Some of Australia’s best motorkhana competitors have put on a masterclass in the Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship season opener at Awabac Park.
 
Hosted by the Westlakes Automobile Club, a huge field of 29 took part in the hot and dusty event, tackling nine tests over the course of the day.
 
And while there were plenty of local drivers who produced some competitive times and entertaining duels throughout, it was the familiar sight of national stars Corinne East-Johnston and Aaron Wuillemin who were regulars at the top of the time sheets.
 
With Wuillemin holding the advantage over East-Johnston heading into the event after taking out the national title last year, East-Johnston continued her dominance at a local level as she proved too strong at Awabac Park. 
 
Like last year’s corresponding fixture, East-Johnstone had the measure over her long-time rival as she came away with a tight victory with two seconds separating the two at the end of the nine tests.


The duo were also miles ahead of their closest challenger in Roger Tite, who ended up 10 seconds behind Wuillemin.
 
Although East-Johnstone got off to a better start of the two contenders with wins on the opening two tests, Wuillemin had claimed the lead by the next one as he went more than a second faster in the third test.
 
But that would be Wuillemin's only test win for the rest of the event as East-Johnston went on to win the remaining six tests in commanding fashion having regained the lead on the fourth test.


While the battle for the outright win was close, it was even closer for third place as Tite edged out David Wykes by less than eight tenths of a second.
 
Wykes had a slow start to the event and was in sixth place behind Ben Semple and Lauren East-Wuillemin at the end of three tests, before a huge middle stint saw him work his way into third.
 
Although there was a comfortable one and half second gap between the two, Tite had a strong finish and reclaimed the final podium place thanks to a last-test effort that was almost two seconds faster than Wykes.


Making up the top five was Daryl Elliott, who beat Lauren East-Wuillemin by an even smaller margin than his rivals above – just one and a half tenths the difference.
 
In seventh place was Hamish East-Wuillemin, who was the fastest junior of the day, while Alex Martin, Alan McCulloch and Steven O'Brien rounded out the top 10.
   
The Westlakes Automobile Club host back-to-back events with the Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship to continue on 26 March.