On
the June long weekend the 35th Tattersall's Finke Desert
Race was held in Alice Springs. The 450km race consisted of
some fast flowing sections of track and notorious whoop
sections of the sand track. Friday night was scrutineering
as big as ever with thousands of people crowding the shed to
see the 94 race cars on display. Saturday was a easy day
with only prologue to take place, the track was a 8km course
with whoops and sandy corners. Robert Chapman and his
navigator Ross Challacombe in their Extreme 4WD Mitsubishi
Pajero took second place out of seven cars in class. Clayton
Chapman and navigator Adam McGuire in their Production 4WD
Mitsubishi Triton came in first place out of the five teams
in class. Sunday was an early 5:30am start at the start line
for the teams as the first as the first car was to leave at
7:30. The top 10 buggies leave singularly then the rest of
the field take off from the line in pairs. Ahead of the
teams was the first 225km leg of this point to point race to
the community of Finke. Robert crossed the half way line
with no problems in a time a 2hr 48min to be leading the
Extreme 4WD class by 15min. Clayton also having no issues
with the Triton crossed the line in a time of 3hr 01min to
be second in class to previous class champion Geoff
Pickering in his new Pajero by 4min.
The pit
crew left early Sunday morning to meet the teams at Finke,
Brett Huxstep, Craig Houston and Geoff Monk work tirelessly
to check every nut and bolt on the vehicles so that they
were race ready for Mondays leg. No issues with the Pajero
and only a broken engine mount and rear leaf spring to be
fixed on the Triton. A cold -1°c morning greeted the teams
at another 5:30 start on Monday. The same 225km track was
ahead of the teams this time racing it backwards from Finke
to Alice. The top ten buggies left on corrected time and the
rest of the field at 1min intervals. Rob and Ross not having
to make up any time was tacking it easy on the return leg,
however at the 110km point their race was put to an abrupt
stop with the bottom ball joint of the front right
suspension arm breaking out, Rob and Ross attempted to tie
it together with wire and zip ties unfortunately this wasn't
good enough to get them the remaining 110km, so all they
could do was sit and wait for the team truck to pick them
up. Clayton and Adam took of from the line with a slipping
transfer chain in the Triton so Clayton decided to run the
return leg in two wheel drive to save the chain from
breaking and smashing the case open and ending their race
for good, although they were slower in the sand they were
able to finish. They passed Geoff Pickering who had a flat
tyre and pushed to make up lost time, they crossed the
finish line in a time of 3hr and 4min to only be beaten by
1min over the 480kms by Geoff Pickering.
The team
will now be in the shed completely overhauling the cars for
the next national round the Griffith 700 in NSW in August.
