Loveday opener to Haby
Aaron and Chelsea Haby have kicked off the Loveday 400 Australian Off Road Championship off the front foot.
The father-daughter duo dominated the Prologue, being the only combination to complete the 7km in less than four minutes.
Their 3m57s time was 4s clear of Shannon Rentsch and Roydn Bailey.
Having won in 2022, Haby is determined to carry on his momentum.
“It was a pretty cool lap, we certainly going very fast. Little bit messy in some spots but overall it was an awesome little Prologue, so very happy,” Aaron Haby said.
“If I can back it up like I did two years ago that’ll be fantastic, but at the end of the day we’re here just to have a bit of fun and do well.”
Nine time AORC champion Rentsch replicated his 2023 position as Brand would have been pleased with third.
This is mainly because 2024 Finke winner Beau Robinson could only manage seventh as 268 points separate the pair in the championship race.
Travis Robinson completed the top five ahead of last year’s Loveday Prologue winners Toby Whateley and Simon Hermann.
Brent Smoothy beat out the other Extreme 4WD competition with an outright finish of eighth and a time of four minutes and six seconds – 18 seconds ahead of the next fastest in class, Philip Lovett and Luke Stanley.
SXS Championship honours went to Lachlan Bailey and Nathan Sracek, followed closely behind by Glen Ackroyd and Michael Price.
Other notable class winners include David Adams in Sportslite, Michael Shipton and Paul Chorlton in Performance 2WD, Bradley Geraghty and Heidi Caldow in Super 1650 and Geoff Pickering and Dylan Watson in Production 4WD.
Five laps of a 40km course begins at 8.30 ACST.
Image: Tony Donogue
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