Monster Energy’s Brad Gallard and Scott Modistach brought their Tatts Finke Desert Race winning form to Queensland on the weekend, taking victory at round 2 of the Australian Off Road Championship, the Albins Offroad Gear Goondiwindi 400.
It was Gallards first trip back to Goondiwindi since 2008, where they finished 2nd and the South Australian could not think of a better spot to strike gold and bring up his maiden AORC win.
“The Finke and Goondiwindi were the two events I really wanted so bad. To get these two in one year is just awesome and we are really happy. With Monster Energy, Toyo Tyres and Hi Tec Oils all behind us it is all going well.” Said Gallard at the finish line.
Renowned as one of the toughest events on the calendar, the 400km race combines speed with a unique mix of whoops and miles of melon holes big enough to swallow the family sedan, making the Albins Offroad Gear Goondiwindi 400, the ultimate test for man and machine.
“That was some serious offroad racing. It was an awesome drivers track, rough as guts in places and there were plenty of gotcha’s out there. It wasn’t hard on engines as you really had to drive every inch of it. It reminded me of some of the racing in America. It was fantastic.”
Gallard launched his assault on the event with sixth in the 8km prologue which showcased the famous Malapunyah Run, before winding up the wick and attacking the dirt in the #454 Monster Energy Geiser Truck in the top ten shootout. He sliced 12 seconds off his initial time to lock in second place on the starting grid behind the #58 Runamuck Jimco of Bryce Chapman.
After Saturday afternoons one lap section Gallard was comfortably in third, just a handful of seconds behind the Jimco’s of Prout and Chapman. But by the end of section two on Sunday morning Gallard had taken control at the front of the field. On lap 3 he opened the taps on the 6 litre V8 to post the quickest lap of the 80km course on the weekend, a 48min 44.703sec, which paved the way to a healthy 3min 50 sec lead going into the final two laps of the race.
From this point Gallard and Modistach didn’t look back, extending their lead to over 14 minutes to take their first Albins Offroad Gear Goondiwindi 400 win, ahead of the #36 Jimco of Bulmer and Lewis and the #954 GET of Bonnor and Montedslvo.
“We had a clean run all the way this morning and pretty much ran our own race and just kept out in front. A fair few people did get caught out, so you did have to drive it and be smart about it.”
“The Toyo’s ran perfect on a track that claimed plenty of victims and we didn’t have a flat tyre all weekend and the King Shocks, I just can’t say enough for those, they were awesome. We fine tuned the bypasses overnight and the car was a different car today, it was so much better and easier to drive.”
Brad and the #454 Monster Energy Team will now focus their attention on some local South Australian rounds, before packing the truck up and heading west to tackle the Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash in Carnarvon WA in November.
The team would like to thank Monster Energy, Hi-Tec Oils, Toyo Tires, Unifilter, F1Logistics, PWR, Geiser Bros, Autosport, Velo Racing Products, Rigid Industries and Dirtcomp for their continued support in 2012.
