Corrine East-Johnston has pulled off a win for the ages in the Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship, beating Australian champion Aaron Wuillemin by less than half a second.
 
The two national superstars were at it again during the sixth round of the 2023 season as a huge field of 54 competitors contested the seven-test motorkhana run by the Thornleigh Car Club.
 
As usual, East-Johnston and Wuillemin were the two standout competitors as they traded test wins throughout the day before East-Johnston snatched the outright victory by three tenths thanks to her final test heroics.
 
With competitors getting two attempts at each test, it was East-Johnston who had the better start, going slightly faster on the opening two tests to race out to an early lead of half a second.
 
Wuillemin then picked up a huge win on the third test as a lightning quick second run saw him take the test win by one and a half seconds to move in front by one second. 
 
East-Johnston bounced back on the next test, going four tenths faster than Wuillemin before reducing his lead even further to just two tenths after winning the fifth test. 
 
Wuillemin stemmed the flow on the penultimate test after beating East-Johnston by one hundredth of a second as barely anything split the duo heading into the finale.
 
A huge first run from East-Johnston saw her reclaim the lead over Wuillemin, who was half a second slower, and with Wuillemin failing to start his second attempt of the test, East-Johnston was confirmed as the winner of the round.
 
Taking out third place a further 20 seconds off the duo was Phillip East, while Andrew Collier sealed fourth place over Hamish East-Wuillemin in dramatic fashion - Collier’s four second victory over Hamish on the final test proving the difference.
 
Hamish didn’t leave empty handed though with the youngster securing the Junior win.
 
Other notable results from the round saw a trio of class winners in the bottom half of the top 10 including Ernie Boston Trophy winner John Driver, who finished seventh overall and with the Class C win, Class A winner Kelvin Goldfinch and Class E winner Alex Martin.
 
The event also held a mutliclub motorkhana, the Revenge Multiclub Motorkhana, which made up half of the overall field as Thornleigh Car Club member Aron Elliott comfortably beat John Taylor by almost nine seconds, while Garry Elliott took out the final step of the podium.
 
Following on from the motorkhana, Clerk of Course Nicole Crowley was thrilled with how it panned out, writing an open letter to all attendees to share her feelings.
 
“On behalf of the Organising Committee and Thornleigh Car Club, we would like to thank you for coming along to Round 6 of the NSW Motorkhana Championship and the TCC Ernie’s Revenge Multiclub Motorkhana,” Crowley wrote.
 
“From an organisational point of view, the day ran very smoothly, and with an incredible 54 competitors it was great to get through 7 tests with double runs. The smiles from both the competitors, passengers, and officials, were great to see.
 
“I’m sure all the competitors will join me in thanking all the officials who helped out in the organisation of the event as well as those out there on the day.”
 
View the full results here.
  
The seventh round of the Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship will be organised by the Mini Car Club at Niramba on 23 July.