The Far North Queensland Motorsports Club celebrated Valentine’s Day in style over the weekend, successfully holding the first round of its 2021 Technik Bitumen Khanacross series.

Taking place at Springmount Raceway, the event saw 17 of the club’s members spread across five different classes across 10 attempts at the course, with each time adding to an overall score at the end of the day.

While the competition was quite close for much of the event, there was certainly some early drama which ended up playing a role in determining the final result of the season opener.

Taking out the event was David Kennedy after what was a dominant performance as he steered his Toyota Yaris to wins on six of the final seven runs and received only one major time penalty.

At the conclusion of the event, Kennedy finished just under 15 seconds ahead of the second placed Drew Dundas, who was piloting a very quick Lotus and at times found himself in the lead.

Dundas got the much better start, claiming the fastest time between the two on the first three runs before Kennedy kicked into the gear and won the next three runs, including the fourth which saw Dundas receive two time penalties and 10 seconds added onto his time.

Kennedy’s only penalty for the day came on the sixth run, which gave Dundas a small window to take out the outright victory, but the leader remained focused on the task at hand – comfortably winning the remaining three runs, which included an impressive second to last run where he became the only driver to get under one minute and 10 seconds.

As a result of his late charge and lack of penalties, Kennedy ended up coming away with a 14.75 second win – almost the exact amount of time added onto Dundas’ final total due to his penalties.

Despite not taking out the outright win, Dundas still came away with the 2WD class win ahead of the third placed Sam Madge, while just outside the top three was Phil Pyke who settled with the AWD runner-up placing to Kennedy.

Rounding out the top five and AWD podium was Greg Erwin with the WRX driver unlucky not to take out the event as a whole. Having posted the fastest run on two occasions and constantly putting the pressure on Kennedy, Erwin’s two time penalties and course error on the first run all but ended his hopes.

Following on from the event, Club President Kylie Portelli was pleased with how the first outing for the year went.

“It was our first bitumen khanacross for the year and a very nice way to spend Valentine’s Day. Definitely a great family and friend oriented day,” Portelli said.

“There were some really great driving skills on show too and plenty of spectators are wanting to get involved. I also have to pay credit to all volunteer officials who did a great job too.

“The event uses the drag strip at Springmount Raceway and the road with obstacles, so it doesn’t matter what car you have as long as it complies with Motorsport Australia, meaning anyone is welcome to come and compete.”