What does it take to grab gold in Gundy?
Danny Brown and navigator George Apted have stormed to victory at the Goondiwindi 400, steering the Toyo Open Country M/T-R-shod #42 Jimco buggy to an untouchable four minute lead.
The win is the team’s second consecutive outright podium at the Queensland-based ARB Off-road racing series round.
Toyo Tires also dominated in a hotly contested trophy truck class, with #408 Mark Lacey and Jaque Hunt taking seventh outright and top of X2WD.
Putting down 950hp horsepower from a twin-turbo Nissan V6 rebuilt just the week before, Brown’s #42 missile won everything on offer during the weekend.
Qualifying first of 63 entries, bagging outright first and running the fastest lap time in the race, Brown and Apted added a win in the Top 10 shootout to the hat-trick, in case there was any doubt about who is king of Gundy.
“We always go pretty well at Goondiwindi, we are confident at that track we know how to set the car up and what to look out for,” said Danny. “It can be really slippery and aggressive on tyres. You need an all-rounder, and the Toyos were perfect.”
The Goondiwindi 400, now in its 39th year, is 400 flat-out kilometres of rocky terrain, sand, slippery clay, hard pack and melon holes.
“The terrain’s savage. Lot of jumps and holes and bumps,” says Brown.
Melon holes are not quite what they sound like, being mostly car-sized holes that pockmark Queensland. The result of changing water content in black soil, they leave depressions that can be up to three metres deep and 100 metres wide.
“Stumps, tree roots and melon holes make the track hard to drive. You’re always up in the air bouncing into things and off things. You need to drive like you’re riding a motorcycle.
“At Finke you can hold it flat and go over the bumps, but you can’t do that here. You need to take care and use an aggressive tyre to grab traction on command.”
While it was a buggy dominated race, trophy trucks were still out there turning up the track. The panda-painted, six-litre motivated Micklefab Raptor of Mark Lacey and Jaque Hunt snatched the X2WD class win and a 7th outright.
Dominating with consistent laps, Lacey showed poise and comfort in managing the aggressively styled truck he has been campaigning for two years.
“The Micklefab truck was awesome, the race team was on their game, and Lady Luck was on our side.” said Lacey. “The 37” Open Country M/T-R ate up the melon holes and performed faultlessly over the 400 kilometres of some of Australia’s harshest conditions.”
Danny Brown said tyre dependability was key to the win, with more of the field switching to the Open Country tyre.
“We are seeing more and more drivers on Toyos. People are starting to realise that there is a difference between a road-going tyre and a race tyre, and other brands don’t cross over as well. We have seen other tyres burned in one prologue session, so about 15 race kilometres.”
With a race already on the 35-inch Open Country M/T-R, the #42 team plan to run the Goondiwindi winning set again in the next race.
The final off-road race of 2016 is the Pines Enduro in late September. Storming through the heart of South Australia’s Limestone Coast, Team Toyo will be looking for another top step to round out the 2016 off-road racing season.
