The Western Australian Off Road Racing Association (WAORRA) will host the bi-annual Genie Exhaust Brookton King of the Hill this weekend with the club expecting an entertaining spectacle.  

Around 19 crews have entered the off road event, which celebrates its 20 year anniversary and doubles as one of four rounds that make up the club’s internal off road series. 

Having first taken place in 2002, the event has since become a staple on the club calendar, with crews to complete 150 competitive kilometres of the 15km course over two six-lap sections.

Headlining the entry list is the ever-popular Harleigh Uren - the state championship star once again projected to put on a show for the crowd in his dazzling trophy truck, as well as contest for top honours.

His biggest opponents come in the form of another state competitor in prolite pilot Stephen Ketteridge-Hall and Keith Rance in his Chev l98 pro-buggy, who enters the round as the dark horse. 

Unfortunately, the event has ended up in between two state rounds with the Gascoygne Dash taking place at the start of the month and the Bencubbin 330 just weeks away, meaning the entry list has less stars than usual.

However with plenty of history surrounding the event and a small but impressive entry list confirmed to battle it out this year, club president Michael Davis was looking forward to what would be a memorable weekend.

“The Brookton race is exciting for a couple of reasons. It really does get back to the grassroots off road racing and it’s a great little short course event which has lots of old school wheel to wheel racing,” Davis said.

“We would have loved to have had more but because we have to work around state rounds, it makes it difficult. We just had the gas dash, Bencubbin is soon and logistically, it’s difficult to get to a race within a couple of weeks, so a lot of competitors are still recovering. 

“With that said, we have a good group of competitors, especially Harleigh who is a huge crowd favourite. He gives that trophy truck plenty of stick and turns it on for the crowd. 

“Keith Rance in his pro-buggy is a quiet achiever. He is a handy driver. Those guys will definitely turn it on. If they are racing side-by-side, it will definitely be interesting to watch.

“The course is traditional for WA. There are a lot of granite, hills and creeks - a real mixture of track conditions and there has also been lots of rain over the past few days too, so this will be very interesting.”

The event starts on Saturday morning with Prologue, before competitors complete section one on Saturday afternoon. The remaining six laps that make up section two will be on Sunday morning.

The Genie Exhaust Brookton King of the Hill takes place in Brookton, Western Australia on 1-2 May.