The three-day event will start on Friday night with a Super Special stage at the Inveresk precinct with that area the main service point for teams each day.

On Saturday it will get much more serious with ten special stages (five stages run twice) over 130 competitive kilometres in the Diddleum Plains, Sidling Range and the Lisle State Forest areas.

Sunday the teams compete in six special stages (three stages twice) over 113 kilometres in the Retreat and Lisle Forest areas before the finish at Inveresk, followed by the presentation of trophies and champagne spray at 4.30pm.

Victoria’s Eli Evans and his West Australian co-driver Ben Searcy go into the fourth round of the six-round championship in their Skoda Fabia R5 with a 25-point lead.

Evans won the championship in 2012, 2013 and 2015 while Searcy is yet to win the co-drivers’ title, finishing second a number of times.

This is their first year together and so far in six heats they have scored three firsts, one second, one third and one fourth.

Second place in the championship is being held down by former Targa Tasmania winner Steve Glenney and his South Australian co-driver Andy Sarandis in the P5 specification Subaru WRX STi. The Tasmanian driver has been the revelation of the championship with some extraordinary performances in a car that lacks the superior technical specification of the Skoda.

This team has been the model of consistency scoring four seconds, one third and one fifth in the six heats, so the opposition will have to be on their game right from the start.

Second-generation driver Harry Bates (son of four-time champion Neal) from NSW and John McCarthy are in third place on 181 points in their AP4 specification Toyota Yaris.

But for a poor result (14th) in the first heat in WA they would have been further up the leader board after scoring three firsts, one second and one fourth in the other five heats.

Molly Taylor from NSW, the 2016 champion, and her New Zealand co-driver Malcolm Read are fourth in the standings on 140 points after three fourths, two fifths and a sixth in the P5 specification Subaru WRX STi run by the Les Walkden team.

The car has been completely rebuilt since a recent test session and hopefully there will be some worthwhile gains for the team.

Queensland’s Adrian Coppin and his co-driver Toni Feaver from WA (his third co-driver for the season) are fifth in the championship on 129 points and will line up in another Skoda Fabia R5 after starting the season in a Peugeot 208 AP4.

Two-time Tasmanian Rally Series winner (2013 and 2014) Marcus Walkem makes a welcome return to the ARC with brother Scott in a Peugeot 208 AP4, and the 2015 ARC four-wheel drive champions hope for a clean, consistent run on home turf.

There is a total of 14 cars entered for the ARC round, including five two-wheel drive cars, with the spectacular Nissan 370Z of Adam Kaplin and Aleshia Penney bound to put on a show for the spectators.

The third round of the Dunlop-Motul Tasmanian Rally championship will be run in conjunction with the ARC event with a healthy field of 21 cars.

Championship leaders Bodie Reading and Alex Malcolm have a 44-point lead in their Subaru WRX STi and have shown great speed for a relatively inexperienced team.

They won both heats of the first round but issues in round two saw them finish with two fourths.

Tim Auty and John Mitchell scored no points in round one in their elderly Mazda 323 GTR, but bounced back with a win in heat one of round two and have been seeded one on the road for the TRC cars which will start behind the ARC cars.  

Nic Grave and Craig Sheahan are second in the championship in their non-turbocharged Subaru RS on 88 points just one point ahead of the similar car of Ben Newman and Adam Kudra.

Grave and Newman are not surprisingly leading the Buckby Subaru RS Challenge but Newman could have been in front had they not experienced problems in heat two of round two finishing 15th.

Kudra will be standing in for Steve Glenney, who was alongside Newman for the first two rounds, but has to step aside for this due to his ARC commitments.

One team that could cause an upset is John Davidson and Steve Norris in their Subaru WRX STi making their first appearance in the TRC for the year.

Davidson has shown good pace and could be the spoiler in the event.

Apart from the Super Special stage on Friday night at Inveresk there will be one spectator point on Saturday and two on Sunday with details available next week in The Examiner.