But the Warrnambool driver beat the odds to manage a clear run in Saturday’s King of the Dunes event near Portland on Saturday.

It yielded a second-place finish in Class A, pushing Wilkinson into fourth outright in the talent-packed field.

Wilkinson said while he was among the leaders, he hoped to finish higher in the field.

“I was pretty happy with my result – it is always nice to finish on a bit of a high,” he said.

“I didn’t really set any goals or aims straight away, you more so try to set them along the way. If you start alright, you push a little bit harder and see where you can end up.

“It’s a punishing sport and it’s nice to finish and get around without any issues.”

Warrnambool’s Damien Nicol, however, wasn’t so lucky. Nicol failed to finish the race after engine trouble derailed his plans.

“It was no good – we weren’t able to finish again. The damage wasn’t too bad though, we managed to fix a few things,” he said.

“The sport is pretty hard on the cars. It’s a tough form of motorsport, off-road racing.

“Even though we had a bad run, it was good to see a few friends do well. From my end, we didn’t have an eventful weekend, but we had a good turnout with plenty of people.”

Terang-based driver Greg Ryan finished eighth outright and second in his class to cap a strong weekend for south-west talent.