Aaron Haby has claimed another victory in the ARB SAORRA Multi Club Series after dominating the 2021 Filmer Delivery 200 from start to finish.
Hosted by the Gawler Road Knight Car Club on a private property in Port Germein, 39 crews from around the state took part in the event, which saw them complete 200 kilometres of the 17km course over three sections.
As the first car off the line, Haby showed why he was the favourite heading into the event, going 48 seconds faster than the next best driver in Hayden Bentley on the one-lap first section.
The 48-year-old went to another level in the five-lap middle section as he went three and half minutes quicker than Bentley, who was deep in his own battle for second against Pro Buggy pilot Adam Bierl – less than 10 seconds separating the two at the halfway mark of the event.
On the final section, crews ran the remaining six laps and Haby once again proved too fast for the competition as he was the only driver to complete the section under one hour.
With Haby finishing the final section in 58 minutes and Bentley in second place a further three and half minutes off the pace, the winner, who had daughter Chelsea and Rowan Eggers sharing navigator duties, ended up crossing the line with a lead just shy of seven and half minutes.
"This win was pretty awesome. To finish the year off on a high and on a weekend when my daughter drove the car on the Saturday for a separate event, it was just a cool weekend," Haby said.
"I think a win like this comes down to being able to have had a lot of time in the car. We know the car well and we have prepared it well and now it's delivering.
The car is sensational and the control we have on is a great. It’s performing very well so I am really rapt with our little package.
"By the second section, we felt it was ours to lose, but we still kept the game face on and charged pretty hard. I suppose the lap times reflect how we were going."
While Bentley, who also had his daughter Hannah sharing navigator duties with Viv Coe, was unable to get close to the dominant #57 Pro Buggy of Haby, the Trophy truck driver comfortably secured a decent runner-up finish after Bierl and navigator Nyree Burmingham retired on the final section.
Bentley also picked up the Extreme 2WD victory as a result of his finish.
Click here to view outright results.
Rounding out the podium a further minute off Bentley was Chris Pickert and his navigators of Geoff and Dianna Pickert – the trio securing Performance 2WD honours in the process.
Despite the front three enjoying comfortable finishes, the battle for fourth went right down to the wire as just 27 seconds separated Brenton Gallasch, Andy Maxwell and John (Doc) Smith after 12 laps.
With very little in it all weekend, Gallasch and his navigator Matthew Gallasch ended up in fourth by 17 seconds courtesy of their consistency, while Maxwell finished the event in fifth just 10 seconds ahead of Smith.
In unfortunate circumstances, Smith and his navigating team of Grant Manion and Rachael Durbidge had actually led the trio after the opening two sections ever so slightly, but a disappointing final section saw them lose 30 seconds and fall to sixth.
Behind Smith, a number of class winners rounded out the top 10 with the Sportslite winner Corey Haworth finishing seventh and one place ahead of Extreme 4WD winners Jamie and Naomi Parker.
Other class winners included the 11th placed Connor Corrigan and Sarah Galliford who were the fastest of the Super 1650 Buggies, Nick Price and Ben Fatchen guiding their SXS Turbo to 12th and Prolite winner Mick Fraser, who finished 15th with his navigating team of Toby and Jack Fraser
Click here to view class results.
In what ended up being a difficult event, only 22 crews were able to complete all 12 laps of the Series’ sixth round of the season – the biggest casualties being Shane Waters and navigator Adrian Gardiner who were forced out with just two laps to go and Trevor Copeland who failed to finish the second section.