Travis Robinson and Andrew Pinto have won the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship with a round still to go after they secured an unassailable championship lead at the Loveday 400.
The fourth round was won by nine-times AORC Champions Shannon and Ian Rentsch who scored their first-round victory since 2019.
It was a troubled run for all in the top end of the championship. Robinson and Pinto salvaged fourth place while title rivals Mel, Emily and Liam Brandle (Alumi Craft/Nissan V6 Prolite) finished sixth, and reigning SXS Champions James Cook and Mitch Aucote (Can-Am) limped home outside the top 10.
Rentsch led from start to finish and built on a four-minute lead on Saturday in his Nissan Twin Turbo-powered Jimco Pro Buggy to comfortably beat Tom Owen and Damon Bennett (Jimco/Holden AlloyTech TT) by almost six-minutes.
Behind Rentsch, the battle was on where Owen in only his second event, ultimately won out over Roydn Bailey and Dean Ellbourn (Element Prodigy/Toyota V8 TT) after they were neck-and-neck for much of the 10 laps in four sections and covering 420km.
Robinson had multiple mechanical issues yet comfortably came in ahead of fifth-placed and Prolite winners, Alan Dixon and Zachary O’Bree (Southern Cross/Nissan V8).
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“It feels good – all the years and lessons from old Man [Brian Robinson] is finally paid off,” Robinson said. “No doubt, the old man was watching over us.”
“We have had lots of curveballs thrown at us this season, but we’ve just kept it together and it’s been a very hectic year, but we have come together as a team.”
The high attrition means the SXS MA Championship title continue to the season finale. Lachlan Bailey and Nathan Sracek had little issues though and had a comfortable 17-minute victory over Greg and Lachlan Campbell, with the two Pro Turbo Can-Am crews placing seventh and eighth respectively outright.
Also in the top 10 were Graham and Aaron Colbran and Glenn Brinkman and Dale Moscatt, also in Can-Ams.
Other class victors who finished the 10 laps included Connor and Sarah Galliford (Super 1650 Raptor/Toyota), who finished 13th, and Sean and Mathew Beck (Holden Kingswood V8) with top honours in the Performance 2WD class.
In trouble early were Prologue winner Toby Whateley and Simon Herrmann (Rush Loveday Truck 001/Holden V8 Extreme 2WD), and Daniel and Charlotte Hughes (Southern Cross/Chev LS2) with broken axles. Nic Hicks and Christian MacIntosh (Element Prodigy/Nissan TT) lost power steering, and Simon and Lucy Tucker had front-end issues with their Southern Cross/Nissan.
The fifth and final round of the will take place at the Kalgoorlie Desert Race on October 19-22.
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