It was a nail-biting finish to the Haeusler’s Sea Lake Mallee Rally ARB 400 when, with only half a lap to go, local lad Cameron McClelland stormed past the race leaders Glenn Owen and Mat Ryan, now stopped trackside, to take out his very first Mallee Rally win.

    Well done to Cameron and navigator Kane Louttit. Cameron, who said he has been trying to win the event for 22 years now, described the win as a dream come true. He said, “I finally got an outright win on the board and couldn’t be happier.”

    Initially, on the Sunday morning, the track was slippery with drivers finding it hard to get traction and by the time two laps had been run, almost half of the cars had succumbed to the conditions or various other issues with their vehicles.

    Cameron described conditions on the track as rough and completed four laps of Lake Tyrrell in a time of three hours 11 minutes and 12.677 seconds, four and a half minutes ahead of Jamie and Tom Robinson and four minutes, 39 seconds ahead of 2016 winner Brad Chasemore.

    Perfect viewing conditions prevailed for spectators who lined the hill overlooking the start/finish area to watch the race.

    Cameron’s brother Alistair had been dogged with difficulties leading into the race, having to repair and reinstall the gearbox three times, then as the race progressed, the buggy succumbed to electrical difficulties. However, he was on hand to wave the chequered flag as Cameron crossed the finish line.

    Another local with intermittent electrical issues was Nandaly’s Chris Martin whose Class 6 Can-Am had been leading the class. He said when the buggy stopped, he and son Zac watched the field go by then had to catch up once it decided it would go again. Chris received a hard won second placing in Class 6 with a time of 3:51:58.715. Congratulations to Chris and Zac.

    The Class 5 honours went to Bernie Clohesy who along with Stuart Amos completed the course in a time of 3:43: 56.041, finishing ninth outright. Bernie also received a first in the State round and the Most Consistent Local award. He said conditions for the first two laps were treacherously slippery but the track was fantastic for the final two laps. This sees him with three first place wins from three events in the Australian Championship so far.

    Drew McClelland and Harley Mott took the win in Class 3 in a time of 4:05:34.646. Although there were only two in the class, they had a good battle, with Drew finishing 55 seconds in front and a creditable 17th outright.

    Taylor Hannig and ‘Bud’ Wood-Brunn competed in the State section and picked up second in Class 5.

    Former local Mark (Skip) Amos made the trip down from Queensland with his single seater Class 1 buggy. He had suspension failure but got the car home for a finish.

    Darren Mott, with daughters Bailee and Teale sharing navigating, was also a finisher, fourth in Class 4, following a flat tyre.

    The Swan Hill based crew of Nathan and Damien Monk were unlucky to break a driveshaft on the last lap.

    The Recreation Reserve was packed on Friday night for the Show and Shine of the vehicles of some ninety crews. There they enjoyed listening to ‘Scoogs’ and seeing a spectacular display of fireworks which were heralding the start of the 45th Mallee Rally.

    Congratulations to the organising committee, officials, landowners, volunteers, sponsors and caterers who again contributed to another successful event.