Howells & Hume win St. George 399

Josh Howells and Eric Hume were the victors at this year’s Cobb & Co Hotel St George 399, making it two wins in a row for the NSW pair at the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) season opener.

Last year’s St. George 399 victory was Howell’s first in AORC competition, so he and Hume came back to southern Queensland with some confidence, despite numerous changes to the course this year due to recent rain in the region.

Second in the Prologue behind Beau Robinson (Extreme 2WD), Howells was fastest over the 12km shootout course in his Pro Buggy, finishing three seconds ahead of Matt Hanson/Nigel Pendlebury (Pro Buggy) and Toby Whateley/SimonHerrmann (Extreme 2WD),

Over the first day’s 80km section, Howells built a solid lead, then continued his incredible pace the following day, growing the margin over Ryan Taylor/Kye Floyd (Pro Buggy) to more than two minutes over two laps of the 80km course.

In the one-lap finale, Howells made it a clean sweep of section wins as he beat Taylor to the line and claimed outright victory. This second successive triumph at St George sees Howells join Shannon Rentsch as the only two-time winner of the Queensland event.

Although he did record a dominant win, Howells said it wasn’t drama free as he and Hume had multiple issues to deal with throughout the two days of the race.

“Back to back victories sounds good – I didn’t expect it but it feels good,” Howells said.

“We had little hiccups along the way and that is always a thing, but we were able to get over them and move forward and we were lucky enough to keep the pace when we did have issues.

“Even though we kept our cool and pushed through, I have to give a massive shout out to my team who gave me a car that made it possible to race at the pace I needed to race. It was unreal.”

Completing the podium behind Howells and Taylor were AORC legends, Shannon and Ian Rentsch, the duo making a welcome return to the championship after last racing at the Tatts Finke Desert Race in 2019.

Round 2 of the 2022 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship, the Pooncarie Desert Dash, is scheduled for 6-8 May. Go to: aorc.com.au for more details.