Round 5 of the 2018 CAMS, Carnarvon Motel Western Australian Off-Road Racing Championship took place on 22-23 September 2018, in the town of Three Springs, 315km north of Perth in the Mid-West Region of Western Australia.
The weather gods delivered the goods, offering perfect racing conditions with clear skies and minimal dust. Shane and Curt Elphinstone (44) took advantage of the conditions and led the charge nearly all weekend, finishing first outright and earning top spot on the podium. Jared Percival and Darryn Beckett (119) drove a solid race to take second, coming in nearly 18 minutes behind the leaders. With the Doneys hot on their heels, Mal Yeardley and Stephen Ketteridge-Hall (171) pedalled hard to catch their Prolite rivals, missing out by only a couple of minutes, but still taking a very respectable third outright.
In the rest of the classes, Deon Visage (1010) took out first in Sportslite; Aaron and daughter Jerilyn Dark (293) took first in Super 1650, with Jerilyn receiving the honours of first female to cross the finish line (a fitting achievement in their pink buggy raising awareness for breast cancer); Colin and Peter Doney took first in Extreme 2WD, narrowly missing out on an outright podium position; Fluffy Fahey and Sean Beck (583) took out the Performance 2WD field, gaining another notch on the Junior Development Program’s belt; Chris Unstead and Nick Scolaro (674) took out the SXS Turbo field and a very tidy fifth outright; father-son team of Ben and Tyler Armstrong (764) took home first in Production 4WD; and Nicholas van Geest and James Eames (832) claimed the top spot in the Extreme 4WD class.
As with all off-road events, there were many hard luck stories, including Nathaniel Edwards (160) with a hole in his engine in lap 1, and John Flynn (253) with a broken front shockie tower, likely caused by a couple of ‘lop-sided’ jumps and twisted landings.
With 43 starters and 18 finishers, there are too many stories to tell, so check out the full results on the MyRaceResult website.
Huge thanks to everyone responsible for organising this event, both behind the scenes and for track prep. It was fantastic to see the collaboration between all four WA off-road clubs WAORRA, Western Desert Racers, Off-Road Racing WA, and Gascoyne Off-Road Racing Club. We had an overwhelming amount of support from the shire and locals, with local sporting and community groups keeping the racers fed and watered all weekend at the canteen and bar.
A huge thanks also goes out to event naming rights sponsors Inland Mechanical and Westside Insurance Service and other sponsors the Three Springs Shire Council, Carnarvon Motel, Fuel Distributors WA, and Radlink Communications.
Missed out on the action? Check out the following links:
- Event results
- Elphinstone Dominates the Three Springs 360 – article by Jason Galea
- Photos by
Photo: Shelley Howe
