Dean and Jordan Terry currently lead the way in the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race after producing a quick lap in the opening section of the race.
Fighting for the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Cup – West, 58 cars completed Friday’s Prologue.
Saturday then saw competitors take on the first of three laps of the 121km course, with the Terrys off the line first thanks to a stellar effort in the top 10 shootout.
Despite a bumpy run, Terry steered his Pro-Buggy to an impressive time of one hour,12 minutes and 57 seconds – 21 seconds ahead of the next fastest crew in Stephen Ketteridge-Hall and Haylee Cowling.
Ketteridge-Hall started the race in third place but moved up into second after Dylan Nollas and Matthew Boath had a section to forget, dropping down the order and posting the seventh fastest lap.
Although they didn’t start the opening lap in second, the pair charged into contention crossing the line more than two minutes ahead of 2021 Cochranes Transport Mid-West Challenge winner Steven Phillips and his navigator Riley Phillips.
Having started in sixth, Phillips benefited from other crews, in addition to Nollas, enduring a difficult opening section. Some familiar names struggled, including BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) duo Brent Smoothy and last year’s winner Shane Elphinstone.
Both Smoothy and Elphinstone suffered issues on their lap, eventually crossing the line almost half an hour slower than the leader.
While the two AORC drivers dropped down the order, the first lap saw a number of crews move up the timesheets, including current SXS Turbo leader Jayden Grewar and navigator Simon Hart.
Posting the 18th fastest time in Friday’s Prologue, Grewar was far more consistent when the race officially began, climbing up 13 spots to end the day in fifth – almost four minutes behind the fourth-placed Pro Buggy crew of David Rowett and Derrick De Bruyn – who climbed up six spots.
Click here to view the provisional results after day one.
The action continues tomorrow with cars to complete the remaining two sections – the first one being at 7am AWST (10am AEDT) and 1:20pm AWST (4:20pm AEDT). The event’s livestream begins from 7am AWST and you can watch it here.
