William Bennett has won the second round of the Motorsport Australia WA State Motorkhana Championship in thrilling fashion, taking out the victory by just over one second.

A strong field of 27 competitors were entered in the round, where they tackled 12 special tests, however it was William who secured the one a half second win over Scott Bennett, while Gavin Turner rounded out the top three. 

In what was a tale of two halves, William got off to the better start compared to Scott, as he won three of the first five test wins to get out to an early lead. 

Turner picked up his first and only of test win of the event in the second before Scott went fastest on the fifth test to take the lead off William.

William responded beautifully with a one and a half second test win to put himself back in the lead at the midway point, however Scott went up a gear in the second half, going fastest on the next five tests to charge out to a big lead.

In the box seat to seal his second consecutive win of the season, Scott’s event was turned upside down when he a received a penalty for hitting a flag – causing him to register a time more than 10 seconds slower than William.

The penalty played a pivotal role in the end, as William’s brilliant run on the final test was enough to secure him the victory by less than half a second.

In the battle for third between Turner and Jim Newell, the former raced out to an early lead having gone faster on the opening four tests, before Newell went faster for the first time on the fifth.

A four second difference between the two drivers on the sixth stage ultimately proved the main catalyst for Turner’s podium, as Newell went faster on four of the remaining six stages and bridged the gap ever-so slightly, but it was too little too late.

In the end, Turner was triumphant in securing the podium by just under four seconds.

Rounding out the top five a further 10 seconds off Newell was David Elliot, who also took out top Class A honours.

Behind Elliot were a pair of class winners with the sixth placed Peter Marsh guiding his MINI Cooper S to sixth, three and half seconds better off than Class B winner Jurgen Lunsmann in his Mazda MX-5.

In eighth and ninth place respectively were Ross and James Bennett, while Cameron Matthews made up the top 10 in what was his state championship debut.

View the full results here.
 
The next round of the 2024 Motorsport Australia WA State Motorkhana Championship season will be at CARCO.com.au Raceway on Sunday 28 July.