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Queensland businessman, Geoff Pickering, has returned to
the Australian Off Road Championship with a resounding
victory in the 4x4 Production Class driving his V6
Mitsubishi Pajero on the gruelling Tattersalls Finke
Desert Race, his ninth straight victory on the toughest
desert race this country has to offer.
After a forced sabbatical last season with a back
problem that required surgery, the former Australian
champion was determined to return with vengeance having
let the 2009 title slip through his fingers to the young
charger, Clayton Chapman in a Mitsubishi Triton.
"We only did two events in the middle of last year and
they were the really tough ones, The Finke Desert Race
in Central Australia and the Sunraysia 500 near Mildura,
but the back pain was too much so I decided to take a
break and have the problem fixed once and for all. It
was hard to sit out the series and let some one else
take the title we held for so many years but that's
life. This year we're back and determined to return the
silverware to the Pickering Race Team stable," said
Geoff.
Pickering's return coincided with the inclusion of new
navigator, Dylan Watson, son of former navigator Glenn
Watson with whom he secured seven of his eight
Australian Off Road Championship titles.
"Having Dylan alongside must have been good luck and
it's a wonderful way for the young fella to start his
off road racing career with a win first up in the
toughest race in the series."
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The Finke is like no other motorsport event this country
has to offer. A 226 km blast down what was the old Ghan
railway line to an aboriginal community on the northern
tip of the Simpson Desert, then turn around at sunrise
the following day and do it all again back to the Red
Centre. While the rest of the country shivers in the wet
and windy winter down south, crews aboard 80 buggies and
4x4's along with a capacity field of 500 motorbikes make
their annual pilgrimage to Central Australia for their
Finke fix.
"We've been coming to Alice Springs for the Tattersall's
Finke Desert Race ever since it was included as a round
of the Australian Off Road Championship nine years ago
and we've won our class every time, no other competitor
in a car or on a bike can make that claim, such is the
reliability of our Falken Tyres V6 Mitsubishi Pajero,'
said Team Manager, Bernard Grant.
"Eight of our previous victories on The Finke had been
in our original MN Pajero which was later upgraded to
the NP model but this year we decided to debut an all
new Mitsubishi Pajero with the larger 3.8 litre V6
petrol engine and it's proven to be a winner straight
out of the box. We did some testing near Alice Springs
in the lead up to the event to fine tune the suspension
settings but otherwise we simply filled it with fuel,
checked the tyre pressures, strapped in Geoff and Dylan,
turned the key and sent them on their way to Finke." |
"We've had years to perfect our race plan for this
event. Geoff knows where to push and when to back off.
It's not just a race but a real endurance event for both
car and crew and the Pajero is a wise choice for those
in the know," said Grant.
It's no easy feat to conquer The Finke and horror
stories abound of the massive whoops that consume cars,
tyre shredding rocks and bottomless bull dust. Place
names like Rumbalara, Bundooma, Mt Squires, Rodgina and
Deep Well conjure up impressions of the Overland
Telegraph Line that once crossed our rugged country.
Today, explorers of another era like Geoff Pickering are
keen push the limit of human ingenuity, to be the
quickest down the narrow track that charts a course
alongside the once famous Ghan railway.
Pickering and Watson claimed the 4x4 production class
victory once again for Mitsubishi and now they turn
their attention to the longest event in the Australian
Off Road Championship, the non stop, Griffith 700 in
western New South Wales during late July. This new event
is set to be the crowning glory in the hugely popular
2010 series with a real endurance feel. |
