The 2019 CAMS Tasmanian Off Road Championship season has come to end, with Chris Boon claiming a six-minute victory over Chris Branch.
In what was a brutal race, which saw only two drivers finish the full 500 laps of the short off road course at St Helens beach, Boon and Branch had enjoyed a brilliant battle all weekend.
Branch got off to the better start enjoying a one minute win in the first 100 lap run, before Boon got his first run victory – overturning the one-minute deficit to a two minute lead with 300 laps to go.
In the third 100 lap run, Boon extended his lead to almost four minutes after crossing the line just shy of two minutes, only for Branch to peg back the lead and take out a one and half minute fourth 100-lap victory.
With just two and half minutes separating the two ahead of the final run, it was Boon who came off the better – storming home almost three minutes faster than Branch and securing the outright five-minute victory.
Rounding out the podium, behind the battle taking out the title for the best of the rest, was Chris Shepheard with the Sportslite driver finishing all but the third run.
Despite taking out his first victory at St Helens in nine attempts, Boon wasn’t confident he would win until the final stages of the event.
“It’s one I have been trying to win for about nine years now so I have been racing there for years and it has eluded me by 22 seconds in the past, so it’s pretty good to finally win it,” Boon said.
“To be honest, I never thought the win would come. In fact, even during the final stages of the event, I didn’t think that because I once had an incident there on the last lap having completed 99, which has stopped me from winning it.
“I wasn’t confident until I actually crossed the line and I was absolutely thrilled.
“Throughout the race, I was just focused on trying to get the car home. The event is all about preserving the car but still put on a race for everyone. It’s a combination of everything, which makes it a really good race.
“I had trouble early on in the race with a drive axle coming out of it. I had to get out of the car and repair the car and get going - that happened twice over the weekend and we couldn’t do anything to permanently fix it so it was a problem and never assumed we were going to win. “
With Boon being just one of two drivers to finish the event, he confirmed that it was a difficult track.
“It’s just the way the track is,” Boon added.
“It’s a five to seven kilter track and you’re doing 100 laps on it so the track just digs out really bad. The track did get incredibly tough throughout the win.”