The 2025 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship officially launches this weekend, with the Wentworth Shire Pooncarie Desert Dash.

A field of 55 cars and buggies will head to the 105.5km circuit in remote south-western New South Wales for the first stop in the 2025 title chase.

However, two notable teams will be missing in action.

Defending AORC champions Mel and Liam Brandle have confirmed they will not contest the Pooncarie event, instead opting to continue their preparations ahead of an anticipated assault on the Finke Desert Race in June.

The South Australian father and son successfully won the 2024 AORC title aboard their Prolite machine. At the completion of the season, Mel Brandle parted ways with the winning machine and purchased a Pro Buggy for the 2025 season.

Brandle has confirmed the new machine wasn’t quite ready for competition, so he has decided to sit out Pooncarie entirely.

In another surprise, 2024 SXS champions James and Michael Mogford have not entered the Pooncarie event either.

In any case, Pooncarie will play host to some heavy hitters vying to stamp their mark on the 2025 championship. Chief among them are 2024 AORC runner-up Beau Robinson and, his brother, 2023 AORC champion Travis Robinson.

For 2025, Beau Robinson will once again contest the Extreme 2WD class alongside navigator Shane Hutt. Travis Robinson will pair with Andrew Pinto in their Pro Buggy machine.

The Trophy Trucks field will be hotly contested in Pooncarie, with Boston Morgan-Horan, Brett Comiskey, Nicholas Commins and Andrew Commins among the key contenders.

In the Pro Buggy field, Travis Robinson will have to fend off the likes of championship regulars Nick Hicks and Jared Percival.

In the SXS Championship, Glenn Ackroyd is hungry to continue his momentum in 2025. Ackroyd took out the final Kalgoorlie stop of the 2024 championship, only to narrowly miss out on the championship to James Mogford.

With the Mogfords not entered into the Pooncarie event, Akroyd has a golden opportunity on his hands to advance his title chase.

Elsewhere, in the Production Class battle, Geoff Pickering (Ford Raptor) and Norman Parker (Toyota LandCruiser 76 Series) will do battle once again.

All the action in Pooncarie, located about an hour north of Mildura, kicks off on Friday with scrutineering and a Show and Shine event on the main straight.

Organisers of the Pooncarie event have reversed the course for 2025, as well as revising the pit entry and exit.

The Pooncarie Desert Dash event begins on Saturday with a 9.5km Prologue to determine the starting order, followed by three laps of the full 105.5km course.

Section One will be run on Saturday, with Section Two running on Sunday, totalling a gruelling 441km.

Section Two comprises two laps of the course run continuously, followed by a 45 minute service break, and then a final lap of the course.

The first cars will hit the course on Saturday morning, with Prologue scheduled from 11am AEDT.

Number	Class	State	Driver	Co-Driver/Navigator
2	PRO Buggy	WA	Jared Percival	Matthew Gallasch
3	SXS Pro	NSW	Glen Ackroyd	Michael Price
4	PRO Buggy	VIC	Daniel Brown	George Apted
5	PRO Buggy	VIC	Dale Martin	Adrian Rowe
7	PRO Buggy	VIC	Matthew Hanson	Nigel Pendlebury
13	PRO Buggy	WA	Travis Robinson	Paul Currie
15	PRO Buggy	NSW	Joshua Howells	Shaun Harris
45	PRO Buggy	VIC	Andrew Brown	Daniel Hardman
47	PRO Buggy	VIC	Joshua Ferguson	Jordan Anderson
48	PRO Buggy	QLD	Thomas Swinglehurst	Kate Swinglehurst
61	PRO Buggy	QLD	Cooper Western	Benjamin Boland
69	PRO Buggy	SA	Benjamin McManara	Wayne Pascoe
73	PRO Buggy	NSW	Joshua Wilson	Darcy Gordon
85	PRO Buggy	SA	Nicholas Hicks	Christian Macintosh
93	PRO Buggy	NSW	Aaron James	Tanner James
115	Prolite	NSW	Alexandra Howells	Sarah Corrigan
127	Prolite	NSW	John Towers	Bruce Young
153	Prolite	VIC	Alan Dixon	Kris Boyle
210	Super1650	SA	Brad Geraghty	Patrick Geraghty
242	Super1650	NT	Leah Driver	Wayne Driver
255	Super1650	VIC	Tyler Owen	Max Owen
410	Extreme2WD	SA	Gregory Gartner	Cary Jennings
413	Extreme2WD	WA	Beau Robinson	Shane Hutt
418	Extreme2WD	SA	Hannah Bentley	Cooper Johns
432	Extreme2WD	SA	Nicolas Burt	Alex Burt
434	Extreme2WD	QLD	Brett Comiskey	Corey Cooper
450	Extreme2WD	QLD	Keith Hurst	Robert Stidham
467	Extreme2WD	NSW	Andrew Commins	Anthony Cook
479	Extreme2WD	NSW	Nicholas Commins	Ryan Galvin
482	Extreme2WD	VIC	Michael Magher	Bernie Webb
486	Extreme2WD	NSW	Michael Dolan	Pete Morris
489	Extreme2WD	NZ	Boston Morgan	Horan Will Haddock
609	SXS Pro	VIC	Glen Hough	Gavin Grant
621	SXS Pro	SA	Jodie Whateley	Cindy Carthew
622	SXS Pro	SA	Lachlan Bailey	Nathan Sracek
626	SXS Pro	NT	Daniel Challen	Kylie Dennis
629	SXS Pro	VIC	Jason Marks	Andrew Forbes
639	SXS Pro	QLD	Jamie Harrison	Steven Walton
651	SXS Pro	NSW	Gregory Campbell	Tori Campbell
653	SXS Pro	NSW	Troy Behsman	Dylan Behsman
655	SXS Pro	QLD	Robert Knight	Matthew Leonard
669	SXS Pro	QLD	Shaun Dagan	Jack Rosevear
678	SXS Pro	NSW	Paul Godde	Kate Godde
682	SXS Pro	NSW	Ryan Brook	Lachlan Tresidder
1018	SportsLite	SA	Sam Bentley	Jay Mitchell
1070	SportsLite	NSW	David Mendham	Adam Barnacoat
6121	SXS Pro	SA	Toby Whateley	Simon Herrmann
6138	SXS Pro	NSW	Jack Livingstone	Miguel Ilardi
6149	SXS Pro	WA	Kyle Reid	Jai Barker
6182	SXS Pro	NSW	Scott Dunn	David Strong
6183	SXS Pro	NSW	Keith McReynolds	Harrison Day