Offroad Expo, Landcruiser Mountain Park 

Landcruiser Mountain Park held the annual Offroad Expo on the May long weekend. Expo is two days of short course racing including a 3km gymkhana loop, hill drags, barrel race and the super rally cross. Also at Expo there is a the Team challenge where six teams of four cars get points from each event totaled together to see who is champion team.

 The Chapmans Offroad Racing Team consisted of Leila Chapman racing in Ladies class, Robert Chapman in Petrol Modified, Jason Wotherspoon in Diesel and Clayton Chapman in Petrol Standard. First on Saturday was the gymkhana, Leila placed second in Ladies, Clayton came in first in Petrol Standard and Robert place first in Modified and first outright. Hill drags were first up on Sunday morning, a 250m straight line drag race up a slight incline is a sure test of horsepower. Leila place first in Ladies and third outright in the Pajero, and Clayton came in third in Standard Petrol. Barrel race was up next where the driver must get the car around three barrels in a particular order the fastest to win. Leila was the only team member to place in this event with a third in Ladies.

The main event the Super Rally Cross was the final event of the weekend where two drivers race side by side on a manmade rally track with a bridge cross over and a jump over a shipping container, more than horsepower is needed to win this event. Leila placed in second in Ladies, Robert came in third in Petrol Modified and Clayton placed first in class and fourth outright.In the end the Chapmans Offroad Racing Team were just beaten in the Team challenge by 2 points by the ARB team.

Sexton Short Course 

A 19 strong field of competitors arrived at sexton for this round where the Gympie Auto Sports Club had set out a new 5km track consisting of fast flowing paddocks and steep wet gullies. The format for the weekend was three laps of the track on Saturday and four double laps on Sunday.

From the green light the twin turbo charged Pajero piloted by Leila was in two wheel drive because of a slipping transfer chain. After the final lap of the day Clayton in his Triton lost rear brake due to the line being torn, this was easily repaired. The first day of competition saw Rob first in Extreme 4WD and recording the second fastest lap of the day, Leila second in Extreme 4WD and Clayton first in Production 4WD.

Sunday was not to be a good day for Rob in his Pajero, because in his second last lap he broke both the front and rear diffs ending his race. However he was able to complete his last section uses Leila's Pajero. Once all the racing had been finished Leila ended up first in both Extreme 4WD and Ladies class, Robert came home in second in Extreme and Clayton first in Production 4WD and fourth outright.Next race is the Finke Desert Race held on June long weekend.