AORC Round 2

The victorious team completed the 452km two day race in a time of 3 hours 40 minutes and 43.15 seconds, ahead of the show-stopping trophy truck of Brad Gallard and Scott Modistach and the V8 Jimco of Danny Auricht and Grant Connelly. "Finke is the main race and it took us a long time to win our first one and now we have three in a row", said a very happy team owner, Peter Kittle. "It is a pretty awesome feeling and it now makes us even more determined to see how many we can win. We will be coming back here next year with that aim and we're looking forward to it."

Qualifying in third position, Fellows assumed first place on the road for the race down to Finke after the leading Outerbounds Racing Jimcos of Beau and Travis Robinson both retired with mechanic problems. After the clocks were stopped on the first leg, just .27 of a second separated Fellows and reigning Australian Champ, Shannon Rentsch, setting up an incredible drag race for the next day's 226 km leg back to Alice Springs. Rentsch initially got the jump off the start, but Fellows snatched the lead heading into the first corner and didn't look back.

"It was a do or die effort off the start line at Finke. You had to get that jump or suffer in the dust. After that, we had a dream run coming home with no dust and we were able to back off a bit through the rough stuff and conserve the car." said Fellows

Unfortunately for the son and father team of Shannon and Ian Rentsch, their race was run when they broke an axle between the Mount Squires and Bundooma checkpoints. The pair showed extraordinary speed for their first race in a brand new Jimco, and have put the rest of the field on notice heading into Round 3 at Griffith. The big mover in the race was Brad Gallard and Scott Modistach in their Extreme two wheel drive Chev trophy truck. Gallard started the event in 8th position after the prologue and charged through the field in 'neverlift' fashion on the race down to Fink, launching off the red sand dunes and hammering the big truck through the whoops to get within striking distance of the leaders for the race home.

Gallard actually recorded the quickest time back from Finke to Alice Springs, stopping the clocks at 1 hour 49 minutes, 57.50 seconds, but it wasn't enough to overhaul Fellows' lead, finishing second outright in a total time of 3 hours 41 minutes, 44.28 seconds. Third outright was the Jimco Chev buggy of Alice Springs crew, Daniel Auricht and Grant Connelly, who raced across the line for a total time of 3 hours 53 minutes, 31.91 seconds. Brad Prout put the disappointments of 2009 behind him and claimed fourth outright in his new V8 single seat Jimco buggy. Prout and Auricht are now tied for second in the championship behind Fellows.

In the Prolite and Super 1650 Buggy classes, competition was just as fierce. Andrew Mowles was within a stone's throw of the outright contenders in his Prolite Razorback before a broken CV ended his race on the final stages, leaving Steve Sanderson to take the Prolite win ahead of Rick Bramley and Locky Weir. In the 1650cc class, Darryl Smith took the honours in his A-Arm Alumicraft, ahead of Troy Johnstone and Stewart Pritchard.

The Gieser Bros. Chev Trophy Trucks dominated the Extreme 2WD Class this year. Brad Gallard saw off an early charge from Greg Gartner's F150 to take the class win ahead of Geoff Roe and the Aussie built truck of Alice Springs local, Bruce Muir, in third. In the Performance 2WD Class, it was Northern Territory MP, Ross Bohlin, who took the provisional class win in his V8 Ford Ranger ahead of the WB Holden ute of Phillip Smith and the Falcon ute of Greg McArthur.

The duel between the master and the apprentice in Production 4WD, Geoff Pickering and Clayton Chapman, was re-ignited at Finke. While Chapman took an early lead after the prologue, Pickering used the advantage of his Pajero's superior suspension package to hunt down the leaf sprung Triton of Chapman. In the infamous Finke whoops Pickering took the class lead at the end of day one. On the return leg, Chapman charged hard and edged his red truck back in front, but was unable to close the deficit set on leg one, leaving Pickering to take the Class win.

Attrition played a major role in how the race in the Extreme 4WD Class played out. On the first stage, Colin Hunter's Jeep Grand Cherokee was comfortably in front until a drive shaft exploded in the transfer case, ending his race. Rob Chapman was another casualty when the front suspension failed on his V6 Pajero on day two. This left Cairns based Safari specialist, Geoff Ohlolm to take the win in his LWB V8 Pajero ahead of another Queenslander, Shane Ogilvie in his V8 Maverick ute.
Of 85 car entrants, 42 completed the two day event, which is dubbed as Australia's toughest desert race.

All images courtesy of Randall Kilner - AORC media liaison