Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith have claimed victory in round five of the Motorsport Australia West Australian Rally Championship (WARC) season - the Wheels on Yirrigan Safari Rally. 

36 crews took to the Chidlow area to compete across nine stages and 113 competitive kilometres of rallying as Rando and Beckwith proved to good strong the event.
 
Despite only winning two stages, Rando’s consistency saw him produce top three finishes across all nine stages, to eventually finish up with two minute win over the second placed Gary Whittle and Ryan Doe. A further four minutes behind in third was Timothy Hiles and Morgan Ward.  

Right from the start, the competition so close as Rando only just clenched the win on stage one, finishing ahead of Daniel Gonzalez and Caleb Ash by one second. However, Gonzalez bounced back to the stage win – taking the win over Rando by four seconds. 

Unfortunately for Gonzalez, his day came unstuck on stage three, where he finished more than five minutes behind the stage winner. Despite an impressive outing where he won two stages and recorded back-to-back top five finishes, Gonzalez was forced to retire after going off the road on the final stage.   


The rally was not without challenges for many drivers, David Thomas and Mandy Lister were on track for a podium finish before mechanical issues forced the pair to retire after stage six.

Meanwhile, Alexander Rullo and Steve Glenney’s run ended prematurely with only two stages to go due to electrical gremlins, the pair were only 42 seconds off the lead.   

These unfortunate retirements opened the door for Shane Smith and Wayne Richardson to finish in fourth and John Macara and Tim Jackson to finish fifth overall.   

Although unable to break into the top five - Glenn Alcorn and Jonathan Charlesson enjoyed success - taking out the Motorsport Australia WA 2WD Championship win.

Click here to view the full results.