2010 AORC Round Two – Tattersall’s Finke Desert Race
South Australian based David Fellows (#2 Jimco Toyota Buggy) has won the 2010 Tattersall’s Finke Desert Race bringing his total number of victories in Australia’s most prestigious off-road event to a total of five.
Fellows’ magnificent record in the event includes three consecutive wins (2008, 2009, and 2010) this year with a “first time at Finke” co-driver Mark Bergamin.
The victorious Fellows/Bergamin team took a total of 3 hours 40 minutes and 43.15 seconds for the 452 kilometre total distance from the Alice Springs start yesterday to Finke and the return journey to Alice Springs today. Fellows took a narrow lead in the race on Sunday’s first leg from Alice Springs to Finke.
Mondays section from Finke back to Alice Springs witnessed an incredible start with the buggies of Fellows/Bergamin starting alongside that of the #1 Shannon Rentsch/Ian Rentsch of Warnambool (Jimco Nissan buggy) as a result of them being only separated by a point 28 of a second after yesterday’s run down the track.
Fellows said he ‘got the jump’ at the start in what was effectively a drag race and inched ahead before the creek crossing out of Finke although he did concede that the Rentsch machine was only inches behind as he saw their front wheel.
Fellows said that he thought Rentsch ‘may have backed out of it as I was committed”.
Unfortunately for the son and father Shannon and Ian Rentsch team their race was run when they broke an axle between the Mount Squires and Bundooma checkpoints.
The big mover in the field today was Bradley Gallard/Scott Modistach in their Extreme 2 wheel drive #454 Chev trophy truck who claimed second position on the podium.
The crew from Renmark in South Australia recorded the quickest time back from Finke to Alice Springs today stopping the clocks at 1 hour 49 minutes, 57.50 seconds despite having a ‘lose’ near the end of the event. Their total time over the event was 3 hours 41 minutes, 44.28 seconds.
Third outright was the #8 Jimco Chev Buggy of Alice Springs crew Daniel Auricht/Grant Connelly who raced across the line for a total race time of 3 hours 53 minutes, 31.91 seconds.
Brad Prout in his new single seat (#9 Jimco 2010 buggy) finished fourth in the event.
Last year the Sydney based driver saw his race aspirations go up in flames as his machine was burnt to the ground on Day 1 of the event.
Forty two of the 85 starters completed the two day event which is dubbed as Australia’s toughest desert race.
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