It’s always tough winning an Australian class title, especially when you have fierce competitors like Greg Gartner and Toby Price in your class. So when Jamie Knight was crowned winner for the Extreme 2WD class last year, the title was an incredible career milestone.
Jamie, it must have been a good feeling to take out the class title wasn’t it?
JK: It was the best feeling in the world. We were actually pretty surprised we could actually take out the championship in the end to be honest. We have a pretty old truck and we don’t have a state of the art set up, so for us to win the class is pretty next level. We wouldn’t have expected it in our wildest dreams. That was awesome.
You had to two good opening rounds but faltered in the final round. Were you at all nervous about losing your lead?
JK: The fact that Greg Gartner did not get points at St George and Finke, I knew I had some sort of buffer. Even though we didn’t finish at Rainbow, I was pretty confident that I would have still won the class title. I suppose this is why we were a bit hesitant to push hard and go all the way in Rainbow. We were not too prepared for Rainbow but we felt we had the title in the bag already, it wasn’t hard to make the decision of pulling out of the race after a few laps. I must say though, full credit to Greg for finishing and winning that race.
Did you have any standout moments?
JK: Finke is definitely the best event from the year. To finish my first attempt at such an iconic race by coming fourth in class and 20th outright was amazing. It was something to tick off the list. You go out to Finke and you’re always sceptical that you’ll finish. It’s very hard. To pull it off and be at the pointy of the class, especially against such a high calibre of competitors like Toby Price, was just awesome.
What about a worst moment?
JK: I suppose the worst moment was pulling out of Rainbow. It was a disappointing thing to do. The final result ended up being a bittersweet moment because I would have loved to finish, but at the end of the day, I still won the class title. Rainbow would have been an excellent race even if it was a bit damp.
Anyone you would like to thank?
JK: Everyone who supported me from my family and friends, sponsors and anyone else who had helped out with the team throughout the year.
Will you be back in 2020 to defend the title?
JK: I will be definitely be at St George however probably not at Finke unfortunately due to logistics. I would like to think we will be back next year to have a crack. This year though, I really want to do Rainbow again and hopefully finish it. I will see what happens in Kalgoorlie and Loveday so for me every round is on the cards. We will get St George out of the way first and then see what happens. A Rainbow finish is the big target this year.
