Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt have taken out the 2019 MRF Tyres Akademos Rally in their Ford Fiesta Proto, the final round of the Victorian Rally Championship. Based at Alexandra in the north east of the state, the Akademos is a traditional VRC round, and was held over two heats, with four stages repeated twice. Arron Windus and Daniel Brick won the first heat by just 1.6 seconds to Dalton, enabling them to secure the Hino Geelong Victorian Rally Championship title for the first time. However, they came unstuck in heat two, hitting a tree stump in their Subaru Impreza WRX and ripping a rear wheel off. This put Dalton in the box seat ahead of Darren Windus, but it wasn't plain sailing for the Irishman.

Darren Windus finished his first event since April, taking second place in a Subaru WRX. Photo: Peter Whitten

He punctured a front left tyre in his Fiesta, then had a turbo failure, and his overheating Fiesta only just made it back to the end of event parc ferme. Nevertheless, he took a 40.6 second victory from Windus and Joe Brick, with Ivan Regester and Paul Humm coming in third in their Subaru. The 2WD class was a battle of the BDA Escorts, with Justin Walker finishing just 25 seconds clear of Luke Sytema in fourth and fifth outright. The Subarus of 2018 Akademos winner, Matt Lee, and series sponsor Brad Till were sixth and seventh, ahead of Alan Friend's Nissan Silvia.

Justin Walker was in line for the VRC title, and was again the top 2WD finisher. Photo: Peter Whitten

RallySport Magazine's Luke Whitten teamed with Ford Fiesta driver Nathan Berry for the first time, finishing in ninth place, just ahead of veteran Brian Semmens in his Nissan 200 SX. Retirements included Warren Lee who went off the road in his Lancer, Rowan Woollard who rolled his Mazda RX7, and Darryn Snooks with carburettor problems in his Datsun Stanza.

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