The Comiskey Mining Services Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship remains wide open as crews descend on South Australia for the Loveday 400 this weekend.
A high attrition rate at both the season-opening Pooncarie Desert Dash and the Finke Desert Race in June means the 2026 title is up for grabs at the halfway point of the season.
This is especially the case after, in a late twist, championship leader Hayden Bentley was forced to withdraw from the Loveday event for personal reasons.
It leaves Pro Buggy driver Dale Martin in the box seat to make the championship his own despite a horrid run with mechanical issues at Finke.
“Our plan for the weekend is to get a better result than we got at Finke,” Martin said.
“We went up to Finke with all good intentions and then we only went 40 kays. We’ve always said that you’ve just got to get through Finke and you’ll have a good chance at the championship but we didn’t get through Finke and we’re still through the front.
“There’s a lot of bad news stories, I guess.”
Martin thought his season had unravelled altogether when a loose water line destroyed his engine just 40km into the Finke event. However, the combined results and high attrition rate of the opening two rounds of the championship have worked in his favour.
Thankfully for Martin, his decision to run a stock Ford F-150 motor – a 3.5-litre V6 EcoBoost petrol engine – paid dividends in terms of replacing the motor during the tight six-week turnaround from Finke, as did his decision to buy a spare engine when building the car two years ago.
“We got it done but it came down the wire,” Martin said.
“New motor and a few changes and we’re ready to go again. I couldn’t do it without my Dad Craig, he’s the backbone of all of it.
“We’ll see how we get on this weekend.”
Martin currently sits second outright in the AORC standings after two rounds, 94 points adrift of Bentley. Importantly for him, third-placed Travis Robinson won’t be contesting Loveday following his shock retirement from the sport following a resounding back-to-back Finke win.
That leaves fourth-placed Boston Morgan-Horan – just 18 points adrift of Martin – as his next closest rival.
“After Finke, to see that Todd Lehmann DNFd along with a heap of others – along with Beau Robinson DNFing at the first round – it’s surprising to be here. That win we got in the first round has definitely put us in a good position,” he said.
“It’s not a very long championship and you really can’t afford a DNF.”
The Loveday 400 event will determine a lot of things in terms of championship complexion.
For Martin, it will be the deciding factor on whether he ventures to Western Australia to compete in the Kalgoorlie Desert Race for the first time.
“We’ve never been over to Kalgoorlie before. We’ll make that decision on Sunday night,” Martin laughed.
“It’s a big decision for us, and it’s a lot of time and money to go over and do Kalgoorlie. If we weren’t in the championship box seat, we probably wouldn’t go. I’m not 21 anymore, I’ve got a business and family.”
Elsewhere in the AORC, it is Glen Ackroyd who leads a hotly contested SXS field following a win at Finke and another strong performance at Pooncarie.
Ackroyd and navigator Michael Price head up a star-studded SXS field at Loveday, including the surprise inclusion of Supercars legend Craig Lowndes, who will pilot a Can-Am Maverick R entry alongside navigator Dale Moscatt.
The Loveday 400 gets underway with Method Race Wheels Prologue on Friday afternoon. That will determine the starting order for Saturday’s opening Section 1, with two days of exciting racing coming up at the South Australian venue.
Stay up to date on the latest AORC news and results via the Motorsport Australia website, YouTube and social channels.
