Entries for the final round of the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) in Western Australia are now being accepted.

Taking place towards the end of October, the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race will see both cars and bikes tackle approximately 363 competitive kilometres across three sections over two days.

In addition to the AORC and the SXS Motorsport Australia Championship, the challenging event will also host the final round of the popular Motorsport Australia Western Australian Off-Road Championship, making it one of the largest motorsport events held in Western Australia this year.

The event will run in the exact same format as it did on its national debut last year, which will see Prologue take place on the Friday afternoon before crews tackle one lap of the 121-kilometre course on Saturday.

AORC crews will then contest the remaining two laps on Sunday either side of the bikes’ final section, with a presentation night to wrap up the weekend on Sunday evening.

However, before the action gets underway, the traditional street party/scrutineering will once again kick off the event, with the location having moved to the Ray Finlayson Sporting Complex.

Despite Travis Robinson wrapping up the championship at Loveday 400, there is still plenty to play for in the final round with several class honours still up for grabs, including the SXS Championship, and with extra points on offer.

There is also business to be done for the final placings in the outright top 10, with a number of expected absentees opening the door for an abundance of changes to the current standings.

Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race Clerk of Course, Daniel Rogers was looking forward to welcoming back AORC competitors after a successful running of the event in 2022.

“We are very excited at the opportunity to once again host the final round of the 2023 AORC season, with many of the country’s best off road competitors expected to make the trip,” Rogers said.  “The 2022 edition of the event was a great success, and we have no plans on changing that for this year’s event. We are expecting a great showing of spectators and fans who will come to not only see the remaining classes decide their fate, but to also welcome back the newly crowned champion, Travis Robinson for his home round. We encourage interested competitors to get their entries in nice and early as we prepare for what is expected to be a big field in October.

Interested crews will have until 7:00pm WST on Saturday 30 September to register for the event and can do so via here.

The final round of the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship will be the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race on 19-22 October.

Source: AORC
Feature Photo: Dakar Press Team Australia

Race valid for: Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC)

Event organisers for this year’s Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race are expecting one of the biggest turnouts in recent years as the Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) draws to a close.

West Australians Travis Robinson and Andrew Pinto secured up the championship at last month’s Loveday 400, having notched up three podiums and a fourth place in the opening four rounds of the year. That result will see the pair able to celebrate the Championship on home soil in front of friends and family at their ‘home’ event.

However, with Kalgoorlie offering points and a half as the season finale, there is still plenty to play for across the other classes, including the SXS Motorsport Australia Championship.

The Western Australia-based event also has a strong contingent of local crews take part, with the race also serving as the final round of the Motorsport Australia WA Off Road Championship (WAORC).

As a result of there still being plenty of silverware on offer, Kalgoorlie Desert Race Clerk of Course Daniel Rogers was confident there would be a solid field of crews contesting the event.

“We had a really successful year in 2022 and we’re looking forward to having the AORC in Kalgoorlie once again,” Rogers said. “I am confident that we will get a good showing this year and hopefully build on the numbers from last year, which is exciting. I think there are exciting aspects to the competition side of things, with most of the classes well and truly still up for grabs – especially the SXS Championship, where there are at least four serious contenders for the title. I also think it will be exciting to see Travis really have a crack at winning Kalgoorlie, instead of focusing on the title – the battle between him and his brother Beau will be quite entertaining to watch.”

There have been very few changes to the event itself, with Prologue to take place once again on the Friday afternoon, before crews complete three laps of the course over the weekend – one of which will be on the Saturday and the remaining two on Sunday.

The Thursday Street Party is also changing locations this year and will now run at the Ray Finlayson Sporting Complex to accommodate the event, which has grown substantially.

Entries for the fifth and final round of the 2023 AORC season open on Thursday 31 August.

The Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race takes place in Kalgoorlie on 19-22 October.

Source AORC
Photo: Dakar Press Team Australia

 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship

With just one round remaining in the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship season, all eyes will be on the battle for the remaining places in the top five after Travis Robinson became the champion-elect at last month’s Loveday 400.

Despite it being his first placing outside of the podium for the season, a fourth-place finish at Loveday 400 all but secured the title for Robinson and navigator Andrew Pinto, with his closest title rivals heading into the event in James Cook and Mitch Aucote falling to fourth in the standings after a second straight finish outside the outright top ten.

Replacing the talented SXS Pro driver in second place was South Australian Mel Brandle, who continued his strong run of form to jump from fourth to second after a solid sixth place finish in South Australia.

While Brandle won’t be able to catch Robinson after the West Australian built an unassailable lead of 156 points, Brandle heads into the final round in outright second with a 10 points buffer over Loveday 400 winners, Shannon and Ian Rentsch – an impressive feat considering he missed the opening round of the season.

But with Rentsch unlikely to take part in October’s Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race, the fourth-placed Cook will arguably be Brandle’s biggest threat 23 points back, with the latter’s SXS Pro rival Glenn Brinkman and Dale Moscatt also in contention sitting only a further 13 points behind.

One of the biggest movers of the round was Loveday 400 Prolite winners Alan Dixon and Zachary O’Bree, with his second top 10 outright finish of the season promoting him to sixth outright after sitting 22nd at the conclusion of the Tatts Finke Desert Race.

