SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

HUNTER CAUTIOUSLY HOPEFUL OF ANOTHER TITLE 

Hunter Racing has taken another class win in the Australian Off Road Championship, moving within striking distance of a sixth straight title.

The Queensland-based team of Colin Hunter and Margot Knowles finished 14^th outright, first in class and first ‘car’ home in the 2009 Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro 400 in  

Millicent SA, run over the weekend of September 5-6.

Millicent is on the Limestone Coast, mid-way between Melbourne and Adelaide. The event is made up of six laps of a 65km course taking in Teagle’s Quarry, closed public roads and the Tantanoola Forest Reserve, all 50km west of Mt Gambier. The terrain includes sand, clay and mud.

“It was a great weekend of racing,” says Colin Hunter.

“We didn’t have one single problem. The Jeep just went round and round without a fault. All the crew did at the service breaks was add some more fuel and wash the windscreen. It was just fantastic.”

The weekend started with a Prologue to determine seeding order, followed by a Dash For Cash, which was a race for the four fastest vehicles in each class: Hunter Racing won their class.

The team’s V8 Jeep Grand Cherokee competes in ‘Extreme 4WD’ in the AORC. It used to be known as fClass Eight and is open to highly modified 4WD vehicles with engines not exceeding 6000c.

“The conditions were a bit mixed over the weekend, but none of it troubled us,” Hunter says.

“It was cold and rained on and off, so while the track started out sandy, it broke up badly with all the traffic and became very muddy. The other problem with it being cut up, was that all the tree roots come to the surface and that can be hard on suspension and tyres – but not for us, not this time. Hopefully we can have a similar trouble-free run for the last round.”

The Millicent round was round four of the five-round AORC. Hunter and Knowles are currently leading the points tally in their class and are hoping to maintain their lead when they head to the Albins Off Road Gear Goondiwindi 500 – the ‘grand final’ which is their home event in Queensland, to be run over the weekend of October 16-18.

 Hunter Racing is competing in the 2009 season with support from Goodyear, Modena Engineering, Extreme Motorsports and Chrysler Jeep. “Goodyear has promised us some very special new tyres for the final event so we’re hoping they will give us that extra bit of help to another title,” Hunter says.  

“But obviously we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves – motorsport can be very cruel, so even though we have a good lead in the points, we won’t start celebrating until the season is over.”