The Alpine Rally of East Gippsland, organised by the Historic Rally Association, was held on December 1-3. The Clerk of Course was Owen Polanski, assisted by Andrew White and Steve Hollowood.

A wet Alpine to Barker in the BMW

With a new team organising the event, the route was broadly similar to the previous year. But the weather was not! It was wet in the lead up to the event and rained for much of the event. Conditions were challenging, some might say treacherous. Only two stages around Cann River were cancelled but a few others were shortened or “neutralised”. There were quite a few offs and many crews that struggled. But 73 out of the 123 starters were credited with completing all stages.

Ben Barker and Damien Long mastered the conditions in their BMW, leading right from the start and ultimately winning by almost 2 minutes. Former ARC champion, Simon Evans with Ben Searcy, were always in the running in the Stanza and finished a comfortable second, over 3 minutes ahead of Luke Sytema and Adam Wright, third again in the Escort. Kade Barrett (with David Guest) atoned for the previous year’s indiscretion, bringing the Plymouth Fire Arrow home in fourth.