Mel Brandle and co-driver Liam Brandle have stormed ahead on Saturday afternoon in Charters Towers, taking the lead after Session 1 of the Markwell Group Gold City 450.
The current BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) outright second-place pair outperformed their fifth place Transportable Shade Sheds Prologue showing, finishing the day with a 58-second lead.
Taking advantage of troubled runs across the leading pack, Brandle delivered a settled performance in what will prove a pivotal result for his 2024 Championship and Pro Lite class win hopes – but sights remain set on Sunday’s task ahead.
“Well starting first, I’ve never done that before,” Brandle said.
“We’ll just do what we do, race our own race and try not to get too ahead of ourselves because that’s where stuff can go wrong, and you can end up in the trees really hurting the car and ruining our chances.
“We’re looking at the bigger picture.”
Another pair to improve on Prologue was Roydn Bailey and Simon Herrmann, the Pro Buggy competitors finishing the session in second and on par with the leaders across a marathon afternoon.
The minute difference between first and second was accumulated largely on Lap 2, with Bailey and Herrmann completing the course with a 36-second deficit to the front-runners.
“It was busy alright, the whole day was just on and turning left and right, Simon did an awesome job calling on every corner,” Bailey said.
“Today was actually really hard mentally, I found it really hard to concentrate with so much going on and you had to be so on every corner. It’s really easy just to start daydreaming and get yourself into big trouble.
“I think the course is pretty much going to stay the same, might get a bit more bumpy”
Rounding out the Top 3 and the quickest to the line in the Transportable Shade Sheds SXS Championship, James Mogford and Michael Mogford finished their afternoon with a 33-second differential after starting in second.
“The track actually got a little bit better; it was a lot less slippery as it got on,” Mogford said.
“All the softer stuff on top was getting pushed to the outside, so we could get a bit of a better run. We were really lucky; we had a really good dust-free run.
“Michael didn’t like coming into the afternoon in the shade in the trees and with the ups and downs, he got a bit crook. But we got it finished and across the line.”
The Top 3 finishers came at the expense of locals Daniel Dunn and Shane Dale, their Saturday campaign finishing early with a DNF after starting the session in first position.
Glen Ackroyd and Michael Price locked up fourth place, improving their seventh position Prologue performance to sit within a minute of the podium heading into Sunday.
Lachlan Bailey and Nathan Sracek pipped Glenn Brinkman and Jaclyn Hughes as the quicker SXS Pro duo in the Top 10.
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Notably for the outright Championship contenders, Beau Robinson and Shane Hutt finished their afternoon in eighth after stopping for a tyre change on their Trophy Truck.
It was rinse and repeat for Christopher Sollitt, once again topping the Sports Lite category to make it twice in one day following his Prologue performance.
Michael Shipton and Paul Chorlton finished front of field in the Performance 2WD class, while Norman Parker and Tyson Parker fronted Production 4WD.
Rounding out the class leaders was Ross Newman and Jessica Jackson, who beat out John Wisse and Emily Brandle for the SXS Sport lead.
See the full results here.
Pro Buggy: Roydn Bailey & Simon Herrmann
Prolite: Mel Brandle & Liam Brandle
SportsLite: Christopher Sollitt
Extreme 2WD: Beau Robinson & Shane Hutt
Performance 2WD: Michael Shipton & Paul Chorlton
SXS Pro: James Mogford & Michael Mogford
SXS Sport: Ross Newman & Jessica Jackson
Production 4WD: Norman Parker & Tyson Parker
Racing will resume on Sunday, with a further two sections to decide the Markwell Group Gold City 450.