The Motor Sports Club of Tasmania has received an excellent entry of 24 cars for the opening round of the Tasmanian rally series which will be run on Saturday.
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The two-heat 10-stage rally is being run in the Retreat forest area north-east of Launceston with the first car due to leave Lebrina Hall at 9am and finish back at Archers Manor in Launceston about 5pm.
The total competitive distance is 100 kilometres with the longest stage at 19km and the shortest 2km.
Former state champion Andrew Wylie finished second in the series last year and will be looking to go one better with his well prepared Subaru WRX STi with three-time state co-driving champion Damien Grimwood calling the corners.
In the absence of last year’s champion Craig Brooks, they will face stiff opposition from the similar car of Keith Abblitt and Adrian Hodgetts which won the Southern Safari event in last year’s title chase.
Wylie’s son Kurt put in some strong performances last year in his Subaru WRX STi having made the transition from a two wheel drive Datsun while it will be interesting to see how Les Walkden and Ian Wheeler’s Mitsubishi Pajero off-road beast performs on the twisty forest roads.
Defending two wheel drive champions Darren Clark and Keegan Buckley will be the team to beat in the quick Mazda RX7 and could give the 4WD cars a run for their money.
Veteran competitor Peter Barrett will line up in his rapid Toyota Sprinter with Roger Carter mixing it with former state champion Lee Peterson and rent-a-co-driver Daniel Willson in the much rallied Nissan Sunny.
A particular crowd favourite will be the booming V8 Commodore of the redoubtable Ben Sheldrick with wife Bec and if the car runs the distance they could prove an upset in the 2WD class.
Bec was last year’s winning series co-driver with Craig Brooks and knows what to expect from the Commodore.
Others in the mix include Nathan Newton (Datsun Skyline) and former driving hot shot Kade Barrett as co-driver as well as Andy Morris and Matt Bush in a Mazda RX7.
For only the second time in the series there will be an all-female crew with Sara Rogers and Elise Wilson in the Subaru RS previously campaigned by her father Brent.
JBrent and wife Heather will compete in the ex-Simon Jansen Daihatsu DeTomaso.
There are a number of newcomers to the sport which is very pleasing, including Adrian Whiddon and Kevin Quigley in the Datsun Stanza.
Hopefully this number of entries will continue into the remaining rounds and good fields will be the norm for the future.