Best example Khanacross grounds

[Mathew Boorman]

I'm looking for some shining examples of good sites setup for dirt motorkhana's , khanacross and rallysprints.

Names, locations, pictures and contact info is usefull, to feed to the ACT Motorsport Strategy.

[Spac]

The grounds up at Richmond are great - on the banks of the Hawkesbury, so there's always nice green grass, and loamy soil.... Fiat Club is the owner/lease-holder, IIRC.

CACA's got/had access to some pretty good grounds up near Cataract Dam. Some open/scrubby land, and some tight and twisty fire-roads through the trees.

You sure wouldn't call either venue hilly, but they've both got mld undulations to make things more interesting too.

SKDAC's grounds at South Nowra are actually very good, if you overlook the dust issue.

[Linda Walker]

I thought Bluetts was looking good....

What happened to that?

[Mathew Boorman]

Originally Posted by Linda Walker

I thought Bluetts was looking good....

What happened to that?

Its all about ACT Motorsport Strategy. Theres govt money to spend, and Fairburn Park issues to 'fix'. Pointing at a nice shiny example of 'Best Practice' is is much easy to explain than hand waving. Ie plan to build one of these too please.

Dito with the Rego, shiny example, even better with pre-written legislation and policy to copy and so minimize risk and expense.

As for Bluetts, depends who you ask. I'm working on using Sutton Rd at the moment. Since I only have to think about a short term location.

Spac, thanks for tracking down as more details on those as you can find, right after you redo the blurb on rallysprints I just emailed you. :-)

[afifield]

Hampton - HDCC - Mick King etc:
Good - challenging roads, suitable for most cars (but you'd have to be brave to go fast in a special up there), great location (rally-wise)
Bad - Facilities (but the club is constantly working on it), cambered corners.

Ansell Park (Richmond/Windsor) - Fiat - Steve Gotch
Good - Proximity to civilisation, challenging roads, suitable for most cars, facilities, central pit area (so you can see most of what's going on), able to run M/K and K/X at the same ground.
Bad - Whinging golfers, maintenance of the lagoon area.

AWABAWAC Park (near Newcastle) - Westlakes - Ben Semple (WAC_Secretary on here)
Good - Fast smooth roads, constantly maintained, able to run M/K and K/X at the same ground
Bad - Drop dunnies, if you're not balls-to-the-wall you don't stand a chance against the locals, same tracks pretty much every event.
Note: Haven't been there for a few years, it may have changed.

HPOTS (Cessnock, Hunter Plant Operator Training School)
Good - The place looks different every time you go there, roads were usually smooth.
Bad - I don't think we have access to it any more.

Colo Park (Colo) - Toyosports??
Don't know much about this one as I haven't run there. What I have heard is that it needs to be tightened up to suit the K/X rules.


What you're looking for in an ideal world is a minimum of about 20 hectares, some plant equipment for maintenance and an eager group of volunteers to maintain it. It needs to have trees, but you also need to be able to clear a section for motorkhanas. You need to be able to cut tracks and maintain them. Needs to have a good combination of fast and tight roads.
If someone is going to rent it out for clubs to use, it shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred per day otherwise clubs will go backwards.

[Mike Cherry]

CNCSCC has 1.6sq km at Nabiac 25km south of Taree.
It has a licenced Autocross track, motorhkana/khanacross ground, a 5 - 8 km rallysprint course & an off road course of around 15km.
The venue is almost dead flat & was a WW2 airfield with 3 runways in a triangle formation.
We are in the process of building a large industrial shed which will replace the currrent buildings & which will include a bathroom block.
There is a large enough machinery shed which houses a grader, backhoe, watertanker etc in a locked compound.
A number a club members have caravans on site & camping is available to competitors.
There is a 7 metre high mound for spectators, which overlooks nearly ever aspect of the courses.
It can be seen on Google Earth, just type in "Forster" then scan west, there is a little cloud in the NW corner of the property but the roads are easily identified.
I will see if we can get some photos posted up.

[Mathew Boorman]

Google earth shots is a damn fine idea.

[The Fazz]

Mathew,

I've entered many (and organised a few) Motorkhanas and Khanacrosses at Ansell Park and amplifying on Andrew's post, there's a few things that are particularly good about it.

