No signs of rust for Wynarka winner Gallard

More than 40 off road crews from South Australia have witnessed Brad Gallard take out a commanding victory in the 2020 Gotcha Glass Wynarka Enduro.

Driving his Trophy Truck alongside his children Paris and Jesse on either day, Gallard put in a flawless performance to lead the 14-lap enduro for all but the first lap.

Starting in third place behind Tony Whateley and 2018 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship runner-up Toby Whateley, it took Gallard just the first lap to overtake the two Whateleys after Tony went into a fence and Toby suffered brake issues.

Locked in his own dual with David Hall for parts of the first lap, once Gallard got away from Hall for a clean run and passed both Whateley cars, he never looked back as he crossed Sunday’s finish line three and half minutes faster than Daryl Nissen and Andrew Harness in second place.

Rounding out the top three, a further three minutes behind Nissen and Harness, was another veteran in South Australian off road with Garry Turnbull also having his children Tamara and Sara sharing navigator duties.

In a race where just 16 crews managed to finish all 14 laps of the 20km course, Gallard was thrilled to come away with a win in his first outing since the same event last year.

“It felt so good to be back as my last run was 12 months ago, so to finish and win the challenging race was just fantastic. At the end of the day, I am just happy with the finish and the win is a bonus,” Gallard said.

“I was a bit rusty on the Saturday morning, but that could have also been due to difficult weather conditions making it harder. However on Sunday with clear skies, I was well back into it and felt like I hadn’t lost touch at all.

“There was certainly some hot competition over the weekend, and it was special to beat some big names on the SA circuit. I didn’t expect to be that comfortable though. We just had a clean run and consistent pace, meaning we didn’t have to do anything crazy.

“Daryl is just such a good operator at this track due to its tight hairpins and Garry is just so talented. They both kept me honest throughout the whole event.

“As for the event itself, it was good to see people out back there enjoying themselves. It’s been quite some time for a lot of us. The event was run well, so full credit to the Summit Racing Team Car Club for doing such a good job organising in the current climate.”

After starting from top spot and losing the lead to Gallard on the first lap, Toby Whateley eventually got his brakes issue fixed to salvage a top ten finish and place ninth outright.

Whateley wasn’t the only AORC regular to compete over the weekend with 2019 runner-up Rodyn Bailey producing a better result with sixth outright, while neither Hayden Bentley, Ben Erceg nor Tony Whateley could finish the race, with the former two completing just three laps.

Another notable result came through discipline switchers Ethan Pickstock and Lisi Phillips, with the 2019 RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally 2WD Championship winners the last crew to finish all 14 laps.

Click here to view the full results.