In the smoke haze of the cancelled Rally Australia, classic rally competitors across the Tasman are gearing up for their biggest event of the year, the bi-annual Alpine Rally.
New Zealand has the Otago Rally, an event esteemed in worldwide notoriety, but Victoria’s Alpine Rally not only has a longer history, but a bigger entry list as well.
First run in 1921, only the French Grand Prix, the Monte Carlo Rally and the Indianapolis 500 have been running for longer than the Alpine.
It has been won by most of the country’s rallying greats over the years. Names like Harry Firth, Bob Watson, Doug Stewart, Greg Carr (6 times), Geoff Portman (6 times), David ‘Dinta’ Officer, Geoff Fury, Rob Herridge and, more recently, Jack Monkhouse and Ben Barker.
Being run only once every two years is now part of the prestige of the Alpine. Where once it was held in the pine plantations in the north east of the state, now it’s based around the coastal town of Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland.
The stages now are solely in hardwood forests, mostly on logging roads that provide a vast mixture of road surfaces and speeds.
For 2019, the favourite is Ben Barker in a 1983 BMW 320is, the car he drove to victory in the 2017 event.
He won’t have it all his own way, however. Whereas the Otago Rally is traditionally dominated by Ford Escort RS1800s, the 106-car Alpine start list is a melting pot of the good, the bad and the ugly.
In the top 10, for example, you’ll find Barker’s BMW, a Mazda RX2, Datsuns 180B, 1600 and Stanza, a Ford Escort, a Toyota Altezza and, believe it or not, a 1977 Plymouth Fire Arrow!
Then there’s Mazda RX7s, Toyota Celicas, Triumph TR7s, Saabs, Galants, Suzukis, Cortinas, Peugeots and just about everything else – including regular Kiwi visitor, Ed Mulligan, in his V8 powered Opel Manta.
Barker’s biggest challengers will be former Australian champion Nathan Quinn in a Mazda, Brendan Reeves in a newly-built, state-of-the-art Datsun 1600, former winner Jack Monhouse in a Datsun 180B, and a couple of Escort RS1800s driven by Luke Sytema and Stewart Reid.
In such a big field, however, and over two and a half tough days, anyone in the top 15 is a chance of a podium finish.
Traditionally held in hot and dusty conditions that are a real test of man and machine, the Alpine Rally never fails to throw up a few surprises.
Take 2017 for example, when horrendous weather and heavy rain decimated not only the field of competitors, but the number of stage kilometres that were able to be completed.
Another feature of the Alpine is that it’s a fully blind, non-pacenoted rally, meaning that prior experience of the event counts for little.
Crews won’t know the exact rally route until they get their route instructions at book-in, and those with a real talent for reading the road – such as Nathan Quinn – are often able to make up for a lack of vehicle performance with skill behind the wheel.
The Alpine Rally is an Australian rallying icon, and maximum fields continue to be received every two years. Many of the competitors are well past retirement age and it’s the only rally they now compete in, while others enter “just in case it’s the last Alpine ever run”.
Just finishing an Alpine Rally is a tough ask, and anyone who does get to the end often celebrates as though they’ve actually won – and rightly so.
Whatever the attraction, the Alpine Rally’s history and prestige continues, and the 2019 example promises to be another classic.
Talk Motorsport will be there to capture the action from November 29 to December 1!
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