A strong contingent of Super 1650 competitors greeted the start lights at the ARB Griffith 400, some chasing New South Wales Off Road Championship points and others looking to open their ARB Off Road Racing Series bank account.

The clear winner in the Super 1650 class for the weekend was second generation offroader Daniel Wells. Wells has stepped out from his multiple Australian champion father Daren’s shadow and is making a name for himself as a quick and consistent driver in Super 1650 class.

Wells’ record at Griffith is flawless, winning the Super 1650 title for three consecutive years. After a close tussle with Derek Rose and Luke Gilkinsons #279, Wells and Price claimed victory by 5minutes over Rose. The times could have been closer between Wells ans Rose who was penalised 3m10s for being late into parc ferme.

Griffith locals Peter Hunt and Tom Vearing #253 in the ex Russell Hartnett - Matt Owen Cougar clocked in third in class behind Rose; a great effort for his first competition drive.

Karl Power and daughter Sharni’s introduction to competitive off road racing was successful, the local Griffith team securing fourth in Super 1650 class and the #243 Bullet the last in class to complete all laps.

Of the 11 Super 1650 entries, just four greeted the checkered flag. Alistair McClelland and Steve Newick #228 were mixing with the front runners of the class until the last lap when a rear suspension arm failure ended their day.

The Lothringer #229 of Adam and Karen Barnacoat suffered a head gasket failure in the Daihatsu engine, leaving the husband and wife team one lap short of full race distance.

Team DTM had a difficult weekend. During the lap on Saturday, a few kilometres in, the #284 Maybery built Super 1650 stopped which what appeared to be an electrical fault ending their run, They were brought back to the pits on the tow rope by recovery.

Team DTM set about finding and solving the issue with the only focus to get to Sunday’s start grid for the remaining 300km. After borrowing and installing a cam angle sensor, the fault turned out to be a short in the wiring loom from the Motec computer. With the dramas resolved, the DTM machine fronted the start lights on Sunday morning for the remaining 300km with the buggy running like clockwork.

Queenslanders Mick Phillips with wife Lisa and Morgan Mann sharing the navigating spent Saturday chasing an electrical issues in their #242 Alumi Craft instead of chasing race cars, eventually fixing and going on to complete the three Sunday laps.

Adrian and Bob McCurdy were off to a good start with their ARB Griffith 400 campaign until lap three when the #207 Southern Cross ended up a bit worse for wear after hitting a trackside obstacle and tearing off a wheel.

Tie rod failure on Sunday morning ended Brett Price and Ricky Whiteley’s hope for a good haul of ARB Off Road Racing Series points, the #227 Saber limping back to the pits. Scott Muma and James McIver had a difficult weekend; the #288 Trekka failed to finish Saturday’s lap, the team fixing overnight and fronting the start lights on Sunday only to suffer clutch failure on lap two. A die hard effort from the team.

Photographer: Andrew Stott