Motorkhanas | Site
Motorkhanas are a low speed, entry level form of motorsport
which test acceleration, braking and maneuvering. They are
far more dependent on driver ability than most forms of motorsport
and far less dependant on how powerful your car is. The scoring
system means that all types of car can compete equally. The
format of each round also evens out
the competition.
Format
The format of a South Australian motorkhana is very simple.
Six or more tests (usually
six) are run on two lanes. Each test consists of two garages,
a starting garage and a finishing garage, and a series of
flags which must be negotiated. The vehicle leaves the start
garage, maneuvers around the flags as determined by the test
and returns to the finishing garage, coming to a complete
stop. The time taken, from the point where the car starts
moving until it crosses a line 0.5 to 1 metre inside the finish
garage is recorded.
Drivers are grouped into classes.
The classes are designated A,B,C,D, E, F and G. Each driver
is allowed two attempts at each test and his best score is
noted. On completing two runs on the test, the drivers move
over to the next lane (if there is one) to attempt the next
test.
Once everyone has completed the tests on the lanes, the lane
configurations are changed to new tests and the whole sequence
is repeated.
Scoring
The person who completes a test in the shortest possible
time is not necessarily the winner. The record time for each
test for a particular class is used in determining the overall
winner.
At the end of the event, the total time for all the tests,
including any penalties
is recorded and divided by the total time for each test for
the class in which the driver is running. This gives the Drivers
Performance Index (DPI) for the day, which is expressed as
a percentage. For example, if I were to run a total time of
135.32 seconds for the day and the record for those events
for my class was 126.45, then my DPI would be
126.45 / 135.32 = 93.44%
The overall winner is then determined by comparing all of
the DPI's.
It should be noted that the DPI system is unique to South
Australia.
Penalties
There are two types of penalties in a motorkhana. The first
is the Wrong Direction (WD) penalty. This is applied when
the driver does not follow the path indicated by the test.
In this case, the time awarded is the slowest time for the
drivers class for that test on the day.
The second penalty is for hitting a flag. Each flag stuck
by the vehicle implies at 5 second penalty to be added to
the drivers time for that test. This penalty is quite harsh.
As most test times are between 20 and 40 seconds, hitting
a flag results in quite a large boost to your time.
Richard Appleby, March 2005
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