The Marsue Transport Bencubbin 360, round 3 of the 2016 CAMS, PGS Industries Western Australian Off-Road Racing Championship (WAORC), was another successful event for the WA Off-Road Racing Association (WAORRA).
Held on the WA Day weekend (4-6 June 2016), most of the competitors arrived on the Friday to get ready for the long weekend of racing. After some late track changes were made by event organisers during the week making the track 375km in length, a few members went out on Friday to assist with checking markers and working on the track and marking the prologue track. Scrutineering started at 4pm that afternoon, with some keen competitors lined up around 3pm. It continued until well after dark and scrutineers had assessed around two thirds of the field by the time they finished at around 7pm. Scrutineering started again at 7:30am until 9:30am on Saturday morning then the fun started with reconnaissance soon after.
With the a huge field of 34 cars, WAORRA made sure the sponsors, spectators and families were catered for as well. We had access to the sporting facilities at the Bencubbin Sports Grounds all weekend, complete with hot showers and a playground for the little kids. The footy was getting kicked around the oval and a few of the bigger kids raced their bikes around their own tracks and jumps.
A netball scratch-match was held on Saturday afternoon between Bencubbin Netball Club and some of the off-road ladies which saw some friendly competition. The Bencubbin team play regularly together and they smashed off-road team with 9 – 0 in the first quarter. The off-road ladies came back in second quarter, and then both teams were matching goal for goal right up until the end. The final score was Bencubbin 30 to Off-Road 26 and the off-roaders are keen for a re-match next year!
The WAORRA Social Club hosted a kids’ movie Friday and Saturday nights in the basketball pavilion which kept them warm and dry. The two movies, Cars and Zootopia, plus the popcorn and lollies, were a huge hit with the kids (big and little!) as well as the parents.
The Social Club sold a record number of raffle tickets and local resident Ash was the lucky winner of the major raffle prize of a Webber Q 200 bbq.
WAORRA would like to thank major event sponsors for the fourth year in a row, Marsue Transport. Based in South Guildford with teams located in Karratha, Port Hedland, Kwinana, Canning Vale and Bunbury, and with a fleet of over 80 trucks, Marsue Transport have all your transport needs covered.
WAORRA would also like to thank Sally Morgan and the Shire of Mount Marshall for inviting competitors to race in the lovely town of Bencubbin and providing some of the best amenities of any event in the WAORC. The Bencubbin Silver Chain put on a delicious hot dinner on the Saturday night; the Bencubbin Community Recreational Council provided breakfast each day to raise money for redevelopment of the sporting complex; and the Bencubbin Community Recreational Council and the Bencubbin Bowls Club kept everyone watered at the bar all weekend. WAORRA send out a massive thank you to the property owners for letting competitors tear up their land, as well as property owner Leanne Gobbart who managed the canteen all weekend to make sure no-one went hungry.
And finally… thanks to all of our dedicated and hard-working WAORRA volunteers – you know who you are!
Check out the Bencubbin page for a full write-up, results, photos, videos and links.
The next event on the WAORC calendar is the Kalgoorlie 400, but before that, make sure you get tickets for WAORRA’s Bogan Bingo night on Friday 1 July. Tickets can be purchased from our website.
Regards,
Kim Yaxley
WAORRA President