Day 1 Recap – Carnarvon 360
At the end of Day 1 of the Carnarvon Motel, Pinjarra Engineering Carnarvon 360 the race is incredibly tight. Reconnaissance was not kind to many of the racers, Adam Trewhella broke an axle, Andrew Sawyer lost a wheel, John Flynn had fuel pump issues and Greg Pickersgill had driveline issues. Fortunately all but Pickersgill were able to start the prologue. The 425 trophy truck is being worked on and hopefully will be able to start days 2 racing after missing todays section
Earlier Elphinstone won the prologue 0.73 seconds ahead of Agrela and the 2 have been locked in a dog fight ever since. In section 1 they traded times as Agrela ended section 1’s 2 laps of the Carnarvon course just 14.33 seconds ahead of Elphinstone in the 44 Pro buggy. 3rd position belongs to Brett Smith, with the prolite competitor reveling in the tricky conditions to create a small gap back to Brad Cooper followed by Rob Collings in 5th. Brett Renton is having a solid run, but will have a 4 minute 33 second deficit to the leaders to start on day 2 and will be starting in position 6.
Darryl Hardman is the 1st of the Trophy Trucks, holding the Extreme 2wd class lead as well as 7th outright. Chris May put in one of the drives of the day to land himself in 8th outright and 1st in Production 4wd. Owen Davies leads the Extreme 4wd class, but a damaged rim and subsequent flat tyre has slowed his progress.
There were many hard luck stories throughout the day, Adam Trewhella in the #52 Rimco has lost the clutch and is out of the event whilst Leigh Coopers 814 Pajero had to DNF the section after hitting a culvert at 140km/h and damaging the steering. Ben Armstrong must have felt like he ran over a black cat, with bad luck hampering his run with a flat tyre and busted wheel bearings to come home as the final finisher. John Flynn was another with issues after his fuel pump issues earlier in the day, the Super 1650 was forced out on lap 2 electrical gremlins. Electrical gremlins also struck Peter Barrett, with the car cutting out repeatedly.
Sundays racing will see the competitors tackle 2 sections, each 2 laps of this grueling course. Whilst it has been windy all weekend, the dust is starting to become a major factor.
For todays results see here
Photos by Kiera Piercy & Sean Beck
