Along the way the Mitsubishi Evo 9 team won all eight stages over 150 competitive kilometres and never gave the opposition a chance to even get close.

Walkem had already wrapped up his second consecutive driver's title and after the first heat Grimwood had scored his third consecutive co-driver's title to complete a masterful season that saw the Evo 9 win six heats and score two seconds in the eight-heat series.

The much anticipated battle with Craig Brooks in the Subaru WRX STi failed to materialise when Brooks was forced to retire at the last minute as the car wasn't ready and co-driver Reubecca Sheldrick had not fully recovered from an accident in a previous event.

Kade Barrett and David Guest finished a brilliant second in their Plymouth Fire Arrow to also take out the two-wheel-drive class for both the event and the series.

Apart from a DNF in heat one of the Hellyer Rally they were consistently in the top three during the series setting some quite remarkable times against the turbocharged four-wheel-drives.

Kurt Wylie and Matt Best finished third in their Subaru WRX STi after a conservative start in heat one but they soon got on the pace and were only one minute twenty seconds behind Barrett-Guest at the finish.

Since making the transition from an early Datsun to the Subaru, Wylie has really improved with mentoring from the experienced Best no doubt assisting and third overall in the series was a great result.

It was a close fought battle for third in the event with Darren Clark and Keegan Buckley in the Mazda RX7 setting the early pace and while they finished in front in heat one, the Subaru team bounced back in heat two with some impressive times to take third by just eight seconds.

The event started and finished in Mathinna and received great support from the community which provided a barbecue during the day and a much appreciated hot dinner to go with the presentation.

Clash of dates

THE ongoing disharmony over the clash of dates between the scheduled 12-hour sports car endurance race at Bathurst in February and the compulsory two-day V8 Supercar test at Sydney Motor Sport Park has prompted V8 Supercars boss James Warburton to take a tough line against drivers who choose to go to Bathurst.

This year regular V8 drivers Craig Lowndes, Shane Van Gisbergen, Jason Bright and Rick Kelly lined up in the Bathurst enduro and most likely would have done so in 2015.

It's understood that penalties will be imposed if any of the 25 drivers choose to miss the test, which was originally set for a week later but then not only moved to the Bathurst date but extended to two days.

It's not only the drivers who are affected but the race fans as well and they have been forthcoming in their comments venting their anger on social media.

While the V8 Supercars hierarchy has argued they had no choice due to the timing of other major events it hasn't washed with the fans.

Interestingly both events were due to be televised but by different networks so not surprisingly the change of date is seen by many as a game of one-upmanship.