The Motorsport Australia WA Off Road Championship (WAORC) season is officially underway with Adam and Craig Trewhella winning the McPhee Freight & GTURBO Perenjori 360.
 
With 52 crews contesting the season opener, including a number of the championship’s regular stars, the Trewhellas proved too strong over the course of the three-section event.
 
Having started the race in second, the pro buggy pilots made it to the front of the field by the end of the second section and stayed there for the rest of the event, crossing the finish line more than five minutes ahead of the second placed David Rowett and Derrick De Bruyn.
 
Despite enjoying a solid victory, the Trewhellas battled hard in the first half of the event, dropping to third place in the first section behind last year’s winner Harleigh Uren and the pro buggy of Rowett and De Bruyn.


Uren then got off to a strong start in the second section, but suffered mechanical issues on the section’s first lap, which saw him retire from the event and put an end to his event. 
 
The Trophy Truck pilot’s withdrawal elevated Rowett and De Bruyn to first place temporarily before the Trewhellas replaced them at the top, going faster on the section by around one and half minutes.
 
The result put them over one minute ahead, but the duo then cemented their victory in the third section when they beat Rowett and De Bruyn by almost four minutes.
 
Rounding out the Perenjori 360 podium were Jared Percival and Darryn Beckett with the duo staying within reach of Rowett and De Bruyn for much of the event.
 
However after finishing a minute behind on the first section, they were constantly playing catch up and lost a further 20 seconds on the second stage.
 
They did end up going faster on the final section by just seven hundredths, but it was too little too late as they settled for third place with almost one and half minutes the difference at the conclusion of the event.

While pro buggy drivers made up the top two spots, the remaining top five positions were all different classes with Percival and Beckett winning the Prolite class, the fourth placed Mark Murray and Jim Ingham the fastest Extreme 2WD and SXS Pro winners Jayden Grewar and Justyn Grewar steering their buggy to fifth.
 
The other notable result for the weekend was the retirement of BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) driver Shane Elphinstone. 

With the national championship’s first round later this month, Elphinstone would have been hoping for a comfortable run in preparation for the Tatts Finke Desert Race.
 
A slow first section ruined any chance of an outright victory and although he and navigator Zane Elphinstone enjoyed a dominant win in the second section, an electronic issue on the start line for the third section saw them miss out completely. 
 
Click here to view the full results.
 
The next round of the Motorsport Australia WA Off Road Championship will be the Gascoyne Dash on 28 April.