Motorkhana is a low-cost form of motorsport, unique to Australia and New Zealand but similar to autotesting in the UK and Ireland and gymkhana in the US. It involves manoeuvring a car through tight tests as quickly as possible - one car at a time - on either dirt or bitumen surfaces. This usually requires sliding and spinning the car accurately while maintaining speed through the test course. Some reversing is usually included.
Each test takes from 15 to 60 seconds to complete and is defined by flags. Hitting flags or going the wrong way incur time penalties which are added to the total time. A day’s competition – an event – usually includes 8 to 12 tests. Vehicle speed rarely exceeds 60km/h (37mph) but the tightness of the tests ensures the driver is kept very busy.
Most competitors use normal road cars but some use specially built vehicles (motorkhana specials) which are much lighter and have specialised braking systems to facilitate the spin turns. Some motorkhana specials use modified automatic transmissions to facilitate rapid gearchanges between first and reverse gears. They usually use racing slick tyres for bitumen and concrete surfaces.
Awards are made to the driver with the lowest total time in each class. Classes separate production cars from specials and large production cars from small production cars. There are often classes for female drivers, and for junior drivers as young as 12.
Most Australian motorkhanas are run to the National Motorkhana Code rules. Australian championship and state championship events use tests from the Motorkhana Test booklet which specifies test dimensions, required direction of travel and flag colours. Most championship motorkhanas are run on bitumen or concrete while club events are usually on dirt, grass or mud.
Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non-racing disciplines.
Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests, navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. Rallies may be short in the form of trials at a single venue, or several thousand miles long in an extreme endurance rally.
Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motorsport circuits. Karting is commonly perceived as the stepping stone to the higher ranks of motorsports, with most Formula One drivers—including Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, and Max Verstappen—having begun their careers in karting.
Motorsport(s) or motor sport(s) are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific terms automobile sport, motorcycle sport, power boating and air sports may be used commonly, or officially by organisers and governing bodies.
Autocross is a form of motorsport in which competitors are timed to complete a short course using automobiles on a dirt or grass surface, excepting where sealed surfaces are used in United States. Rules vary according to the governing or sanctioning body, such as the length of the course, the amount of permitted attempts, or whether competitors start the course individually at intervals or at the same time as others. In this latter form, Autocross differs from other forms of motor racing by using a system of heats or alternative timing methods for the classification rather than racing for position and declaring the first across the finish line as the winner.
Sprint cars are high-powered open-wheel race cars, designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Historically known simply as "big cars," distinguishing them from "midget cars," sprint car racing is popular primarily in the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most continents. There is a worldwide tour and national midget tours in the United States, Australia, Argentina and New Zealand.
Rallycross is a form of sprint style automobile racing, held on a closed mixed-surface racing circuit, with modified production or specially built road cars, similar to the World Rally Cars. It is mainly popular in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Great Britain. An inexpensive, entry level type of rallycross is the Swedish folkrace or its Norwegian counterpart, the so-called bilcross. The folkrace is most popular in Finland where it was founded back in the late 1960s. In Europe, rallycross can also refer to racing 1:8 scale off-road radio-controlled buggies.
Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced oval race tracks often used for thoroughbred horse racing. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s using both automobiles and motorcycles. Two different types of race cars dominate — open wheel racers in the Northeast and West and stock cars in the Midwest and South. While open wheel race cars are purpose-built racing vehicles, stock cars can be either purpose-built race cars or street vehicles that have been modified to varying degrees. There are hundreds of local and regional racetracks throughout the nation. The sport is also popular in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Autotesting involves a series of tests, generally around traffic cones, to measure precision driving skill.
Liverpool Speedway was located in Green Valley, Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool was officially opened by Frank Oliveri and the Oliveri Family, alongside Ald. E. Smith, the mayor of Liverpool at the time, and ran until its sudden and unexpected closure in 1989. Frank Oliveri would later share track management with track announcer and promoter, Channel 7 television sports presenter Mike Raymond.
Amaroo Park Raceway was a 1.930 km (1.199 mi) motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including the Castrol 6 Hour motorcycle race, rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Drivers' Championship, Australian Formula Ford Championship, Australian Sports Sedan Championship, the AMSCAR Series for touring cars, historic racing and others. The last Australian Touring Car Championship round to take place at the circuit was in 1994.
Gymkhana is a type of motorsport, known as Motorkhana in Australia and New Zealand and as Autotesting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Similar to autocross, the goal of gymkhana is to achieve the fastest time possible; memorizing the course is a significant part of achieving a fast time. The name is loaned from the equestrian discipline of gymkhana.
Queensland Raceway nicknamed "the paperclip" is a motor racing circuit located at Willowbank in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The circuit hosted Supercars Championship until 2019, drifting as well as club level racing and ride days.
Motorsport is a popular spectator sport in Australia, although there are relatively few competitors compared to other sports due to the high costs of competing. The oldest motorsport competition in Australia is the Alpine Rally which was first staged in 1921 followed by the Australian Grand Prix, first staged in 1928. The most widely watched motorsport category is Supercars, especially at the Bathurst 1000. Other classes in Australia include Australian GT, Formula 3 and Formula Ford, Superbikes, as well as various forms of speedway racing.
The following is a glossary of terminology used in motorsport, along with explanations of their meanings.
In the United States, autocross is an individual motorsport in which drivers compete to set the fastest time on a temporary course. It differs from autocross in the rest of the world as events are usually held on large paved areas, such as parking lots or airfields compared to grass or dirt surfaces used elsewhere. Courses consist of turns, offsets, and slaloms marked by traffic cones; new courses are typically created for each event. In the rest of the world these types of events are known as autotests, autoslaloms or gymkhanas.
The Bend Motorsport Park, currently known as Shell V-Power Motorsport Park for naming rights reasons, is a 7.770 km (4.828 mi) bitumen motor racing circuit at Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia, about 100 km (62 mi) south-east of the state capital, Adelaide.
Calan Williams is an Australian racing driver who is competing in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with BMW M Team WRT. He previously competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Trident, having previously raced for Jenzer Motorsport in the FIA Formula 3 Championship during 2020 and 2021. He is the champion of the 2017 Australian Formula 3 Premier Series.
Autoslalom is a form of motorsport that takes place on short, temporary courses marked out on areas of sealed-surfaces such as car parks or disused airport runways. Competitors are timed to complete the course, with penalties given for diverting from the route or for touching the course markers. Each competitor starts individually and speeds are kept low to emphasise safety and to require good vehicle control.
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