This year’s Loveday 400 will be a weekend the Bailey family won’t forget any time soon, with both Lachlan and Roydn finding themselves on a podium in their home race.
Acting as the fourth round of the Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC), the weekend saw Roydn, alongside co-driver Dean Ellbourn finished third in the outright results while Lachlan and co-driver Nathan Srarek claimed top honours in the SXS Motorsport Australia Championship.
After a strong opening half to the event saw Lachlan hold the class lead, the South Australian further extended his advantage during Sunday’s action to finish an incredible 16 minutes ahead of Greg and Lachlan Campbell.
The result saw Lachlan pick up his first SXS win of 2023 after a sixth-place finish in the Pooncarie desert Dash back in April.
“It was really good, we had an unbelievable weekend with the car, and we couldn’t fault it at all,” Lachlan said post-event.
“It is really good to have the car hold up for us, it’s the first time since Pooncarie last year we have had that happen.
“Once we had made the pass and knew we had it, we could take it easy after that.”
On the other hand, Roydn’s weekend wasn’t so straightforward, despite securing a maiden AORC podium.
Whilst Shannon and Ian Rentsch were dominant all weekend as they secured a comfortable victory, Roydn battled for the remaining podium places with Tom Owen and Damon Bennett in what was one of the more thrilling encounters of the weekend.
The two crews were neck-and-neck for much of the event, but in the end, Roydn had to settle for third after an incredible final stint from Owen saw the second-place finishers pull out a one-second lead.
While Roydn was unable to hold on to second place, he was thrilled to walk away with his first ever outright podium position.
“I am over the moon; it has been a long time coming and I really enjoyed it. What a fantastic weekend,” Roydn said.
“We were going really well in the morning session, on the last lap we popped a tyre and had to limp away but that’s just how it goes, Owen was really on it too, he was going really quick.”
“It was really nice to get the number two plate (back in 2019), but to be on the podium here at the moment I think that’s trumped it.
As for Lachlan’s success, Roydn was very proud of how the weekend panned out for his son.
“I am really impressed with the way he has been driving, once again the car has just been perfect,” Roydn added.
“It has been such an awesome weekend for the both of us.”
The Bailey family will have the opportunity to repeat their success last weekend, with the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race hosting the final round of the Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship on 19-22 October.
