The Hervey Bay Motorsports Association hosted the first round of its Khanacross series with Jacob Martin winning in thrilling fashion.
 
Held at the club’s home course in Maryborough, 46 competitors took part in the season opener and tackled 10 tests throughout the day – with Martin claiming the epic four-way battle.
 
Entering the event as one of the underdogs, Martin surprised many as he steered his Mitsubishi Mirage to an 11 second victory over Chris Hughes.
 
Despite only winning two tests outright, Martin’s consistency proved the difference in the end as he didn’t make any major mistakes or suffer any time penalties throughout the khanacross.
 
And with Hughes having a hairy moment on the third test and losing a significant amount of time, it allowed Martin to take out the lead and hold onto it for the rest of the event.


It was never too comfortable for the winner though as John Dodds and Shane Logan were just 20 seconds off the pace – but the duo lost hope of an outright win due to errors on one stage each – the former eventually claiming the final podium place by just four seconds.
 
Following on from his outright victory, Martin revealed his only goal was to beat Logan for class honours and the win was just a bonus.
 
“It was quite a good win actually – especially since I probably had the underdog car of the competition,” Martin said.
 
“My main focus was just to keep ahead of Shane in his Peugeot and win my class. As we already had a tight tussle in the Queensland titles last year, it was nice to get the win on him at a location that I am not too familiar with.
 
“However, getting the outright win was a bit unexpected and keeping on the theme of the Winter Olympics, it did feel a little bit like a Stephen Bradbury win – it was a surprise but a welcome one.


“It was a brilliant weekend and it was very nice from a social aspect as there was many opportunities to chat to fellow competitors and spectators – I feel these are things that make it a good weekend
 
“To be honest, I never really focus on times – I more go to the event for my three sons who compete, and I just jump in the car to do the tests, but now that my son enjoyed some success and I won the event, I think we will look at continuing – even if I have a target on my back.”
 
Although Martin took out both the 0-2300cc class and outright win, both Hughes and Dodds didn’t go home empty handed, with the former winning the open class and the latter taking out the 2300cc+ class.
 
Martin’s son Jay also enjoyed a big weekend, taking out the top spot in the Junior category.
 
Click here to view the full results.
 
The next round of the Hervey Bay Motorsports Association Khanacross series will be on 27 March.