Daymon Stokie held on to take the Moto and Outright Event win at the 2017 Horizon Power Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash despite breaking two bones in his hand early on day two.
The Horizon Power Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash sprung back into life over Easter, returning with a new look loop race format based out of Carnarvon, 1000km north of Perth. The festivities commenced with scrutineering and a display at Carnarvon’s Civic Centre on Good Friday, before the 28 Bikes and Quads in the moto division and 28 Cars hit the track for 5 laps of the 70km course over the next two days.
Fresh from wins at the 2016 Baja 1000 and 2017 San Felipe 250, Daymon Stokie brought his good form to Western Australia for the Gascoyne Dash. Stokie stamped his authority on the event during Saturdays prologue then continued on to take the outright win in a time of 3hr 41min 50.9 seconds on his #4 Yamaha YZF450.
While there was plenty of clean air out in front, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Territorian with Stokie breaking two bones in his hand 10km from the start on day two. With the best part of 3 laps remaining and a 59 second lead up his sleeve Stokie pushed on, to set up an epic finish with 2015 winner Cody Upton hot on his heels.
By the time the pair reached the chequered flag, the margin had closed to just 3.6 seconds in Stokie’s favour, leaving Upton to finish second on his #1 Honda CRF450R. Rounding out the podium in third outright was Veterans Class winner, Stephen Mitchell on the #737 Yamaha in a time of 3:53:25.
Looking ahead, 2018 is shaping up to be a landmark year for the Horizon Power Kickstarters Gascoyne Dash with the organisers set to introduce an exciting new race format. An ‘Outback and Back’ point to point race at Easter between the coastal centre of Carnarvon to Gascoyne Junction which will tie together some of the best desert racing terrain the region has to offer.