The third round of the ARB Off Road Racing series ran last weekend in the wheat fields of Stackpoole, with Team Toyo once again featuring at the top end of the field.
The small community of Stackpoole, 70km north of Griffith in NSW, is so entrenched in off-road racing that it is named after the winners of the inaugural race, when Bernie Stack and Keith Poole took outright honours at the first race in the 1970s.
The track at the Ryan family farm in Stackpoole had seen 6mm of dust-supressing rain in the days prior to the race. With a forecast for cool and clear weather for the weekend, 70 race teams were ready for some on-the-wood racing around the 80km track.
Saturday morning saw the prologue track at the Ryan property light up, with Buggy #30’s Glen Owen and property owner Matt Ryan claiming pole position with a blazing 10m 38s. After a stunning performance at Waikerie, Jack Rhodes hunted Owen’s time for second place, only 8 seconds off the pace.
Team Toyo’s own Danny Brown reeled in fourth place in the prologue, three seconds ahead of his dad Andy in his #45 buggy. Thundering just behind the buggies into 5th spot was the relentless Greg Gartner in his Ford F-150-ish trophy truck.
Launching from the prologue into section one of the race, the first lap was an 80km sprint to chalk-up some numbers before Sunday.
Sixty-eight of the 70 registered teams survived the prologue to launch into the race, but only 58 competitors completed their first circuit.
As the sun set over Stackpoole the teams worked furiously to repair the day’s damage.
At 8:30am Sunday morning, the contest to be crowned King of Stackpoole began.
Enduring 400kms of some of Australia’s toughest track, back-to-back outright victory was claimed by Jack Rhodes and David Pullino in the #91 buggy, locking in a total of 4 hours, 32 seconds race time. Stackpoole property owner Andy Ryan came in second in the #50 buggy.
Third place was nabbed by Danny Brown. Fresh from a strong result at Sea Lake, Brown described the conditions as near undriveable towards the end of the 400km race.
“The track was brutal. It cut up really bad, and the race just turned into a game of looking after your tyres. There were a lot of flats at Griffith last year. Over the real rough rocky sections you had to slow it down and try not to lose too much time,” he said.
The terrain-taming Toyos outlasted the tough conditions.
“The Toyos performed really well and we ran on the same set of tyres all weekend. When we finished, they weren’t even that worn. We could have gone even quicker, but we didn’t take the risk.
“The tyres didn’t falter at all, which is awesome for the terrain up there: a bit of mud, a lot of rock and some very fast sandy sections. We were hitting over 200km/h more than 15 times a lap.”
Still pushing, Danny and navigator George Apted played a conservative game as the track got more unruly.
“We couldn’t catch the guys in front without pushing too hard in the rock – we’re focused on points at the moment. We maintained our position and banked on the fact they were pushing hard and might have got a flat.”
Danny’s dad Andy came in fourth, spending the weekend keeping his son on his toes.
Despite shearing a lug nut on Saturday, Andy was not going to let Danny walk it in.
“On Saturday morning we backed off a bit in some fog and saw him 50m away, coming around a hairpin,” says Danny.
“Nothing gets the wind up you faster than seeing your dad in your rear vision mirror!”
Andy Brown is a veteran of off-roading. Now 56, Andy keeps his #45 buggy at the pointy end of the field wherever he races, with the 2013-built Toyo-shod weapon now starting to provide some reliability for the team.
“The rivalry is not letting him beat me. He obviously really wants to get past me, but that is never happening,” quipped Danny.
Campaigning hard in his trophy truck, Greg Gartner pulled in just behind Andy Brown for fifth outright.
Winning the trophy truck class only two minutes off the pace of the buggies, Gartner continues to amaze spectators with his Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde personality.
Friendly, easy going and always willing to lend a hand, once the helmet is on Gartner is a demon, showing no mercy and taking no prisoners.
Gartner put the Toyo’s to the test over the ripped-up track and came home strong, always keeping trophy trucks front of mind for the buggy drivers.
Tomorrow sees the kick-off of the Glenroy Plains Produce & PMD Race Products Off Road Masters. With Jack Rhodes looking for a hat-trick of victories, a night racing section and the ever-threatening Greg Gartner on home turf, there could be a coup brewing in Moorex, South Australia.
