Rd 1 – 2020 ICC HSCCQ Motorkhana
Words and Pics Shane Murphy.
The 2020 Championship kicked of at the Sleeman Centre car park on Brisbane’s southside. Most events organised by the HSCCQ team are held at Queensland Raceway at Willowbank, so the lure to a new arena was strong amongst the ICC community.
As usual, the organisation by HSCCQ was slick with three test areas laid out in the undulating car park area. Just to mess with competitor’s senses, the test areas crossed the car park markings at random angles, offering a counter intuitive perspective on direction changes.
Over the three precincts, tests were established and included the Open Slalom; Off Centric; Try Angles; Noughts & Crosses; Lazy Eight; Top Hat and the Bowler. Each competitor had to complete two timed runs, and with no sighting run, the red mist had to descend from the get go.
Congratulations of course to Keith and the HSCCQ team, a great day well organised.
The challenge is a team event, points are available for clubs and individuals, so a full compliment of entrants works well for the Club Championship.
The Round 1 LCQ team consisted of Dick Reynolds and Tony Galletly, Phil Hart rotated for the Porsche Club, the late withdrawal by the writer sent shock waves through the paddock. Nevertheless, the team was well supported and cheered from the sidelines by Steve Floss, Shane Murphy and Gail Hart. Thanks to Mrs Galletly for allowing Tony to use her little blue machine, Tony trumped most on the day in the blue buzz box.
As mentioned above, the tests were tight and challenging, not many competitors got through the day without an F, G, WD, DNS or DNF against their name. Two strikes on any test and your points tally was jeopardised, so getting a banker time was essential, although once the light goes yellow most caution was thrown to the wind. An attention span of more than one minute, a good turning circle and a slippery diff were the three main ingredients, of course a little driving skill helps enormously.
So, the results; for Outright Club points LCQ landed four points behind the leaders HSCCQ (not surprising) finishing a creditable fifth out of the eleven clubs, lets ignore the fact four clubs could not make it to the starting grid, not a bad result.
Tony finished the day in fourth outright place, with Phil eleventh and Dick thirteenth. Considering a total of forty-one cars competed, we did well, probably as expected to be frank.
The next Round (2) is the Macleans Bridge show organised by the Triumph Sports Owners Association Queensland, this annual event is at the Belmont Rifle Range. This is a great day out with all marques represented.
If you are interested, and it is fun, the full ICC event schedule is available on the Club calendar and an explanation of the rules was published in the March “Lotus Notes”.
