The Alpine Rally, organised by the Historic Rally Association and directed by Stuart Lister, was held on December 3 and 4.
Portman returns to win fourth Alpine
Geoff Portman and Ross Runnalls returned to win the Alpine in a borrowed Commodore, 23 years after their last Alpine win together. They were pushed throughout the event by several crews, none less than the NSW crew of Kari Dirickx and Tim Batten, who ultimately finished just 30 seconds adrift in their Datsun 1600. Former NSW champion Mike Batten (with Glenn Murray) completed the podium in another Datsun 1600.
The event formally adopted Lakes Entrance as its base this year and the competition comprised 123 km of daylight stages on Saturday, 110 km of stages on Saturday night and a further 85 km of daylight stages on Sunday. The popularity of the event was confirmed with 85 starters of which 56 completed all stages.
A feature of the event was the 33.6 km tarmac stage along the Orbost to Buchan Road, which would be used in two subsequent Alpine Rallies. The event was hampered by wet weather but only two stages were cancelled on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning.
