The Ararat Car Club will finally get the opportunity to give its junior members a chance to compete again when it runs a come and try day as part of the Westmere Khanacross this weekend.
Having run a smaller khanacross earlier this year without juniors due to Victoria’s COVID-19 restrictions, the club will welcome nine juniors for its first event at the Westmere Recreation Reserve since June.
Following on from the come and try day on Saturday morning, where the nine juniors will undergo a series of motorkhana tests, the teenagers will back it up in the khanacross on Sunday – where they will be up against a further 16 competitors.
The 25-car field on Sunday will allow for six to nine tests, with the club to use the event as preparation for its first ever round of the Motorsport Australia Victorian Khanacross Championship next year.
With the entry list featuring drivers from a range of towns such as Warrnambool, Melbourne, Ballarat, Terang and Westmere itself, event organiser Chris Harwood was looking forward to what should be a fun weekend.
“We’re happy with the number of competitors we have. Would have loved more, but having a smaller number is a lot easier to deal with when trying to keep people happy and separated,” Harwood said,
“We usually get around between 20 and 30 drivers, but we have so many juniors and females this time, which is great for the club.
“The main aim was to keep our juniors interested and make sure they knew we hadn’t forgotten about them while for the rest of the field, we wanted to keep them sane, let off a bit of steam and have some fun ahead of next year. We know we can do it safely now so it should be great.
“The other difference between this weekend and the smaller event in June is the juniors. Because we couldn’t have spectators or extra people, we couldn’t do passenger rides, but this time we are allowed more people so we can have instructors join the juniors in the car.
“This event is also important because it’s the perfect preparation for next year’s state round. We currently run a round of the state hill climb championship and have been doing so for 12 years, but we’ve never run a state khanacross before so this weekend will be a good test.
“Our COVID plan is in place and the weather will be interesting so we’re really looking forward to this event.”
The Westmere Khanacross takes place at the Westmere Recreation Reserve on 21-22 November.
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