2016 Victorian Rally Championship

The 2016 Focus on Furniture Victorian Rally Championship was convincingly won by Darren Windus and Joe Brkic in a Mitsubish Lancer Evo X. Windus had 6 wins across the nine rounds. Joe Brkic missed the Akademos where Darren Windus had stand-in co-driver Bernie Webb. But Darren Windus skipped the Pyrenees Rush where Brkic co-drove with Arron Windus for a win and a second.

2WD Champions: Mike Conway / Jenny Cole, Ford Escort RS1800

Clubman Award: Luca Giacomin / Brett Williams, Hyundai Excel

Novice Award: Joel Perkins / Tom Brennan, Hyundai Excel

To see what else happened during 2016 in Victorian rallying, go to the 2016 year page.

To see other years of the Victorian Rally Championship, got to the VRC page.

Darren Windus and Joe Brkic on the 2016 Eildon Stages

Series Regulations

These were specified in the VRC Standing Regulations, which were substantially the same as the previous year.

The VRC was made up exclusively of Special Stage events with competitive distances between 50 and 200 km.

Eligible vehicles were PRC, Group N, Group N(P), S2000, Historic Rally Cars and Classic Rally Cars. Club Rally Cars, FIA S1600, ARC G2 and Group R5 were not eligible for VRC points, except CLB class points.

Awards were made for outright champions, 2WD, Clubman and Novice. There were also car class awards as follows: PRC and Group N up to 1400cc, PRC 1401-1600cc, PRC 1601-2000cc, PRC 2WD over 2000cc, PRC 4WD over 2000cc (split into two classes, essentially pre and post 1998, pre excluding any vehicles with fully active differentials, post including S2000), Historic Rally Cars, Classic Rally Cars, Club Rally Cars and ARC G2,

All awards were allocated 30-25-21-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for first to fifteenth.  Crew registration was automatic for the first half of the season, but crews members could elect not to register for VRC points. With nine heats, the worst two results were dropped. All awards required competitors to compete in at least 50% of the events.

Events

There were 5 VRC events in 2016. The Marysville Stages was calendared as Round 2 but was cancelled. It appears that this precipitated the inclusion of the Bega Valley Rally but it was cancelled also. Each event had two heats, except the Begonia where Heat 2 was cancelled, hence 9 rounds.

  1. Eildon Stages (NCCA)
  2. Mitta Mountain Rally (NECC)
  3. George Derrick Pyrenees Rush (CCRMIT)
  4. Akademos Rally (MUCC)
  5. Begonia Rally (BLCC)

Pointscores

Class Awards

PRC/N under 1400cc: not awarded

PRC/N 1401-1600cc: Stephen Eccles / Simon Pilepich, Hyundai Excel

PRC/N 1601-2000cc: Andrew Kavanagh / Annie Dougherty, Datsun 180B

PRC/N 2WD over 2000cc: Andrew Daniekk / Emily Leech, Datsun Stanza

PRC/N 4WD over 2000cc post 1998: Darren Windus / Joe Brcik, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X

PRC/N 4WD over 2000cc pre 1998: Brad Till / Mitch Garrad, Subaru WRX

HRC: not awarded

Club Rally Cars: Mike Conway / Jenny Cole, Ford Escort RS1800

Classic Rally Cars: Grant Walker / Scott Middleton, Ford Escort RS1800