The Hunter River Times

There was action aplenty at the triumphant return of the Hedweld Group of Companies Milbrodale Mountain Classic on the weekend.

Over the two days of racing competitors took on the short (5.3 km), medium (11km) and long (22km) courses with the aim of coming in with the lowest time.

Muswellbrook based driver Benjamin Ward was excited to be taking part in the local event, having only started off-road racing three years ago.

“I’ll tell you what, it was awesome,” he beamed on the finish line, awaiting confirmations of the results that would end up placing him second in the side by side turbo category.

“Awesome place, awesome terrain, so rough, but it was fun.”

Despite taking a wrong turn in prologue, the qualifying run, which added some extra time to the run Benjamin and his navigator Micah Fountian started just out of the top 10 for their first race and just chipped away from there.

Up until the final event for the weekend which was six laps on the long course the pair were moving consistently, but then trouble struck.

“I had to jump out of the car and have a look at a few things, we’ve got some broken things on the car, but I was like, ‘oh heck, I’m just gonna give it 100 per cent now, let’s get it done’,” Benjamin told The Hunter River Times.

“I think if I went a little bit too hard, I could have broken something.”

Through the final three laps Benjamin relied on Micah to not only help him find his way through the rapidly deteriorating course, but to help keep him focused and not pushing too hard and risk their finish.

The outright win, and the King of the Mountain award for the fastest lap on the long track, went to Justin Guy, who had Muswellbrook based navigator Eric Hume sharing duties with Lachlan Davies for the weekend.

Muswellbrook’s Warren Ward, with navigator Ethan Harris, finished fifth in the side by side turbo class, with Scones Michael and Patrina McLean coming in after them – sixth in the class.

-JEM ANSHAW