AORRA kicks up dust in SA
Images: Lehmann Motorsport Photography
The second round of the ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship took place in the Riverland town of Waikerie, South Australia.
Tom Owen, alongside his navigators Damon Bennett and Jesse Bubb claimed the outright victory in the Waikerie Hotel Riverland Enduro.
Owen and his navs finished the opening day second on the timesheets behind Clayton Chapman and Adam McGuire. They set the fastest short course lap on Saturday which earnt them first position on the road.
Despite the slippery conditions Owen quickly found his rhythm driving team’s Twin Turbo Jimco and dominated the day’s proceedings.
“It’s real good,” Owen said on winning the event. “We spent a bit of time preserving tyres but otherwise it’s been a really good day. We’ve been waiting for a smooth run for a fair while now, so today’s been spot on, the perfect result.”
In the end Owen scored victory by 7 minutes and 19 second, beating Brad Gallard, Jesse Gallard and Scott Pogorecki in the #454 V8 Geiser.
Although the two Gallard’s and Pogorecki missed out on the outright win, they did pick up the Class 4 honours.
Gallard just pipped his Class 4 rival Greg Gartner; the pair exchanged the top spot in Class 4 almost all day long. However, late on in the event 2018 champion Gartner was forced to retire from the event.
The reigning ARB Australian champions Aaron Haby, Chelsea Haby and Declan Fritchley finished in third outright. They started the day with a mechanical gremlin and at one stage sat as low as ninth on the leaderboard. However, they ended the event strongly and worked there way up the order to finish third.
Saturday leaders Chapman and McGuire #15 finished fourth outright and completed the Ultimate podium despite dramas.
Class 4 runners-up Ben Gartner and Tom Burrows #417 rounded out the ARB Waikerie Hotel Riverland Enduro top five.
Lachlan and Greg Campbell claimed back-to-back class victories in Class 6 at Waikerie, finishing eighth outright. Class 10 victor Sean Ratcliffe finished ninth.
It was a very gruelling event with only 10 teams completing the full 388km distance.
It is a short turn around for ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship competitors with Round 3 taking place in Queensland in just a couple of weeks’ time, the ARB Gundy 500 will occur from the 7th-9th of August.