Chapman and McGuire win AORRC opener
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The Gap 440, Round 1 of the 2026 ARB Australian Off-Road Championship took place just outside the New South Wales country town of Hillston from March 27-29.
The ARB Harvey’s Centre Fuchs Gap 440 course is approximately 440 kilometres in length, comprised of five laps of 88km.
The 2026 edition was the fourth Gap 440 and for the second straight year it was won by Queenslanders Clayton Chapman and Adam McGuire.
The event was run by the Griffith Offroad Club located around an hour from the race venue in the private property Mactocton, off Parker’s Road, 31km East of Hillston.
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For those that have not seen the ARB Australian Off-Road Championship, it is an enduro off-road motorsport event held over a variety of surfaces.
The first lap was held on Saturday and saw Champman and McGuire hold a slender margin over Josh Howells and Shaun Harris, the gap was less than eight seconds.
However, on Sunday Chapman and McGuire could not be matched, taking the win by two minutes and 53 seconds from current ARB Australian champions Aaron Haby, Chelsea Haby and Declan Fritchley.
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For Chapman it was his fifth ARB Australian Off-Road Championship round victory in the last three years.
The all-female duo of Ally Howells and Sarah Corrigan in the #115 Jimco Aussie Special finished third outright, as well as taking Class 1 victory.
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Another class winners, Bodie Tickner in car #1093 finished fourth outright. Brett Comiskey and Corey Cooper #434 were fifth, ahead of Conroy Devine and Robert Roles in car #608.
The remaining class winners were as follows Paul and Mark-Paul Grant #504, Alex and Jacob Molloy #316, Perry Stylianos and Jim Walsh #1157, and Connor and Rodney Henderson #225.
Around 60 cars started the gruelling event with the ARB Australian Off-Road Championship continuing to grow.
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