A NAIL-BITING finish capped off an exciting weekend of off-road racing at the Loveday 4X4 Adventure Park late last month.
Mannum couple Aaron and Liz Haby took out the Can-Am Loveday 400 event and the 2020 Motorsport Australia Central East Cup, finishing with a dominant eight-minute margin over the rest of the field.
A tight-contest for the final two podium positions saw the second, third and fourth-placed cars finish within 30 seconds of each other, with Riverlander Toby Whateley and his co-driver Simon Herrmann missing out on third place by less than 17 seconds.
Pinnaroo’s Roydn Bailey finished in seventh, a minute and a half back from sixth place.
Adventure park owner and event organiser Tony Whateley said the racing throughout the weekend was “brilliant”.
“We had some of the best cars in Australia… and it was nail-biting right to the finish,” he said.
“My son Toby had major engine problems and differential problems but still managed to climb back up from 15th to finish fourth.
“The interstaters loved it and said it was the best venue they’ve been to Australia-wide.
“There were a lot of very good comments about the Riverland as well, because a lot of people though it was just a dry and barren area and never realised we had beautiful green vines around here.
“Our livestream feeds had a reach of over 200,000 and we had a lot of good feedback about that too.”
Mr Whateley said this year’s event was a “prelude” to an even bigger event in 2021: one of five rounds in the Motorsport Australia Off-Road Championship.
“Even though the national championship was cancelled, we managed to host this event as the one-round Central East Cup,” he said.“Next year we are expecting about 100 entries and 1000 to 2000 people in attendance.”