runs and made a couple of mistakes obviously, but it was all good in the end.
“I knew a couple of the boys had been spending some money on their vehicles during the break and worked on their cars more than myself, so I didn’t know what was going to happen at the beginning, but it was great to come out on top in the end.
“It’s always neck and neck at these events and it always comes down to who makes less mistakes. That’s how it was last year and that’s how it was this weekend.
“This was the most competitors I have ever raced against there. It was a well organised event, we had a good of runs and it was just nice to win, so overall a great weekend out.”
