Gascoyne Dash 806 Race Report

The offroad racing season 2009 is over with the last race "The Gascoyne Dash" held last weekend.  More competitors, bigger crowds, and the town of Carnarvon welcoming the 130 odd bike and car competitors and their crews. The flatout team only raced the 80 Series Landcruiser for this event mainly due to the additional prep work that would be required to get the Patrol Gas Dash ready. 

We made a early start for the trip to Carnarvon, meeting up with other competitors on the way.  Scrutineering and street parade in town went well with huge crowds covering the streets.  From there we headed to Gascoyne Junction and then onto Conatha Station for the main event starting point.

With recce done the plan was to prologue well to avoid dust in the next days racing, we achieved our best ever time, with Mark Murray in his patrol, the only other extreme 4wd to do better.

Day 1 was going well until we had a flat tyre (in the simex centerpedes!!), and small rear control issue, but we still managed a reasonable time.  Mark had a great run, and so did Garry Povah in his quick Jackeroo, although they both had small issues, spark plug lead fell off for Mark and spare wheels coming loose for Garry.

Day 2 was to be a big one, we managed to pass a couple of cars that snuck in front of us due to yesterdays flat before the first compulsory tyre air down stop.  We were going well, ready for a quick run down the river when within the first 30km came across Mark Murray deeply bogged between two sand banks.  We drove past as we too were almost bogged in the very soft sand, then did a loop around them to see if they were ok and if they need to be pulled out.  We managed to get them out, although it was not a easy job. 

We continued on to the Rocky Pool compulsory stop leaving the river behind us, at this stage we were the first extreme class to arrive.  We left Rocky Pool heading to the finish at the Carnarvon race course, we decided to drive smart, thinking that we had the extreme 4wd class in the bag, so we did not want any flats or make silly mistakes. 

We were the first in our class to cross the finish line, although after corrected times we finished 2nd in class and 8th outright.  It was a great tough event, we are already planning (and doing) mods ready for next year. 

Thanks to the Gascoyne Offroad Racing Club and all the volunteers that continually make this event bigger and better every year.  Thanks to our support crews and friends who made the trip up, and big thanks to Lee Coupe for his great help as navigator.  Finally, thanks to my sponsors who help out where they can, RAW shocks for the tough shocks that copped a hard time over the weekend, The 4WD Shop for organising the pre race parts that I needed and Ian Diffian Tyres Joondalup for the Hankook Dynapro tyres that worked very well without any flats or problems.

Frank