The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally, organised by the Vroom Events (with the assistance of CCRMIT), was held on 26-27 August.
Australian Rally Championship Round 4
Victorian Rally Championship Round 3
The Gippsland Rally is pace-noted with recce for the Saturday stages on Friday. Sunday stages were recce’d on Thursday. The event is an ARC “endurance” round, meaning points were awarded for tehe overall event, not individual heats. The VRC Round was conducted as two heats only on Day 1 (Saturday).
The ARC event was won by Harry Bates and Coral Taylor in a Toyota GR Yaris AP4. they finished more than a minute ahead of team-mates, Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin, were in turn more than a minute ahead of third placed Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey in a Skoda.
The VRC event was won by Brendan Reeves and new co-driver Alex Gelsomino in the Datzilla. They placed second in the first heat and won the second heat. The first heat was won by Justin Dowel and Tracey Dewhurst in Mitsubishi Mirage, but they only finished 9th in the second heat. Danny Traverso and Anthony Carr bounced back from their DNF in the Ada River to finish second overall with a third and a second on the heats. Tim and Leonie Clark struck trouble on SS3 but recovered to place 4th on Heat 2. Warren Lee and David Lethlean bagged a fourth and a third over the two heats to keep their championship hopes alive. The results set up a nail-biting end to the series, with only one round remaining after the cancellation of the Akademos. Reeves held a solid points lead over Dowell and Clark with both Lee and Traverso outside chances to take the championship.
Braedon Kendrick with Adam Wright were second 2WD and first Clubman on Heat 1, but dropped to 9th on Heat 2 with James and Mark Leoncini taking 2nd 2WD on Heat 2 behind Reeves. Nick Seymour with Matthew Whitten took the Clubman win on Heat 2.
