A third outright podium finish and 15 points in the AORC bank, for the True Build Racing Team at the weekends running of the Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro, puts them in a challenging position heading into the fifth and final round of the Australian Off Road Championship at Goondiwindi in October.
Strategy was a key factor to the team’s success at the Pines, starting with the prologue and Top 10 Shoot Out. “We wanted to put down the best prologue time we could, to keep our prologue seeding data high, but we backed it off a bit for the Top 10 Shoot Out as we wanted to start further down the field which would enable us to run our own race as there would be no dust issues” commented Dan Auricht, team driver.
Auricht and navigator Grant Connelly have put their Pines voodoo to bed, previously only finishing one out of five events, with last year ending in a massive sole crushing roll over. “Dan’s over cautiousness resulted in our lap times being slower but with the crash from last year in the back of our minds and knowing there would be a high attrition rate it worked well that we stuck to our race plan” added Connelly.
The car ran flawlessly all weekend, with the exception of a small electrical issue on the fourth lap. With a strong Craig Carrison V8 race engine and King Shocks performing at their best as the track roughened up, the #2 Jimco is ready going into the next round.
The True Build Racing Team will head back to their Alice Springs base, do a complete maintenance work up on the Jimco in preparation for their trip to Goondiwindi on the 15-16 October for the Albins Off Road Gear Goondiwindi 400. “Without a major sponsor, racing the national rounds at a competitive level is a large commitment,” said Auricht. “But because we love off road racing so much, and with the help of local Alice Springs businesses and a good group of friends, we enjoy putting the effort into racing the AORC rounds. We will go home now and consider our race plan for Goondiwindi and hopefully have a successful end to the season.”
The True Build Racing team are supported by: True Build Constructions • Autosparky • Craig Carrison Race Engines • Holcim Alice Springs • Signmaster • Alice Paint and Panel • GGGS Alice Glass & Aluminium • Neptune Fibreglass • G & S Transport • King Shocks • Tony Byrnes – Alice HoseTech • Sporties Cafe & Restaurant • Jack Weld • KanKane Naaraat – kaneophoto.com.au • TZ Tuning • Chris Auricht • Phil Hateley • King Shocks