After the 2019 Hindmarsh Shire Rainbow Desert Enduro, the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) standings received quite a shakeup at the time, with a number of title contenders caught out by the event’s harsh conditions.
While some of the big names faltered, the results paved the way for others to move up the standings and into the top five, including Peter Carr who finished in fifth place overall in 2019.
Although Carr had a tough season in the lead up to the championship’s season finale in Victoria, he still finished every round, which helped him secure the fifth place.
“It was nice to see finish fifth last year but I see that more as luck than anything else,”Carr said.
“I wasn’t overly happy with how the year went because I had a wheel break in St George which set me back. In Finke, I had a failure on the first day but did pretty good on the way back up to Alice Springs. Add my double-points Rainbow result and I was fortunate to finish fifth.
“I am happy to end in the top five, but I have high expectations on myself. I did a lot better at the state competition compared to the national and I think I put it down to the fact that I made some upgrades to the car that didn’t pay off in the AORC.
“Last year proved to be a learning year, so now I have gone back to more basic car parts for the future which has served me well in previous years.”
Despite Carr not being entirely impressed with his first year, he still remains positive as to what the future holds and the foundations he has already built for his progress.
Getting strong results won’t be the main focus for Carr when the AORC eventually does get restarted as he is more motivated about personal results as opposed to what’s on paper.
“Honestly, I want people to know who I am for winning events or being up the front for my skill, not because I was fortunate in the round where the point reward was bigger,” Carr explained.
“It’s more important to race well than to get results. If I come away from a weekend knowing I had good pace and I drove well, not having any crashes, then I will be really happy.
“For me, it’s important to perform as best as you can in a race and miss out due to technical issues rather than get lucky and capitalise on other people’s errors.
“I want to be quick and win rather than get a result ‘Steven Bradbury’ style where everyone else falters, so when we can go racing again, I will be really working hard to make sure I am performing at my very best.”
