The event…
The 2021 Gippsland Rally begins this Saturday 4 December. A hot field of competitors will fight it out for the final rounds of the Till Hino Victorian Rally Championship and Victorian Club Rally Championship. In the mix, there’s local and teams from interstate who’d normally be fighting Australia’s best in the Australian Rally Championship.
The action is all-daylight, run over 8 stages comprising 124 kms (competitive). The rally will enter the mountains north west of Heyfield, between Walhalla, Toombon and Glenfalloch. Reaching towards Victoria’s High Country. The country’s best teams will have great and enjoyable challenges along the course.
Mayor of Wellington Shire Cr Ian Bye will commence the event at Gordon Street Recreation Reserve, Heyfield at 10:30 on Saturday. The recently elected Mayor will give a speech to welcome all to the event alongside Clerk of Course Andrew Roseman.
The competitors…
Four times Australian Champion Eli Evans from West Gippsland is bringing his newly developed MINI. A car that’s actually still in development for the 2022 Australian Championship, but is a possible winner at Gippsland Rally.
Two car Father and Son team Darren and Arron Windus from Ballarat will pilot their Subaru WRXs for outright contention and will surely try to keep the newer MINI of Evan’s at bay.
Troy Dowel from Berwick in his VW Polo and JJ Hatton from NSW in his Hyundai i20 both have similar tech cars to Evans and are fully capable of winning the event as the previously mentioned drivers.
Another previous Australian Rally Champion, Nathan Quinn brings his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X from Coffs Harbour and will certainly add to the six contenders for first place outright.
Brendan Reeves’ classic two wheel drive Datsun 1600 with modern tech muscle, nicknamed Datzilla is a definite podium contender. The Wedderburn earthmover’s driving talent and experience in many parts of the world will be a great match for Sydney based Richie Dalton in his Ford Escort Mark II. The Escort is making it’s rallying debut in its current form which includes state of the art suspension, gearbox and engine build.
Adrian Stratford from Bendigo in his Ford Fiesta is another outright contender for 2WD. He’s currently sitting 2nd in the Victorian championship behind Reeves and will be competing in the Monaro Stages the week after Gippsland Rally to battle for the Australian 2WD and Junior Cup.
Full entry list…
The event has 59 entries in total, 40 Victorian Rally Championship and 19 Victorian Club Rally Championship entries.