The Bega Valley Rally has a long history dating back to at least 1960 when it was known as the Southern Mountains Trial, organised by the Sydney based Australian Sporting Car Club (ASCC, also organisers of the Southern Cross Rally). It was almost certainly a round of the inaugural and subsequent years of the New South Wales Trials Championship. In 1967 it moved from being a Trial to a Rally and was known as the Snowy Rally and subsequently the Snowy Mountains Rally. It has traditionally been a two night or two day event. The early editions were long and difficult events that often started in Sydney and wandered widely across the Snowy Mountains, often finishing in Canberra. The event has normally been held on the June Queen’s (now King’s) Birthday weekend.
The event became a round of the Australian Championship from its inception in 1968 through to 1982. Its traditional foray into the Snowy Mountains soon became more limited as access to the Kosciusko National Park was not possible. The event became more focused on the coastal forestry areas between Batemans Bay and the Victorian border (and on some occasions into Victoria) and began adopting Bega as its base. This lead to a name change in 1973 to the Bega Valley Rally with the support of the local Bega Council.
With the demise of the ASCC, the event was eventually adopted by the North Shore Shore Sporting Car Club cum Deepwater Sporting Car Club and by the mid 1980s became a special stage event conducted mostly, but not entirely, in daylight. It regained its status as a round of the ARC for several years, as well as regularly being a round of the NSW Rally Championship. It fell into a lull in the mid 1990s but was resurrected in 1996 by well known navigator/co-driver Graham Roser. During this time the Bega Valley Rally was usually a round of the NSWRC, often a round of the VRC and in one year (1998) was a round of the ARC.
Graham Roser’s long tenure with the event came to an end after the 2007 edition after which the event again fell into a lull. The event was rescued in 2009 by Snooks Motorsports, with Tom Snooks as Clerk of Course and son Steuart as deputy, They ran a successful Bega Valley Rally for 5 years after which the event again struggled to find an organising team.
The newly formed Sapphire Coast Sporting Car Club took up the challenge in 2016 under the directorship of Clerk of Course, Ian Slater. It was a baptism of fire as the first edition was cancelled due to the weather, but the event was run the following year and every year since except for the interruption of the Covid pandemic. The Bega Valley has most recently been part of the NSWRC, VRC and also the AMSAG series,
