Talbot Cox and Craig King have lead from the green to the chequered flag in their #16 Unlimited Buggy, to take back to back victories at the ARB Town and Country Tyres Stackpoole 500, round 1 of the 2019 ARB Australian Off Road Championship.
Cox stamped his authority on the event during Saturday’s prologue and built a 2min 25sec lead during the first two 80km laps that afternoon. Having done the hard work on Saturday, Cox kept the challengers at bay during Sunday’s wet and slippery 4 laps to finish in an overall time of 4hr 52min 37sec.
Michael Marson and Chris Colborne sealed a one, two victory for the North Queenslanders at Stackpoole. Crossing the finishline second in the Ford V8 powered #32 Racer, 5 minutes & 9 seconds behind Cox. Rounding out the podium was the husband and wife team of Aaron and Liz Haby in their recently repowered #57 twin turbo V6 Toyota Element.
Haby had worked his way into second, however power steering issues 100k from the finish saw him slip back to third. Clayton Chapman was another driver in podium contention earlier in the day, charging as high as second on the leaderboard in the #15 Razorback, however a blown CV ended his run on lap 5.
Steven and Daryl Graham put in an impressive performance in their Class 10 Tatum to finish 4th outright and take the class win. Richard Crabb was the quickest of the Kiwi’s locking in fifth outright in his #98 single seater.
While Dale Martin and Adrian Rowe piloted their #133 Tatum to sixth outright and the Class 1 win. Seventh and second in Class 10 were Dean Meginley and Dean Demarco, ahead of the factory fresh #66 Element of Andy Murdoch and Ben Rickerby in 8th.
Phil Lovett and Michael Fraser flew the flag high for the SXS’s, finishing 9th outright in their #697 CanAm. After running as high as second outright, Brent Martin and Andre De Simone had to settle for 10th outright after a tough day at the office.
20 teams out of the 61 starters finished the entire 6 laps of Stackpoole. Full results, thanks to Offroadracing.com.au are available here
CLASS WINNERS
Unlimited: #16 Talbot Cox / Craig King
Class 1: #133 Dale Martin / Adrian Rowe
Class 10: #1065 Steven Graham / Daryl Graham
Class 2: #253 Peter Hunt / Tom Vearing
Class 3: #351 Steven Orr / Coby Hall
Class 4: #427 Paul Youman / Graham Kluck
Class 5: #501 Bernie Clohesy / Stuart Amos
Class 6: #697 Phil Lovett / Michael Fraser
Class 7: #Sandy Bowman / Ben Thompson, Kalman Lorinc
Class 8: #815 Stuart Chapman / Michael Orr
A huge thanks to the land owners, Andy & Bobbie Ryan and to the Griffith Offroad Club for putting on such a great event. The ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship now moves north for round 2, where the famous melon holes on Malapunyah Run at the Albins ARB Goondiwindi 400 await.
Photos thanks to Jeff Newick.
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