The Champ goes back to back at Perenjori
The 2023 McPhee Freight, Gturbo Perenjori 360 will go down in the record books as a hotly contested race with many twists and turns right through to the final lap. A record field of 60 entrants turned into only 55 starters after a few withdrawals and competitors with issues during the leadup to the race. Amongst the field we had former state champions and former race winners such as Trewhella, Percival and Uren whilst a whole heap more contenders such as Ketteridge-Hall, Higgins, Sobcyzk and the Wells Racing Team looked set to make this a battle to the finish
Prologue was sponsored by JohnDec Plastics & Lemonis/Tantirpasut Lawyers with $300 to the winner, whilst 2nd and 3rd would take home $200 and $100 respectively. It was Troy Higgins in the beautifully presented GET Buggy which would clock in quickest, a time 6 seconds better than current state champion, Adam Trewhella. Harleigh Uren running a Pro Truck would move himself into 3rd with Stephen Ketteridge-Hall flying the flag for the Prolites in 4th. Jayden Grewar showed his pace, putting the RAW Racing SXS Pro into 5th outright whilst other class leaders were Graeme Bentink in PRoduction 4wd, Pieter De Wit in Performance 2wd, Scott Bryce in Extreme 4wd Buggy, Daniel Jones in Extreme 4wd, Simon Jones in Performance 2wd and Aaron Gates being the fastest Sportslite
Saturday afternoon would see a single 80km lap to be the task ahead of the teams. Whilst Higgins lead from start to finish, he wouldn’t clock in the quickest time, that honor going to Adam Trewhella, showing he had pace on the long run. Stephen Ketteridge-Hall signalled his intentions early, firing his was into 2nd, whilst Higgins would have to settle for 3rd. One of the early pacesetter Uren dropped out with mechanical issues as Brad Krepp moved the Terra Racing Extreme 2wd to 4th as he took over the class lead. Alex Davies set a blistering time, 5th outright and now the new SXS Pro class leader over Grewar who was 40 seconds back. Scott Bryce was another big mover, up 26 positions to 10th in his Extreme 4wd Buggy. Graeme Bentink continued to be impressive in the Gturbo Production 4wd, moving up to 18th outright whilst Aaron Gates, Pieter De Wit and Simon Jones continued to lead their classes. Warren Claasen took over the Extreme 4wd class lead as the field was narrowed down to just 44 competitors. Kodi Clayden rolled his SXS Pro and despite a valiant effort to try fix the buggy, would be unable to restart the following day
As the sun rose on Sunday morning, conditions were almost perfect. The cooler morning air and slight breeze would be in play for 2 laps of the 80km course. Trewhella took this as an opportunity to stamp his authority on the event, flying around the track over a minute quicker on each lap to extend his lead at the front. Higgins also pushed, making up time and overtaking Ketteridge-Hall to move into 2nd outright after setting the 2nd quickest time. Ketteridge-Hall would drop to 3rd, whilst behind him Paul Delacey had a dream run in his SXS Pro to set the 4th quickest time. Karl Richardson was one of the tales of woe, breaking an axle on the start line, which was then repaired and allowed him to complete a lap before running out of late running time. Meanwhile, Percival and Sobczyck were locked in a tight battle, trading lap times and moving their way up the field. Bryce’s solid run came to an end allowing Peer Horn to take over the Extreme 4wd Buggy Class lead. Graeme Bentink once again clocked very impressive lap times putting his Production 4wd 200 Series into the top 10 on times. Simon Jones, maintained his lead in Performance 2wd, as did Warren Claasen in Extreme 4wd. Aaron Gates also continued to lead the Sportslite class, however a slow second lap hampering his progress through the field.
In the final section, again 2 laps it would all change at the front. Whilst Trewhella was untouchable, Higgins left the line and developed an engine misfire, only making it 1km before having to pull out of the race. Ketteridge-Hall moved up into 2nd, but not for long as he also suffered engine dramas. Warren Claasen did not finish in his Extreme 4wd Navara and Simon Jones was another to drop out of the race after leading Performance 2wd all weekend. This meant it was all change throughout the field as just 24 teams finished the full race distance. Trewhella took a well deserved outright and Pro Buggy win, whilst Rob Soczyk finished in 2nd outright and 1st in Prolite. Mr Consistency, Jared Percival rounded out the outright podium. Paul Delacey came in 4th outright in his SXS Pro and in doing so claimed a $1000 payday with the SXS class being sponsored by InterEarth due to its lower emissions nature. Graeme Bentink pulled off a miracle run, getting his Production 4wd home in 7th outright. Peer Horn claimed the Extreme 4wd Buggy class win, whilst Matthew Beck finished in the Top 20 and also won the Extreme 4wd class. Matching his brothers efforts, Sean Beck also sealed a class win in the Performance 2wd Kingswood, making it 2 class wins out of 2 for the WA Off Road Junior Development Program. Whilst not completing all laps, the other class winners were Aaron Gates in Sportslite, Pieter DeWit in Super 1650 and Karl Richardson in Extreme 2wd
Full results can be found here
The WAORC now looks forward to the Gascoyne Dash for Round 2 of the series and if Round 1 was anything to go by, it is set to be a cracking race!