Jack Rhodes and David Pullino have overcome turbo issues with the #91 Jimco in the closing stages of the prologue to take day one honours at the opening round of the ARB Off Road Racing Series – the ARB Griffith 400. Finishing the first 100km section of the race in a time of 1hr 01min 04.354sec, the South Australians took the lead from pole sitter Glenn Owen who retired with engine issues, to lead the second placed locals, Andy Ryan and Dave Smith in the #50 Alumicraft by 32.746sec. The twin turbo Honda powered JT Lustrum of John Towers and Bruce Young sailed into 3rd on the road a further 1min 4sec back.
The battle for fourth and fifth was tight, with Mark Burrows and Sean Ratcliffe in the #21 MBR Jimco just 1.3seconds ahead of the class leading Extreme 2WD Ford F150 of Greg Gartner and Jamie Jennings #410.
Through the classes #133 Dale Martin and Adrian Rowe took the overnight Prolite honours in their #133 Tatum while Daniel Wells and Luc Price lead the strong Super 1650 field in their beam front ended #218 Bunderson. Amongst the 1300cc Sportsman, #305 Ally Howells and Brad Banningan have a four minute gap over their classmate. The sole UTV Class entrant, Alex Mendham and Jordan Payne or powering along in their Polaris, sitting in 44th outright.
Peter Godwin and Alan Dixon powered their Performance 2wd V8 Hilux to the front of the pack, while Reg Owen’s Isuzu MU-X is the front running Production 4WD. Owen Ward and Sandy Bowman are the overnight Extreme 4WD Class leaders in their V8 Navara.
60 of the 80 starters managed to complete the first of the four 100km laps
RACE UPDATE
On completion of Section 2, Jack Rhodes maintains the outright lead in the #91 Jimco ahead of #27 John Towers and #410 Greg Gartner has moved up into podium contention, sitting in third outright.
For full results click here
Images courtesy of ARB Offroad Racing Series & Offroad Images
