The release of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship entry list for Coffs Harbour reveals a massive two-wheel drive contingent ready to fight it out for victory.
While Eli Evans will benefit from leading the field away he will have to keep an eye over his shoulder as he’ll be chased hard by a total of 23 competitors in eligible two-wheel drive rally machinery representing a total of 11 different vehicle manufacturers.
“We’ve already seen this season that the move to two-wheel drive as the outright category has been warmly embraced by competitors, but to see such a diversity of drivers and cars entered for our local Round of the World Rally Championship is quite incredible,” said ARC Chairman Ben Rainsford.
“This is a great advertisement for the path that we embarked upon by promoting two-wheel drive as the leading format for the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship,” Rainsford added.
With 24 two-wheel drive entrants in total rally fans can expect to see cars from Honda, Renault, Mazda, Nissan, Ford, BMW, Toyota, MINI, Holden, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen.
“It’s quite remarkable,” said Ben Rainsford. “Only a handful of years ago we saw entry list after entry list being dominated by Mitsubishi and Subaru. I’m quite sure that spectators attending Rally Australia will be thrilled with the variety on offer.”
Not only are competitors fielding a wide variety of cars they are also running them under different rules, with cars competing under G2, PRC and full FIA regulations, allowing teams the flexibiliy to rally at the level that suits them.
Aside from the Championship regulars including Eli Evans, Brendan Reeves, Scott Pedder, Jack Monkhouse and Michael Boaden, the entry list for Coffs Harbour includes a number of notable additions with Glen Raymond recovering from a toe injury to make his first attendance in his Mazda RX7, Ron Moore in a Holden Commodore VT, Henry Nott making his debut appearance in his BMW 130i and Ric Cary in his converted MINI Challenge Cooper.
Away from the two-wheel drive competitors a total of fourteen competitors will line up for the National 4WD Championship, led away by local stars John Mitchell and Peter Roberts.
While spectators can look forward to a record breaking entry in the Classics with 25 crews power sliding through the forests, Neal Bates at the head of a stellar field of Nissan’s, Datsun’s and Ford’s.
And rounding out the action the Side-by-Side challenge will see Cody Crocker and Michael Guest renew their Polaris versus Can-Am battle royale, chased by four additional SxS contenders.
Click here to download the full entry list.
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