Although, the Victorians doesn’t have a strong hold on the position, as Gregory and Lachlan Campbell jumped 11 places to sit only six points behind Dixon after an eighth-place finish at Loveday.

Much like the drivers’ championship, Robinson’s navigator, Pinto has an unassailable lead in the navigator’s standings with a 166-point advantage over Ian Rentsch.

While Ian currently sits in second, he is likely to lose the place to Aucote, who only has 12 points to make up with Cook in Kalgoorlie in Rentsch’s likely absence.

While Aucote might be the early favourite for the position, fourth place Dale Moscatt is only 14 points back and will be looking to once again move his way up the standings after beginning the round in seventh.

While the outright standings saw lots of movement, many of the class leaders held their ground.

Despite dropping places in outright, Cook remains the driver to beat in the SXS Motorsport Australia Championship, with James Mogford and Brinkman both still his closest competitors.

In other classes, Sean Beck soared to the top of the 2WD Production as he gears up for a class title on home soil in October, while Brandle only has Dixon to worry about in the Prolite class after the latter moved into second after a fantastic result.

Joshua Gaskin just missed out on finishing the full Loveday 400 event, but still scored a solid amount of class points across the event’s first three sections to move further ahead in the Sportslite class, as did both Nicholas Commins (Extreme 2WD) and Adam Jiear (Production 4WD), who extended their lead at the top of their classes ever-so slightly, despite not completing half of the event.

The next round of the Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship will be the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race on 19-22 October.

View the full class standings. 
View the SXS Motorsport Australia Class Standings. 
View the AORC standings here.

Source AORC

Travis Robinson and Andrew Pinto have claimed the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) title after securing an unassailable championship lead at the Loveday 400.

It was a troubled weekend for all of the top end of the championship, with Robinson and Pinto salvaging a fourth place finish for the event. Whilst fellow title rivals Mel and Liam Brandle/Emily Brandle finished in sixth, and reigning SXS Champions James Cook and Mitch Aucote limping home outside the top 10.

Taking out the Loveday 400 victory were nine-time AORC Champions Shannon and Ian Rentsch, who enjoyed a perfect weekend to win their first AORC round since the 2019 St George 399, crossing the line at Loveday with a total time of four hours and 18 minutes.

Rentsch led from start to finish throughout the event, building on from his four-minute lead after Saturday to comfortably beat Tom Owen and Damon Bennett by almost six minutes.

While it was an exceptional display from Rentsch, the battle behind him was one of the most thrilling of the weekend as Owen eventually edged out 2019 AORC runner-up Roydn Bailey and Dean Ellbourn by more than one minute.

The two crews were neck-and-neck for much of the event, with Bailey just three seconds ahead into the final section, before a strong run in the last two laps from Owen saw the young gun claim second place by just over a minute – a brilliant effort considering it was Owen’s second race.

Finishing in fourth behind the two crews were Robinson and Pinto, who despite multiple mechanical issues affecting their race, comfortably beat Prolite winners Alan Dixon and Zachary O’Bree.

With Dixon and O’Bree finishing 55 seconds ahead of the Brandles to finish fifth outright, Robinson and Pinto had built a big enough lead to be crowned as champions-elect with one round to go.

“It feels good – all the years and lessons from the old man (Brian Robinson) is finally paid off,” Robinson said “It’s been a testing year, but we’ve got it all together and yeah, it’s amazing to have won the title. We have had lots of curveballs thrown at us this season, but we’ve just kept it together and it’s been a very hectic year, but we have come together as a team. No doubt, the old man was watching over us.”

As for Rentsch, the nine-time AORC champion was thrilled to finally win a round after a challenging few years.

“It’s been a good week and it’s been a long time between drinks, as we haven’t won for a while, so it’s good to be out the front again,” Rentsch said. “It’s a bit of relief to win – I have a bit more confidence back now. We built this new car a couple of years ago now, but it’s been a bit of a challenge getting to where we like – we’re starting to get on top of it now and getting some results. I had a bit of moment late in the race, where I lost a fair bit of time, but other than that, we had a pretty clean run all week and no mechanical trouble really, which is good. I am proud of Travis for winning as well – not just Trav, but for Beau and the whole family. It’s great for the family – they’ve put a lot of work in over the years and Travis come close a couple of times, so it’s good for those guys to to to get a reward for all the work that I do. I’m sure. Brian, I’d be up there looking over so proud as punch. So that’s very happy for him.”

While the AORC title race is all but wrapped up, the high attrition of Loveday sees the SXS Motorsport Australia Championship title race continue to the season finale. A handful of crews struggled to have a clean run on the challenging Loveday course.

Lachlan Bailey and Nathan Sracek had little issues though, as the South Australians enjoyed a comfortable 16-minute victory over Greg and Lachlan Campbell, with the two crews placing seventh and eighth respectively outright.

Rounding out the top 10 were another pair of SXS Pros with Graham and Aaron Colbran beating Glenn Brinkman and Dale Moscatt by more than two minutes.

Other notable class victors who finished all 10 laps included Connor Corrigan and Sarah Galliford, who finished 14th overall and took out the Super 1650 class, and Sean and Mathew Beck who claimed top honours in the Performance 2WD class.

The fifth and final round of the 2023 Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship season will take place at the Kalgoorlie Desert Race on 19-22 October.

Source AORC
Photo: Tony Donoghue Photography