Team Toyo brought the heat on a cold morning in Alice Springs, with most of the team crossing the line in Finke in top 20 positions and Billy Geddes pulling off the first leg of his incredible double run campaign.
Editor of Dirtcomp magazine, Randall Kilner noted that the Toyo boys looked in great shape this morning when they set out from Alice, roaring past him at the 60 kilometre mark on a heavily rutted track.
First place for the Alice to Finke leg was claimed by father and son team Ian and Shannon Rentsch, clocking a very aggressive one hour, 49 minute time in their 2010 Jimco Buggy.
“It isn’t too dusty, and despite the extremes the desert can throw up, the track conditions are good, though it is very whooped out and rough, definitely well suited to the big trucks” said Kilner
DESERT IRONMAN
One day and two runs down, one day and two runs to go, for a triumphant Billy Geddes, fresh off the saddle of the KTM.
Coming in seventh place overall, and the second trophy truck across the line, Geddes scorched the track with a blistering sub-two hour run, but took no time to celebrate.
Immediately jumping a chopper back to Alice, Geddes started the second, two-wheeled leg of his Finke campaign.
In an unbelievable feat of endurance, Geddes has proven himself an off-road ironman, having arrived in Finke on the KTM in 211th position, with a time of three hours, 21 minutes and 33 seconds.
With over five hours of racing in rough conditions, and if all goes to plan, another day of the same awaiting him tomorrow, Geddes is still set purposefully on a top end result tomorrow. His rigorous pre-Finke fitness regime is serving him well.
“We had a good run, surprisingly I’m not too exhausted, the body has held up well”
“The new 39” Toyo gave us a killer run, we got held up by two buggies, at one point, but when the truck was flying it couldn’t have gone any faster mate, the foot was all the way to the floor” said Geddes
In the midst of a contamination issue with pre-ordered fuel, Geddes and team are busy prepping the big red truck for tomorrow’s run.
"We are really looking forward to tomorrow, and I am feeling really good, I pulled a big wheelie up as I rolled in. Everyone was cheering us on, it was great! I’m really enjoying the life experience, and the people out on the track stay enthusiastic all day".
BRAD GALLARD: NO DEFEAT, NO SURRENDER
Recording a two hour, 10 minute run landing him in 20th position, Brad Gallard’s absence from early checkpoints was a source of much speculation for spectators this morning.
Brad explains the reason for the delay, and his fight to stay in the top ten;
“At around the 20 kilometre mark we launched into a rocky outcrop, pushing a bit too hard. Nine times out of 10 you might get away with it, but not this time. During the bump we lost our power steering, and we were forced to stop and put new belts on.”
Pulling off to the side to replace the power steering belts, Gallard jumped back into the race in 30th spot, behind the Commodore of Untamed Motorsports Bruce Muir.
Muir quickly got to know the back of Brad’s truck as truck number 454 blew past a significant portion of the field, making up eight positions for a hard earned 20th place.
“Other than that, and a bit of heat in the transmission, the truck is running perfect. It’s handling and performing great and the tyres are good, real good, we will definitely run them on the way back, they still look brand new. “
“All we can hope now is just to push it home tomorrow, try and get back up in the top ten” remarked a positive Gallard.
BUGGY BRAWL
Despite heavy dust and being held up in some sections, Andrew Kittle is sitting in 9th after a clean and strategic sub two hour run from Alice Springs, opening up a small lead on his brother Matthew who placed 12th.
“I got about a minute and a half on Matthew this morning, but the people in front of me are what I’m more worried about, Greg [Gartner] and Billy [Geddes] are the two cars in front of us, and we want to give them a bit of a hurry up on the way home” said Andrew Kittle.
“The track was as rough as we thought, and we can’t believe how well the tyres have worn, the Finke is a hard track on tyres and these have held up to the challenge. “
With a long list of names on the DNS and DNF lists, Andrew and Matthew are proud of their sub (and just over) two-hour runs, but prouder of the fact that both buggies made it through every stage unscathed.
“We did what we aimed to do, we could have pushed a bit harder in some spots but after the big flip last year we wanted to take more care. The car ran perfectly the whole way down.” said Matthew Kittle.
"Tomorrow I’ll do what I can, I’m confident that I can pull a few places back, but it’s just good to get here, first time in a while we have had both cars make it to Finke”.
MU-X EXPRESS
Bruce Garland and navigator Harry Suzuki crossed the line in their Production 4WD class Isuzu MU-X in three hours, 28 minutes, demonstrating again the grit of the team in enduring hours of the roughest racing terrain the red centre has to offer.
Garland remarked that the Toyo OPAT-II shod MU-X felt faster than the D-MAX he ran in 2013, and was experiencing transponder issues that may result in a faster recorded time than the one listed above.
Safe and sound in Finke, Garland and Suzuki are resting easy in preparation for tomorrows run.
With one day of racing left before a new King of the Desert is crowned, teams are quick to remind each other that anything can, and will happen in Finke. With all cars finishing with great times and Billy about to change the Finke forever, Team Toyo’s weekend is looking bright.
Stay safe gentleman, resist that red mist, and keep hammering those whoops!
ALICE TO FINKE RESULTS:
1 #1 SHANNON RENTSCH 1:49:05
2 #91 JACK RHODES 1:49: 56
3 #13 TRAVIS ROBINSON 1:52:37
4 #413 BEAU ROBINSON 1:53:16
5 #3 MATT HANSON 1:57:28
6 #7 PAUL GILBERT 1:58:37
7 #441 BILLY GEDDES 1:58:37
8 #410 GREG GARTNER 1:58:52
9 #14 ANDREW KITTLE 1:59:09
10 #21 MARK BURROWS 2:00:24
11 #101 ANDREW MOWLES 2:00:32
12 #23 MATTHEW KITTLE 2:00:46
13 #57 AARON HABY 2:01:21
14 #32 MICHAEL MARSON 2:02:18
15 #447 STEVEN SANDERSON 2:02:32
16 #110 SHAWN SWAFFIELD 2:02:41
17 #70 JASON ADAMI 2:03:57
18 #20 ASHLEY MOWBRAY 2:04:39
19 #71 TALBOT COX 2:07:48
20 #454 BRAD GALLARD 2:10:16
57 #750 BRUCE GARLAND 3:28:42
Go to the official Finke Desert Race website for detailed outright results for Day One.
