THE 40th anniversary Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro has been run and won and in the heart and soul spirit of off road racing, Tyler Owen and Oliver Stephens have taken outright honours 24 years after their grandfather Reg Owen won the perpetual trophy.
The cousins, campaigning Uncle Matt’s #41 Alumi Craft claimed their first outright win at the weekend after snatching the victory from the last year’s winners Matt Hanson and Leigh Wells.
The 2016 winners were stalled after power steering issues slowed their #7 SMU Racing Jimco on the sixth and final lap of the 74km course.
The nailbiting finish saw Owen and Stephens edge out Hanson and Wells by just 5.050 seconds after 462km of gruelling off road racing through the picturesque Tantanoola pine forests.
Owens and Stephens clocked a final time of 4:29:04.801, while Hanson and Wells recorded a total lap time of 4:29:09.851.
Grit and determination saw Danny Brown and George Apted hold onto third outright with a time of 4:35:38.037 after the #42 Jimco got bogged in a slow corner on the last lap.
They had pulled enough of a time buffer over fourth place and in conjunction with the quick response from recovery to extract them from their predicament, were able to cross the finish line two minutes and 47 seconds ahead of Aaron and Liz Haby’s #2 who ultimately finished on a total time of 4:38:25.882.
Haby’s day was not without dramas either as rear brake issues on lap two saw them clock in a three minute slower lap time as they headed into the first of the two, half-hour service breaks.
The team sending the Element Prodigy #2 out for the restart with brakes on three of the four wheels.
Mark Burrows and Sean Ratcliffe’s #21 recorded a final time of 4:42:27.791, just four minutes shy of the Haby’s to round out the Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro top five.
Reasonable track conditions saw Danny Brown and George Apted top the prologue time sheets on Saturday with a lap time of 3.19.685, just 0.516 seconds ahead of the New Zealand team of Raana Horan and Klem Christiansen.
Rounding out the podium was multiple pines champion Mark Burrows and Sean Ratcliffe, with Burrow’s time of 3.20.998 just 0.797 secs of the pace of Horan.
The 2016 winners of Matt Hanson and Leigh Wells slotted into fourth outright, edging out Andy Brown and Mark Sedran in fifth place by just 0.2 seconds.
Following the prologue, the field was divided into six heats of ten to twelve cars with the slowest heat first to start.
While heats one, two and three went off without a hitch, the quarry fought back in heat four with Matry and Max Scott’s #ARB1 Scott Avenger coming off second best.
Tussling for a position with Bowie Graham, Marty went wide of the course and hit a rut which sent the father and son team into an endo and barrell roll in the main arena.
The heat was flagged with remaining cars sent back to the start line, with Paul Youman and Graham Kluck coming unstuck and rolling their new Razorback Fusion #417 in a tight corner.
Recovery were quick in pulling the truck back on its wheels with the Queensland team able to continue racing and finish their head.
Heat five was next to go green and saw Brett and Corey Smith unsuccessfully attempt to change a damaged wheel in their #161 Southern Cross Next Gen before their allowed running time of 30 minutes expired.
The big guns came out to race when heat six went live, with the top ten machines from the prologue thundering through the quarry and flying through the air at the finish line jump.
The unique start order of a competitor’s fastest lap from Saturday’s prologue and short course proved popular with competiotors, with the track giving a dust free run as the faster cars worked their way through the field.
Although Millicent turned on all four seasons over the weekend, plenty of locals turned out at Teagle’s Quarry to get up close with the off road machinery and talk to the crews.
