Driver Chris Browning and his Queensland-based navigator Chris Clarke survived a flat tyre to overhaul the Super 1650 Class leader and win the class in this gruelling event over the long weekend.

The duo also finished 20th overall in the Northern Territory round of the Australian Off Road Championship.

Their success was relatively plain sailing, compared to the dramas of the 2013 race, which was blighted by various problems with their vehicle before and during the event.

“We certainly had a better run this time after the challenges last year,” Browning said.

“We went pretty smoothly this year, other than the flat tyre.

“I said before the race, to finish first in our class and in the top 20 overall would be about the best we could do.”

The Finke, as it is known, began with the prologue on Saturday to determine the race starting order.

Browning and Clarke were eight seconds slower than the fastest in their class.

Day one involved driving south from the Alice Springs starting point to Finke, north of Aputula.

A relatively trouble-free run, held up only by a couple of vehicles late in the day, left the duo 1m 37s behind the leader at the start of the return leg on day two.

They had made up 4s at the first checkpoint, but fell behind by another 7s, with a seemingly uphill task ahead to overtake the class leader.

That became an even more unlikely outcome when a flat tyre stopped the Chrises in their tracks.

“We thought it had put an end to catching the lead car,” Browning said.

“But we got it fixed and carried on, and a bit later there he was on the side of the rode with a broken car.

“He said he’d gone hard because he was worried about us catching him.

“We figured all we had to do was get home, but there was still 130km to go.”

They held on comfortably to win by more than 40 minutes.

Of the 89 starters, only 52 completed the course.

The Kemspey-Macleay duo will return to action for the South Australia round at the beginning of July.

The NSW round will be closer to home, at Coffs Harbour, in September. 

The event will run in tandem with the World Rally Championships.