Highlights
It was a challenging year for Victorian rallying with quite a few events cancelled or postponed due to wet weather, and the growing challenges of Access Control requirements for special stage events.
The Victorian Rally Championship was won by David Greig and Paul Tirant in their Datsun P510 2.5L. It was the second year of the transition away from Group G with equal points awarded for Group G, PRC and Clubman cars.
The Victorian Trials Championship was won by Rob Willet in a Corolla, with Champion Navigator being Ross Runnalls, navigating for several different drivers.
Australian Rally Championship
Following the cancellation of the Alpine Rally (which was then calendared for April 1989), the series was reduced to just four rounds after the withdrawal of the SA round and the Queensland round being cancelled due to lack of permission from the police. On the other hand, 1988 was perhaps the first year when an ARC round used pace notes with a pre-event recce, in the final round, the Esanda Finance Rally of Australia around Canberra.
1988 saw the final demise of Group G cars in the ARC with eligibility limited to Group A and Group N. 4WD cars dominated, with all four rounds being won by Mazda 323 4WDs. Murray Coote and Brian Marsden emerged as ARC champions.
The best performed Victorians in the ARC this year were Pat Barber and Simon Brown who finished 5th in their Ford Laser TX3 4WD.
