West Australian Travis Robinson has emerged the man to beat at the Loveday 400 in South Australia, following dramatic scenes in the opening five laps across two sections on Saturday.

Marking round three of the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC), Loveday’s crowd watched on in disbelief as Robinson capitalised on a costly error by Kiwi young gun Boston Morgan-Horan just after the start-finish line of the 40km course.

Click here for a full list of provisional results.

Having completed the first section of the day fastest, Morgan-Horan was on a tear in the afternoon’s Section Two, holding a commanding lead at the commencement of his third and final lap. A lapse in judgement forced his Extreme 2WD Trophy Truck to overshoot a corner before coming to a rest with the berm lodged between his front and rear axles, effectively beaching his car.

The crowd watched on as support vehicles hurried to pull Morgan-Horan out of the situation so he could continue his final lap. The incident handed AORC title leader Travis Robinson a 28-second lead outright at the completion of Saturday’s final section.

Despite the drama, Morgan-Horan held onto second outright, while Beau Robinson finished almost seven minutes adrift in third.

“I went in a bit hot approaching the berm, overshot the corner and just got caught,” Morgan-Horan explained.

“I was pretty angry, all I could keep thinking was ‘I wish they would have got rid of that berm’. The final lap was good aside from that, I was a bit hard on the truck and overdrove it a bit but we didn’t lose as much time as I thought.

“We’re not too bad, still second in the session. Hopefully a bit of luck goes my way Sunday.”

Brenton Forsyth, Brent Smoothy and Roydn Bailey completed the top six outright on Saturday, while South Australian Wes Cowie finished a remarkable seventh on the day following a four-year hiatus from competition.

The opening day of racing at Loveday came with a high rate of attrition owed to the circuit’s hard-edged bumps and tricky conditions, with James Cook and Thomas Swinglehurst both among the competitors forced to withdraw from the event.

The 2024 winner of the Loveday 400, Morgan-Horan said he would put Saturday’s slip-up behind him and concentrate on making up the lost ground during Sunday’s final two sections. Key to it will be allowing the race to come to him.

“You’ve got to be smooth around here, it’s like train tracks out there and if you drive too fast you’ll just pop out of them and make a mistake,” Morgan-Horan explained.

Meanwhile, in the SXS race it was Lachlan Bailey who topped the class, taking advantage of a strong prologue to finish the day marginally ahead of Glen Ackroyd.

The pair traded blows throughout Saturday’s five laps of the Loveday course. After 200km of racing, a mere three separated them – good enough for eighth outright and ninth outright respectively.

A South Australian local, Bailey has terrific form at Loveday, having finished the event fifth outright respectively in 2023 and 2024.

“Glen was running a pretty fast pace during that second session, and I wasn’t really willing to take that step and wreck the car for tomorrow. I let him go a bit but I’m happy to be in front,” Bailey reflected.

“The plan now is to preserve the car because it’s getting really rough out there. The smooth parts are the straights, anywhere it gets tight or there’s a single line that’s where it gets rough. We’ll see how we go tomorrow.”

All the action at the Loveday 400 continues Sunday morning from 8.30am South Australian time. Competitors will first complete three laps of the 40km course, before a final two-lap dash in the afternoon.

Click here for a full list of provisional results.