Motorsport enthusiasts will get the opportunity to see the cream of Victoria’s rally cars in action next month when the East Gippsland Stages comes to the forests around Bairnsdale, Nowa Nowa and Bruthen.
The event on 10th May is the second round of the 2008 Victorian Rally Championship, and is hosted by the Melbourne University Car Club. Running in a similar format to last year, the rally will again start on the main street of Bairnsdale on Saturday morning, allowing spectators to view the competing cars before they head of into the forest for a day/night competition, with a mid-way service in Nowa-Nowa before returning to the Bairnsdale Racecourse at around 11pm.
Last year’s winners Justin Dowel and Matt Lee won’t be defending their title, as they have stepped-up to the Australian Championship for 2008, having won the Victorian Championship 3 years running. So the opportunities are wide open for a number of leading contenders to take the honours.
Darren Windus and Mike Cains will be looking to repeat their first round win driving their super quick Subaru WRX turbo but should get plenty of opposition from current Australian Championship contender Eli Evans and long time VRC competitor David Nutter both in similar Subaru’s.
In the Historic Rally Car category Jeff David and Grant Geelan in the awesome sounding Porsche 911 will be hoping they can maintain their dominance over Datsun Stanza mounted team, Darryn Snooks and Matt DeVaus. This will be a tough task as Darryn is no stranger to the East Gippsland forests having won the Alpine Rally there last year.
There will also be a gaggle of the little Hyundai’s contesting the Hyundai Excel category with Paul Batten looking to maintain his dominance of that contest.
In addition to seeing the cars at the start in Bairnsdale and the service point in Nowa Nowa, spectators will get the opportunity to see the cars in action at a number of exciting spectator points in the forest. Spectator guides will be available on line at www.mucc.net.au early in May or at the start of the event.
If the opportunity to see the cars at your own personal spectator point is attractive to you, you could offer to help out with controls or road closures. Those wishing to help out by officialling in this lovely area of Victoria should contact Officials Coordinator Graham Pate on officials@mucc.net.au
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