The Eastern Southland Car Club have only ever organised one National Championship rally in their long history prior to this weekend – the Wrightcars – Hokonui Radio 4ZG Rally in 1984.
That event was won by Inky Tulloch in a Ford Escort from Les Harris of Greymouth. Notably the man this weekend’s rally is named after Barry Robinson was in the field that day but did not finish the event.
Fast forward forty-two years and the club is about to run their second national championship rally – the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland, Round 3 of the Brian Green Property Group NZ Rally Championship. The rally remembers Robinson who died in 2022.
While forty-two years have gone by and much has changed in that time the car that Tulloch won that 1984 event in is still going strong and will be driven in this weekend’s rally by Deane Buist of Christchurch.
Buist currently lies second in the Mainland Rally Championship of which this event is Round 4 and he also leads his class in the car.
The car has seen several owners after Inky ran it. It has passed through the hands of Gregg Taylor, Dick Byrne. Deane’s brother Glenn, Mike Turfus, Glenn Buist again, Ashton Wood and then Deane who bought it three years ago and repaired after it had been crashed.
The car has come full circle from the clubs first national championship event in 1984 and is still going strong as the club prepares for its second national championship rally this Saturday.
Buist himself has had a long rally career with plenty of success along the way. He has contested the club’s forerunner to this event, the Wyndham Rally for the past three years although he says, “I hope to stay clear of the fence I got tangled up with last year.”
Through his company Palmside NZ Deane is also the supplier of MRF Tyes which is contracted to provide tyres to Category 1-4 cars in the New Zealand Rally Championship while they are also one of a group of sponsors who support the Mainland Rally Series.
All the cars and drivers in the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland will be at Invercargill Central from 4pm on Friday 17 July where the opportunity exists to get autographs and see the cars close up before the Ceremonial Start at 6pm. Rally maps will also be available.
The following day the cars leave Wyndham at 8.30am before tackling seven high speed Special Stages before the event concludes at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill at 3.45pm.
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