The Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 420km race kicked off on Sunday morning with ideal weather conditions for competitors and spectators alike.

The buggies, cars and trucks left the start line two at a time in 30 second intervals, roaring into the Mt Burr forests.

Shannon and Ian Rentsch #1 together with Matt Hanson and Leigh Wells #7 were the first pair away from the start line as the clock hit 8:30am with Rentsch getting the jump and leading into the first lap.

However, it was Jack Rhodes and David Pullino #91, who started out of position three, who were the first to return to Teagles Quarry at the end of lap one with a 50 second advantage over Rentsch after Rentsch had two small spins early in the lap.

Hanson and Wells were a noticeable omission from the running order after a section of the track caught them out causing the #7 Jimco to roll and unable to continue.

Danny Brown and George Apted #42 pushed hard on lap one to come through to third on corrected time after starting from tenth position with Carl Haby #56 just 3seconds ahead of Mark Burrows and Sean Ratcliffe #21 the next best.

Rhodes and Pullino #91 drove a calculated race holding an advantage over the next five laps to take the outright victory, the team’s first Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400 outright win. The pair finished ahead of Shannon and Ian Rentsch #1 who pushed hard, but couldn't cut the time deficit to the lead car.

Mark Burrows and Sean Ratcliffe #21 leaped into third over Danny Brown and George Apted #42, when Brown had a niggling electrical issue that halted his run forward.

A total of 29 cars were able to complete full race distance over the extremely rough circuit.

Class winners included Dale Martin #133 for Prolite, Geoff Roe #409 in Extreme 2WD, Jeff Loader #513 Performance 2WD, Daniel Wells #218 in Super 1650, Jason Whittaker #898 for Extreme 4WD and Geoff Pickering #701 in Production 4WD.

Source: Mark Heemskerk
Photographer: Andrew Stott