It is a mix of a large, open, flat area and tracks between trees and minor geography. This has multiple advantages:

• For Motorkhanas, the open area is large enough to run 3 tests simultaneously...and there's another smaller area that you can sometimes run another test on too. IMO multiple, simultaneous tests greatly improves the experience as a competitor. When your runs are ~30 sec each, you don't want to spend an hour waiting for the next test to be set up and thus only get ~6 runs in a day.
• The open area allows you to easily reconfigure Khanacross tests so that you can add variety and "get around" the Khana regs that dictate that no test should be run more than once (this is an issue with CAMS events, but probably moot under AASA though)
• The tracks that exists in and around the vegetation make khanacrosses more intersting...and arguably a more effective lead-in to rallying than just ones being run in an open paddock alone.
• It has a toilet block, running water and now has a large undercover area with a BBQ. For permanent grounds, these are VERY useful.
• For Khanacrosses, the entire area is large enough to run 3 (quite long) tests. I'd consider the size to be quite ideal when taking into account maintenance requirements (don't forget that someone will have to maintain the area!!!!). Obviously, more space and more formed roads would be good for things like rallysprints, but there's plenty of forest roads near Canberra, so keep this focussed on khanas.

Having said that one thing that Ansell doesn't have is a "track license" that allows speed events to be run (like Nabiac). The other regularly-used dirt venue in Sydney is at Oran Park....and before they lost their track license it was used extensively for "dirt circuits" that allowed you to get closer to rallying speeds and these were very popular. They now run under the stricter rules as a khanacross and they've lost something IMO.

I've attached a Google earth shot of Ansell Park. PM me your address and I'll send you the Khanacross maps that we have used at Ansell.

[afifield]

Glenn beat me to it with the shot of Ansell Park. Others are in the zip file as well.

[vkdude]

Originally Posted by afifield

AWABAWAC Park (near Newcastle) - Westlakes - Ben Semple (WAC_Secretary on here)
Good - Fast smooth roads, constantly maintained, able to run M/K and K/X at the same ground
Bad - Drop dunnies, if you're not balls-to-the-wall you don't stand a chance against the locals, same tracks pretty much every event.
Note: Haven't been there for a few years, it may have changed.

.

It has been a few years. drop dunnies went a long time ago, replaced by portables. WAC are working hard at upgrading facilities for competitors and spectactors alike. you can run your road car on the tracks they are normally that smooth.
Only one real spectator point but it is safe and lets you see at least 3 good corners.
Its hard to change the layouts but with all the trees. (not a member but perhaps should be) took some friends to Ansell park last year and after being used to Awaba and the gravel of Ringwood (MGCC newcastle) thought parts of Ansell park were goat tracks

Originally Posted by afifield

HPOTS (Cessnock, Hunter Plant Operator Training School)
Good - The place looks different every time you go there, roads were usually smooth.
Bad - I don't think we have access to it any more.
a section for motorkhanas. You need to be able to cut tracks and maintain them. Needs to have a good combination of fast and tight roads.
If someone is going to rent it out for clubs to use, it shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred per day otherwise clubs will go backwards

.

Havent heard of an event run there for a while

[rowdytoot]

what happened to the NSW mini car club grounds at bandon rd?

they were AWESOME- wide grassed area for the pits and MK, and then tracks through the trees for KC!!

did my 1st khanacross there, and nothing has come close to being as good.

Cheers

Paul

[Kaptainballistik]

The Mini CC motorkhana area is the GUTS!

[The Fazz]

Peter and Rowdy,

Can you help Mathew out by explaining what the good points of the mini grounds are?

[Mike Cherry]

Where aboots is Bandon Rd?

[Kaptainballistik]

Mini car club grounds....Near Vineyard station.

Mini does not allow rally tyres on the Motorkhana grounds, So after many years of massaging by Groundskeeper Butt its dead flat and smooth. Its a football ground sized area.

The Khanacross area.........

Its through some tea trees and paperbarks. What is so special is that the tracks are a maze with some really open bits. the really fast bits are Really open, the slow bits are really tight. Lots of stuff in the long grass ( Like stumps) so keep your wits about you.

Tracks are smooth , But there are lots of trees.