Eric Schlifelner has begun the 2019 CAMS Victorian Off Road Championship on a high after taking out the inaugural Rainbow 240.
Like the previous two years at the BFGoodrich CAMS Australian Off Road Championship’s visits to Rainbow, the popular circuit’s conditions were unforgiving as only a third of the 24 registered competitors were able to complete the event.
Despite the difficult, dusty conditions that plagued the event, forcing organisers to split the competitors into two groups, Schlifelner seemed unaffected as he fought his way to a well earned 40 second victory.
Starting the event in third after the qualifying lap, the prolite driver managed to work his way to the front of the group after Daniel Wells and Kelly Kieran both retired on the first section.
From there, Schlifelner battled with New South Wales crew Steven and Daryl Graham for top spot and managed to open up the lead to a solid 30 seconds after the first section.
The Grahams managed to pull back the gap by four seconds after finishing ahead of the leader in the second stage, however Schlifelner showed his class in the final stage to extend the gap and secure the outright victory.
The two cars were the clear front runners throughout the whole event, as third place went to Luke Densly and Warren Colins who finished a further 12 minutes behind the leaders.
Comfortably coming in at two and half minutes behind the podium getters were Peter and Brock Stevenson, while Regi and Oriola Lumani rounded out the top five a further three minutes behind.
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Finishing in outright sixth was Dean Williams and John Huber, who would be disappointed with their final position of just outside the top five, after originally leading the Lumanis during the qualifying lap and the opening stages of the first section.
Only two other teams managed to finish the event with Hayden and Hannah Bentley and David Davis both crossing the line in under three hours.
The next CAMS Victorian Off Road Championship round will take place at Bagshot in Bendigo on 7 July.
