Conducted for the past 33 years, the annual Hedweld Milbrodale Mountain Classic has become one of the most prestigious events on the NSW Off Road Racing Calendar, attracting a field of 64 local and interstate entrants. It was Round 3 of the NSW Off Road Championship, Round 1 of the NSW Off Road Enduro Series and Round 2 of the East Coast Tri Challenge.
Day 1 (Saturday) Was very action packed with the running of prologue (to set race start times) and Race 1 of medium course (6 laps x 11kms). The day was full of action for spectators which included roll overs, and plenty of sideways action. At the conclusion of the days racing Josh Howells topped the leaderboard in the #3 Jimco by 38 seconds to #27 John Towers and #88 Tomas Dixon.
Day 2 (Sunday) did not disappoint with more action for not only our competitors out on the track but also our sideline spectators who certainly received value for money. The day started with Race 2 of the medium course (4 laps x 11kms) and then spectators enjoyed 3 a breast start in race 3 for the short course (4 laps x 5.3kms). It was tight, fast, furious and a little bit hectic over the first jump and into the first corner.
After lunch the entire field (or at least those still running – 42 cars!!) left the arena to tackle the mountain for Race 4, long course (6 laps x 18kms). As always, the Mountain is unforgiving, and we saw many casualties with only 19 vehicles finishing the full distance.
Stamping his authority during Saturdays Prologue, Josh Howells powered home to take his #3 Jimco to the outright win in an overall time of 3hr 12min 03.727sec, securing the ‘2019 Man of the Mountain’ title in the process for the fastest lap of the long course track. Former Milbrodale winner, #58 Bryce Chapman had to settle for second outright in 2019, finishing 3min 22sec behind Howells. Completing the outright podium in third and also taking the SXS Turbo Class win was #698 Peter Carr in his Canam Maverick X3.
CLASS WINNERS
ProBuggy: #3 Josh Howells
Prolite: #193 Brendan Turner
Super1650: #206 Richard Wilton
Sportslite: #1026 Anthony Abson
SXS Turbo: #698 Peter Carr
SXS Sport: #6639 Gavin Robinson
Extreme 2wd: #409 Kevin Ottey
Extreme 4wd: #844 Joshua Nurrish
Production 4wd: #789 Lucky Mattiussi
Best Female Performance (Driver)–Car 102 Ally Howells
Best Female Performance (Navigator) – Car 628 Irene Keramidas
Nigel Beeston Memorial Award– Car 844 Joshua Nurrish
Best Presented Vehicle– Car 805 Ian Cotton
Bob Stansfield – Tin Top Award– Car 409 Kevin Ottey
The event organisers would like to thank the sponsors, Hedweld Group of Companies, Bulga Coal, Win TV, M&K Watercarts, Brison Contracting, Myne Signs, and our class sponsors who generously support this event.
As always, the Milbrodale Mountain Classic was generously supported by the local community with the Bulga Bush Fire Brigade and Milbrodale Public School assisting & benefiting from the event.
