The championship was schedule for four rounds but Round 3, the Gundy 500 at Goondiwindi in August, was cancelled to persistent wet weather. Second in the championship went to Simon Tucker with Rylee Skinner, with Lachlan and Greg Campbell third.
The Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400 was the final round where Dale Martin and Mark Degruchy were the winners in their Jimco/Nissan V6 Twin Turbo buggy.
“We have been coming here for a long time, 10 years in a row. To finally get it [the win] is pretty special. Dad’s name is on this trophy as well and that means a fair bit to me,” Martin said.
In the Millicent sand Buggy Club hosted and AASA-sanctioned event, he finished 3:50 ahead of Haby (Element Prodigy/Toyota V6 Twin Turbo). There was a further 2:26 to third placed Andy Brown and Daniel Hardman (7.0-litre V8 Alumicraft) in an Ultimate clean sweep of the outright positions.
There were 12 out of the 53 entries with a mathematical chance to take out the championship. The event comprised four laps of the Short Course on Saturday and with a unique reverse grid start, six laps (360 kilometres) of the Long Course on Sunday.
Round 2 winner Todd Lehmann and Tanner James (Twin Turbo V6 Jimco) won the Prologue but had the steering rack break on the first lap. Andrew and Jack Cameron were also out, within the first kilometre with a huge end-for-end rollover in their Class 5 Mitsubishi Triton.
Day 1 went to Tom and Jack Owen (Jimco/Holden AlloyTech Twin Turbo) over Matt Hanson and Nigel Pendlebury (Jimco Aussie Special/Ford Ecoboost Twin Turbo) and Martin.
With the demise of Owen on Sunday’s Lap 1 and Hanson on Lap 3, Martin was able to take over the outright lead although Lehmann (after repairs) was the pace setter before he too retired.
The event also put paid to contenders Bowie Graham/Jason Richards and Stuart Chapman in their Class 10 buggies. Also to bow out were Ultimate classes Brent Martin/Andre De Simone and Danny Brown/George Apted.
Fourth at the end of the enduro were Matt Curtin and Grant Prior (Class 1 GCR Rhino/Nissan). They finished ahead of Dean Carter/Brad Jacob (Ultimate Razorback), Tucker (Class 1 Southern Cross), and Brodie Tickner (Class 10 Alumicraft)
Ninth outright Peter Sibson and Jason Munro in their Bennett Trophy Truck were best placed in Class 4 and the Campbells in 11th won Class 6.
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