The Boisdale Rallysprint, organised by the Historic Rally Association and directed by Graham Wallis, was held on 17 January 2026 at the Maffra Car Club hillclimb facility, near Boisdale.
Competitors gathered to find the track quite wet following a period of rain although little further rain fell during the day. The event comprised 2 courses. Each started using the hillclimb track, then used tracks on the adjacent bush and finished with a course through the parking area west of the hillclimb track. The first course was 2.18 km and the second 1.91 km. The hillclimb track was a wet and slippery gravel surface whereas the forest tracks were more sandy but with numerous sections of water and mud. It was intended that 3 runs be held on each stage but delays early in the day meant there were only 2 runs of stage 1, so five runs in total.
While the rallysprint is held for the benefit of HRA members who typically drive cars complying the Historic, PRC or Standard Car Class regulations, other rally vehicles (ORV) are allowed. With ORV vehicles being either more modern or more modified than permitted in the other classes, the 4 ORV cars filled the first four places. Dale & Jamie Linaker in the Lancer Evo won every stage and won the event by over a minute. However, Mitch Garrad and Taylah Murphy in the new (to them) Lancer Evo were within a few seconds of the Linakers on every run except run 3. On that run, they were caught out by a slippery corner and needed to reverse a few metres in order to proceed. The only problem ids that they couldn’t find reverse gear and had to get out and push the car backwards before then proceeding. A later phone call to the previous owner was met with an apology for not telling Mitch that the gear linkages had been modified and reverse was at the other end of the gear pattern than expected! Despite that, Mitch and Taylah recovered to finish equal 4th.
Jay and Dean Lillie were a fine second in their Subaru Impreza and well pleased with their result. Third was another fine performance, this time by Archie and Mary Challis in their Standard Car Class Subaru Impreza. That also made them the first of the non-ORV cars. The other equal fourth crew was Stuart Lawless and Rick Mehiert in their Ford Escort, also an excellent performance as they were the first 2wd car.
Among the rest, best starters on the first run were Michael Bansagi & Peter Agrotis in a Datsun 180B and Stuart Schoof & Leeham Bansagi in a Datsun 1200 – they were only 3 seconds behind Archie Challis on the first run. However, they slipped back in the placings as the track dried, finishing =9 and 8 respectively in the final placings. Leeham and Stuart had a dual entry and while Leeham was the slower driver in the first run, he progressively improved to also finish =9.
Another one to start more cautiously and progressively improve were Connor Longfield and Seth McGill in a Mercedes 190E, ultimately finishing 6th outright and second 2wd, almost 30 seconds behind Lawless. After a consistent drive, Marc Challis and Mary Challis were 7th in the same Subaru Impreza as used by Archie.
