Gymkhana at Tailem Bend Motorsport Park

Gymkhana seems to be just like circuit sprinting, but with donuts. Cars fly around corners, pull handbrake turns around sharp bends, and light up their tyres as they lay down rubber, dizzyingly spinning around a cone. It's addicting to watch and that's exactly what I spent my time doing at round 5 of the OZGymkhana series at Tailem Bend Motorsport Park.

Subaru WRX's featured heavily in the lineup of cars. That's understandable, with their AWD and rally pedigree, one would think this sort of stuff would suit them perfectly. And it did. They dashed off the line and tore through the first series of bends, making that distinct and very familiar exhaust burble. Driven properly, these cars were easily the fastest out there. So long as it was provoked enough to oversteer and not get drowned in dreaded understeer, drivers could get all four wheels spinning harmoniously and carry out gracious slides, much to the spectators delight. 

Even a wagon came out to play.

My favourite car of the day had to be this Ford Focus ST. In its striking colour of 'Tangerine Scream', the modern hot hatch looked absolutely stunning. For obvious reasons, it didn't do so well on the 360 degree turns; but it had no problem pivoting around the 180's, making use of the handbrake to get those rear tyres sliding.

A Nissan Pulsar and Hyundai Excel were also out there. They were both been driven extremely well and they looked like a ball to chuck around - which goes to show you don't need to spend big bucks to have fun behind a steering wheel. I drove an Excel around Tailem Bend a few years ago as part of a CAMS development program, so I can vouch for its competency. They're nimble, easy to drive and fairly predictable. They're also extremely cheap; running examples can found for under $1000.

Here it is, pulling a neat handbrake turn.

And the Pulsar spent a lot of the time with its inside rear wheel in the air.

The award for the most flamboyant car of the day goes to this Datsun 180b. On one of the runs - without even trying - every single photo I took of the car, it was on opposite lock. I just hope he brought along a spare set of tyres...