The father-and-son duo put the exclamation mark on their 2014 championship with victory in the series-ending fifth round, the Lockyer Valley 300, on the weekend.

They finished the three-stage, 300-kilometre enduro in four hours, 32 minutes and 51 seconds — almost 14 minutes clear of their nearest rivals.

The Lockyer Valley 300 victory backed up the Rentschs’ wins in the Finke Desert Race (round two) and the Coffs Coast 400 (round four).

Runner-up finishes in the Kalgoorlie 400 (round one) and the Riverland Enduro at Waikerie (round three) were also highlights of a dominant year.

Their seventh championship ranks them alongside Burrumbeet’s Mark Burrows as the most successful racers in AORC history.

Burrows won seven titles between 1988 and 2003. The Rentschs claimed consecutive titles from 2004-06, went back-to-back in 2008-09 and again in 2013-14.

“When we started out, Mark was someone we always looked up to; just the way he went about his racing and prepared his car,” Shannon said.

“To equal his record, it’s unbelievable really. He’s a good friend of ours. We get along pretty well.

“The last couple of years he hasn’t raced as much. He’s had other commitments. We don’t get to see him as much as we used to but we’re great friends.”

Racing their Jimco buggy, the Rentschs needed to finish no lower than fifth in stage one of the Lockyer Valley 300 to lock away the championship.

They qualified fastest — a crucial advantage given the dusty conditions — and had a 13-second lead on Jack Rhodes-David Pullino after stage one.

Rhodes-Pullino edged ahead to lead by 45 seconds after stage two but a flat tyre early in stage three allowed the Rentschs to cruise home.

“The car has been really reliable and we’ve been consistent: that’s what we owe it to,” Shannon said.

“It was great to get three wins and two seconds. You really can’t complain about that. It’s a near-perfect season really, definitely one of our best.

“We won the Finke Desert Race as well, which was the second round. To win that and the championship itself, it couldn’t get any better really.”

Shannon said chasing an eighth championship was on the agenda. Racing in the United States is also on his bucket list.

“They’ve got some pretty big off-road races there and a lot of quick cars. It would be something very different from Australia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Warrnambool driver Glenn Owen and Griffith navigator Matthew Ryan have finished their ARB Off Road Racing Series campaign on a high.

Owen and Ryan enjoyed a near-perfect weekend in their Jimco buggy to claim victory in round five of the series, the Pines Enduro 400 at Millicent.

They finished the 400-kilometre event in three hours, 57 minutes and 24 seconds, winning by more than six minutes.

“To be honest, I reckon we’ve been to Millicent 15 times and never finished before. It’s the first time we’ve had a finish,” Owen said. The duo won the opening two rounds of the series at Broken Hill and Sea Lake and were on track for overall honours.

But a lost wheel during round three at Griffith dashed their hopes and prompted them to abandon round four at Goondiwindi, west of the Gold Coast.

“Once you drop a round in our series, you’ve got no hope of coming back. You’ve got to finish them all to win the series,” Owen said. 

“Series-wise it hasn’t been great. Results-wise, we’ve had a real good run. We started four events this year, won three outright and didn’t finish the other.”

afawkes@fairfaxmedia.com.au