Sturdy & Selvaggi win Australian 1/10th Off-road Nats

The 2019 1/10 Jay Leno’s Garage Offroad Australian Nationals were held at the Keilor club in Melbourne, Australia recently. Around 230 entries were received from all around the country for the event, and the club prepared a brand new track layout which was fast and challenging. Mother nature made life difficult with very hot and windy conditions during practice and 2WD day, and unfortunately heavy rain which forced the cancellation of the 4WD and truck classes. In 2WD Modified Chris Sturdy was the defending champ and hot favourite for the title, however in qualifying he was pushed hard by Lachlan Donnelly who took Q3 and was leading much of Q4. Chris was able to take TQ from Lachlan, Jordan Isergin and Lachlan Munday, with Ari Bakla 5th.

The finals were epic with strong winds and high temperature making the racing even more intense. A1 saw Sturdy take an early lead which he held to the end with Lachlan Munday moving up to second and Jordan Isergin 3rd. In A2 an early crash from Chris allowed Lachlan Donnelly to take the lead with Ari Bakla running 2nd, a position they held to the end with Jordan Isergin taking 3rd after a last lap battle with Munday. Going into A3, five drivers could mathematically win and the race was a classic with four drivers – Donnelly, Isergin, Munday and Sturdy – all leading at various times. At the final tone it was Sturdy taking the win from Munday, Donnelly 3rd and Bakla taking 4th overall from a fast but unlucky Isergin.

This was Sturdy’s third 2WD Mod Nats win in a row, and the future of Australian racing is looking bright with four juniors in the A-final; Lachlan Munday 13, Lachlan Donnelly 15, Jordan Isergin 15 and Matthew Couper 15.

2WD Modified Buggy top 3 results:
1. Chris Sturdy – Team Associated/Reedy/JConcepts
2. Lachlan Munday – Team Associated/Reedy/JConcepts
3. Lachlan Donnelly – Team Associated/Hobbywing/JConcepts

In 2WD 17.5 favourites for this class included 2018 Champ Leigh Cheeseman, 2018 TQ Ben Howard and West Aussie champ Brayden Miller with recent convert to 17.5 Andrew Selvaggi and unknown quantity. Q1 saw Howard take first blood from Miller, before Selvaggi got into a rhythm and took Q2,3 and 4 to seal TQ, Howard and Miller lining up behind him on the grid with Queensland’s Matt Parsey 4th and Cheeseman 5th. In A1 an early bobble by Selvaggi let Parsey through, Selvaggi retaking the lead at around three minutes and stretching out to win from Cheeseman, Ben Cribbin and Scott Giles. In A2 Selvaggi had a bad start and this allowed Ben Howard into the lead until an unfortunate DNF promoted the Miller brothers to the lead, Brody taking the win from Brayden and Cheeseman forcing the result to A3. This time Selvaggi took a tone to tone win to seal his first national title, Miller 2nd overall and Cheeseman finishing 3rd overall, Brodi Miller 4th and Ben Howard 5th.

2WD Stock Buggy top 3 results:
1. Andrew Selvaggi – Team Associated/Reedy
2. Brayden Miller – Team Associated/Trinity
3. Leigh Cheeseman – TLR/Motiv/Hobbywing

Thanks to Ray Munday for the report.

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