The 2021 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) campaign proved to be a mixed bag for Talbot Cox, who ended the year in the top five.
While only two rounds were run this year, Cox had a decent year overall with his P10 at the Tatts Finke Desert Race the biggest highlight.
The Pro Buggy Driver had a strong start to the year and picked up a top three Prologue time during the Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399 before finishing the opening section in second place.
Unfortunately, mechanical dramas prevented him from finishing the event and capitalising on his good form, but his performance still showed what he was capable of.
An unlucky yellow flag during Prologue in Alice Springs saw Cox unable to post a time he felt represented his pace, yet he still managed to squeeze into the top 10 for the great race.
The Queenslander then blitzed his way through the field on the way down to Finke, jumping up to sixth. Coming back to Alice Springs, Cox looked on track to make up more positions, but he was once again the victim of some bad luck when he had a puncture.
Despite losing lots of time fixing the tyre, Cox still finished inside the top 10 and earned himself a large haul of points for his efforts, bumping him up to fifth on the outright AORC standings.
Cox was unable to get to any more events for 2021, but the 48-year-old was confident he can take the form from this year into the 2022 season.
“It was a pretty good year on our end, but I am hoping there will be more races next year and things are normal again,” Cox said.
“I was really enjoying St George and we were going quite well, however when our brakes started boiling and we got stuck in the trees, I decided to call it a day.
“We figured out the problem after the race, which turned out to be that because we had borrowed some brake fluid from a fellow competitor, it wasn’t compatible with our system and caused all kinds of problems.
“We weren’t going to catch Josh, but I think we had a good chance for a top three so it cost us the race, but at least we were able to figure it out and knew to bring extra brake fluid next time.
“I think for us, once we iron out a few minor issues, we should have a really good package. It’s been a bit frustrating to have so many things go wrong, but we are happy with where we are as a whole.
“I haven’t made any set plans next year as we can’t afford to be stuck anywhere, however we’re likely to do St George and Finke again and then we will play it on an event-by-event basis.”
