Off-road racing legend Bruce Garland is cautiously optimistic of a solid result as he prepares to give the Isuzu MU-X wagon its international racing debut in this weekend’s Finke Desert Race.
Garland posted a time of 6m:55s around the 8.3 kilometre prologue circuit in his brand-new production-spec race car, faster than last year’s result in his tried and proven Extreme 4WD D-MAX ute.
“The car is riding extremely well over the bumps and cornering well too – the chassis is just fantastic,” says Garland, who built the MU-X in his Sydney workshop.
“The Isuzu engineers have done an amazing job with the chassis and we didn’t have to do very much at all to it this week after its first test. It’s just a really good car, really fast straight out of the box.”
The MU-X is entered in Class Seven for Production 4WD (diesel, not exceeding 7200cc), which means it remains close to stock-standard and a ‘slightly slower’ experience than in the high-speed, highly modified Class Eight (Extreme 4WD) vehicle that Garland has campaigned so successfully in the past.
The MU-X – Isuzu’s first entry into the world of seven-seat family transport – is powered by a three-litre turbo diesel. Standard power and torque figures are130kW/380NM, but this vehicle is expected to pump out around 195kW/600Nm.
While Garland will be partnered for the second leg of the event by long-term navigator, Harry Suzuki, tomorrow’s first run down the Finke River course will see Channel Seven reporter and weatherman, James Tobin, in the passenger seat.
“The track was very, very dusty out there today, and it probably won’t be much different tomorrow,’ Garland says.
“There is a strong wind blowing so that might blow away some of the dust and the forecast is for a very windy weekend. There’s no rain on the horizon, a shame because our cars always go well in the wet – obviously our rain dance was not very successful!
“Having said that, we will be running the new Toyo All-Terrain tyre which is very, very good. It was excellent this morning and we will use it in the race – it’s much faster than the previous Toyos we have used and we’re very happy with it.”
Garland says the crowds are streaming out from Alice Springs to camp along the race route, describing the scene as like “Sydney’s Pitt Street at peak hour”.
The weekend race plan is simple: “Drive down to Finke without hurting my body too much and then drive back the same way … and get some race miles on the car and see how it goes.”
While there is no commitment as yet to the 2015 Dakar Rally – that depends on finding the right amount of funding – everything the team is doing with this car and this race has that as its focus.
The 39th annual Finke classic is a logical starting point for the Garland Motorsports campaign, given the Dakar-like punishment it will dish out. This year’s run over the two-day, 460km race will be Garland’s 14th start in the event.
Tomorrow’s (Sunday June 8, 2014) race for cars commences at 7.30am for Leg One of the event that takes the field 226km from the Alice Springs start to the overnight stop at Aputula (Finke). A total of 88 cars/buggies and 418 bikes/quads contested the prologue in readiness for a start.
Competitors race through the desert and across one of the oldest rivers in the world (the Finke) before camping out overnight at the Aboriginal settlement. Any damage done on Day One (Sunday) must be fixed during the overnight stop before the field tackles the return run to Alice Springs on the holiday Monday.
Sponsored by Tattersalls, the Finke is the richest off-road race in the Southern Hemisphere. It started in 1976 as a ‘there and back’ challenge for local bike riders but soon grew. Cars and buggies (specialist desert racing vehicles) were introduced in 1988.
Garland Motorsports races with support from Toyo Tires, Royal Purple Oils and Disc Brakes Australia.
Full results on the event web site: http://www.finkedesertrace.com.au
