Ryan Taylor and Kye Floyd are the champions of Australia after a thrilling finish to the 2022 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) season, while Beau Robinson claimed his fourth Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race victory.
In what was an incredibly close fight for the title, Taylor and Floyd ended up taking out the Championship after finishing the 323-km race in second place behind Robinson and Clucas, while title rivals Jake and Kate Swinglehurst were unable to finish after engine issues midway through section three causing them to retire.
The DNF prematurely ended what had been an entertaining title fight for much of the season as only eight and half points separated Taylor and Swinglehurst heading into the final round.
For Taylor, it had been a victory that was decades in the making, with the son of the late great Nev Taylor thrilled the family could finally celebrate a title.
“I am speechless. I don’t know what to say,” Taylor said post-race.
“Thank you to Team Taylor and my whole family who have supported me all through the year. Thanks to Dad who got me into this. We have finally got the number one.
“This is for him. Honestly, I think we got a bit of help from him this weekend.”
Ending the year in second on the outright AORC standings were West Australians Brent Smoothy and Reese Burgess after the duo overcame some mechanical dramas on Sunday morning to finish their home race in fifth place.
The West Australian also claimed the Extreme 2WD class in the process, whileย Trophy Truck rival Brett Comiskey finished the year in third place on the outright standings and second in class.
Taking out fourth place on the 2022 standings was Garry Turnbull, who alongside daughter Tamara finished on a AORC podium for the second consecutive round in a row – the South Australians just edging out 2021 Kalgoorlie Desert Race winners Nick Hicks and Mark Gater by just one and a half seconds.
In the KINCROME SXS Motorsport Australia Championship, first-year driver James Cook and navigator Mitch Aucote sealed the title after a dominant performance in Kalgoorlie having won all three sections.
“I have no words to describe this feeling.ย So much work has gone into this,” Cook said.
“There are probably two people I would really like to thank. My navigator Mitch and my mechanic. All the hours of dedication that we put in.
“I didn’t think it was possible to do this. We just put our head down and ass up this year and just got it done.”
It was another first year driver in Glenn Brinkmann, who took out second place for the championship after Glen Ackroyd had mechanical issues on Saturday, while Greg Campbell rounded out the podium.