Entries for the 2021 Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399 are now open with more than 75 crews expected to take part in the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) season opener.

Gearing up for its fourth edition since joining the AORC calendar in 2017, the popular South Queensland based event will once again have the honour of getting the championship underway.

While St George hosting be the opening round is fast becoming a regular occurrence, there will be some big differences to this year’s running as opposed to previous years with it now taking place in March, as well as the organising club, the South East Queensland Off Road Racing Association (SEQORRA), opting to move away from the traditional race format and run prologue on the Friday afternoon.

Crews will then tackle two laps of the 80km course on the Saturday before completing the remaining kilometres on Sunday with three laps spread across two sections.

Early bird entries to the popular event will close at 5pm on 26 February AEST, while any other interested crews have until Friday 5 March to enter the Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399.

Since opening up for entries, SEQORRA has already received an impressive 22 crews, with 2018 Prologue winner Matt Hanson the biggest name to already lock in his grand return to the event.

SEQORRA President Kym Barber was pleased there was so much interest surrounding the AORC opening round.

“The event is all under control. We have pretty much done everything we need to do except for a few minor things, but other than that, it’s coming rather well and falling into place,” Barber said.

“We have capped the event to 100 entries as we had about 75 at the last event we had in St George and because of COVID, we are expecting there will be a lot of interest this year, so entries should be pretty high.

“On top of the 22 already signed up, we have had about 45 crews put in expressions of interest, which is a great sign. Plenty of people are making enquiries and there has also been a bit of interest in the invitational class.

“We are also expecting to see a lot of top runners join soon, especially since it’s the first round of the new look five round championship, so it’s all very exciting.”

Outside of registering their place for the Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399, competitors must register their vehicle number by 5 March if they plan to contend in any AORC round, while competitions will no longer need to register for the championship with all entries at any round to automatically be entered into the AORC.

The 2021 Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399 takes place in St George on 19-21 March.