THERE will be dirt, dust and plenty of action next weekend when Millicent hosts one of the most popular events on the calendar for off-road racing competitors.
Held September 21-23 Teagles Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400 is expected to attract many hundreds of racegoers, who will be treated to fast paced, off-road racing action.
The Millicent Sand Buddy Club has worked tirelessly to organise the event and the big screen television will be back to capture the thrills and spills of the weekend.
Proceedings will kick off from 5pm Friday, with scrutineering at Teagle’s quarry.
All competition vehicles will be checked over and then presented to the crowd in a “show ‘n’ shine” format, which will enable the public to get up close to racing machines.
Entry is free on Friday and catering is available.
On-track entertainment will commence at 10am on Saturday, with the Hards Transport Services prologue also held at the quarry.
Revheads will be in for a treat from the main arena as they witness buggies, trophy trucks and 4WD’s fly over natural terrain and man-made jumps in the one lap sprint around a six kilometre track.
The main arena is a favourite for competitors and spectators and is second to none in Australia to witness first hand the racing action close up.
After the prologue has been completed, competitors will be grouped into heats based on their qualifying time.
Each heat will have cars starting in pairs, with gaps of 30 seconds between each.
The competitors will complete three laps of the quarry circuit, with the overall time counting towards their total race time for the event.
This will ensure more competitors track time and allow spectators to see more of their favourite drivers throughout the day.
To conclude the action-packed weekend, the main race will take the field out to the forest from 8am Sunday in a reverse-grid format based on Saturday’s results.
The fastest cars will take off at the rear of the field, which should prove popular with many race teams tackling the local pine forests.
It will mean that the smaller and less capable vehicles will get first use of the forest tracks and the faster cars will have the track swept clean as they take on the 6x60km circuit, which winds through the Wattle Range Council roads, OneFortyOne Plantations and ForestrySA tracks.
Tackling the pines this year will be 52 entrants, among those are a number of interstate teams.
The unlimited buggy class has dominated the outright results in previous years and winners Matt Hanson, Mark Burrows, Garry Turnbull, Craig Martin and Andy Brown will all look to add to their silverware and take the top spot in 2018.
Danny Brown is the current ARB Off Road Racing Champion but has never tasted victory at The Pines and will be one to watch as the weekend unfolds.
The class-one buggies have been nipping at the heels of the higher powered unlimited class and the strong field assembled could be the upset.
Cameron McClelland has already won a round of the championship this season at his home in Sea Lake and will battle with this season’s championship leader Brent Martin for class honours.
Throw in the consistent Brett Smith and David Middlemiss, the experienced Lindsay Foster and talented local Matthew Salt and you have plenty of class racing action.
The class four trucks have been getting better and better over the last few years and Penola local Greg Gartner will hope to continue his recent good form and be at the pointy end of the field at the conclusion of racing.
Greg is another to have taken an outright win this year in the Riverland and the fast pine breaks should see the team be very competitive.
Warrnambool’s Damien Nicol has shown good speed in his class-four and is also one to watch in this competitive class.
Our local contingent is strong and should post some good class results.
Representatives include: Unlimited – Todd Lehmann, Garry Turnbull, Jason Peel; Class 1 – Matthew Salt; Class 2 – Tyson Proud, Aaron Heemskerk, Dean Carter; Class 4 – Greg Gartner, Grant Bowden; Class 7 – Heath Weedon.
The Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400 is Round 6 of the ARB Off Road Racing Championship and Round 2 of the Element Off Road AORRA South Australian Off Road Championship.
For more details check out the official Facebook page “Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400”.
