North Queensland’s Talbot Cox and Andrew North have tamed the hot and windy conditions at Stackpoole to take the outright win at the opening round of the ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship, the Town and Country Tyres ARB Stackpoole 400 in their #16 Racer. Cox leapt into the lead early on the opening lap of the day, when the pole sitter, NZ’s Raana Horan retired with electrical issues. Capitalising on the dust free track, Cox stretched the legs of the TRD V8 and didn’t look back to greet the chequered flag in a time of 4hr 10min 01sec.
Starting the day in fifth, Shannon & Ian Rentsch battled through the traffic in the dust before mounting a late charge at the lead in the closing stages of the race. Carving over a minute a lap off Cox’s lead on lap 6 & 7, Rentsch finished just 52 seconds behind Cox in the #33 SR Racing BFGoodrich Tires Jimco.
Sticking to their race plan, Dale Martin and AJ Rowe piloted the #101 Martin Motorsports Class 1 onto the TCT ARB Stackpoole 400 podium in third outright for the second year in a row. Starting 7th on the grid, Martin kept the pressure on those ahead of him and steadily ascended the leaderboard as the seven 65km laps unfolded to finish in a time of 4hr 17min 18 sec.
11 teams completed the entire distance in race 2 today, for the Unlimited and Class 1 and Class 4 race cars.
On Saturday classes 10, 2, 3, 5, 6, 66, 7 and 8 hit the track after the prologue in race 1. Bernie Clohesy and Peter Hersey took the race 1 win in their #570 Mitsubishi Triton. Ahead of class mate, Darran Vanderwoude and Daniel Boof Ziembinski in second in the #554 Colorado. Queensland’s Russell and Judy Hartnett rounded out the race 1 podium, driving their #245 Razorback Racing Frames Class 2 into third.
Full Class wrap up and extended photo gallery to follow.
