Troy Higgins and John Simmons have taken out the 2023 Coral Coast Helicopter Services Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash after a thrilling weekend in the Motorsport Australia Western Australia Off Road Championship (WAORC). 
 
In what is considered one of Australia’s toughest desert races for cars, bikes and quads, the strong field of 34 cars took on the 200-kilometre course that sees them venture between Carnarvon and Gascoyne Junction in the point-to-point event.
 
After securing third in Prologue on Friday, Higgins and Simmons completed the first run in just under two hours and a quarter despite coming across a couple of issues along the way, before improving on the return run to finish with a weekend-best combined time of four hours and 23 minutes.  


Nine minutes behind was one of the pre-race favourites and WAORC round one winner Adam Trewhella, with the reigning WAORC champion having Craig Trewhella and Koby Grant sharing navigating duties.  
 
Highlighting a dominant display from the winners, Trewhella was the only one able to come within 10 minutes of Higgins and Simmons, as Prologue winners Troy and Deb Schoen made it a Pro Buggy outright podium lockout after finishing a further seven and half minutes behind.


A couple of SXS Pro crews rounded out the top five with class winners Murray Kifer and Katie Chandler next on the outright standings, as they finished just over a minute ahead of Alex Davies and Dylan King in fifth.
 
The Prolite class saw Jared Percival and Luke Candy take out top honours and sixth overall, while Graeme Bentink and Aaron Griffiths were in a world of their own in the Production 4WD class finishing a comfortable 50-minutes ahead of their nearest class rivals in Glen Taylor and Trinity Stacey.  
 
The final class winner was Sean Beck, who had a collection of navigators in Matthew Beck, Jacob Bell and Tyler Mann alongside him, go fastest in the Performance 2WD class.  
 
View the full results here.
 
Crews will now turn their attention to the third round of the Motorsport Australia Western Australia Off Road Racing Championship which will take place in Bencubbin on 3-4 June.