A round of the North Queensland Off-road Racing Championship was held at Moranbah on the weekend, and a large field of drivers entered after a long layoff due to COVID-19. The event was scheduled for March but had to be postponed.
Deputy clerk of the course and Mackay off-road racing official Michael Mifsud was pleased with the numbers. The field was capped at 52 entries and filled quickly.
Scrutineering was completed on Friday before Saturday's opening one lap of the 8km track which is carved out of the bush to the south west of the small Queensland town. This was followed by three sections, two laps each section to complete Saturday's action a total of 56km racing.
Fresh from his overall and class victory in the recent Zoom's Inglewood cup 2020 Brett Comiskey (Unlimited/Pro Class) was expected to do well, but experienced drivers like Talbot Cox, Michael Marson and Clayton Chapman had other ideas.
No. 604 Jeff McNiven, another class victor from Inglewood and second place outright, had high expectations in the class 66/Utv Turbo class. No. 652 Sybrand De Klerk was also expected to perform well.
After the action on Saturday Clayton Chapman, no. 15 Pro Buggy leads over Class 6 Brayden Mifsud no 626 by only 23 secs. Mifsud was unlucky and experienced drive train issues and lost 20-30 secs after leading for six of the seven laps completed on Saturday.
Talbot Cox is in third another 20 seconds back with only a .1 of a second lead over another class 6 vehicle Sybrand De Klerk.
Sunday's action consisted of four laps, two sections of two laps.
The status quo was maintained with Clayton Chapman (Pro Buggy) holding on for Victory with Brayden Mifsud (class 6 Turbo sxs) in second and Talbot Cox (Pro Buggy) taking third place.
One casualty on Sunday was Sybrand De Klerk, class 6, who misjudged a jump early on the last day and was forced to retire.
After racing was concluded, a few guests and sponsors were treated a shortened version of the track with the Pro Buggies of Talbot Cox and Michael Marson.
At the presentation experienced drivers of the calibre of Michael Marson and Talbot Cox expressed their appreciation of the Newman Excavation 100 inaugural event. Both said it was the best first-time event they had ever attended and they expressed their appreciation for the organising club Mackay Off-road Racing Club and the excellent support of the local Moranbah community.
