The 2014 Armour Timber & Hardware Heller Rally will be held on June 21 starting at 11.45am from the Stanley Hotel, Church St in Stanley.
Organised by the North West Car Club and proudly supported by Smithton Armour Timber & Hardware, the Heller Rally is round 2 of the Tasmanian Rally Series and also round 2 of the North West Car Club PIRTEK Rally Series. The cars will be on display at the start from 10am on Church Street prior to the start so come along have a look at the cars or a chat to the competitors.
There will be several opportunities to view the cars with a spectator point in the Mawbanna area where the cars will traverse several times during the day. Food & amenities will also be present as well as commentary and regular result updates by Barry Oliver.
The competitors will face 180kms of competition on Forestry roads in the Circular Head area. The staging of events like this take a great deal of organising and help from numerous volunteers from Control Officials to Road Closure Officials is high priority and the car club wish to thank everyone involved in the running of the rally.
The NWCC also has support for the rally from other sponsors such as North West Mowers, Action Auto Glass, Dejong Kiely Plumbing, Maltec Engineering, Contel, Total Lock & Alarm, Circular Head Council & Forestry Tasmania.
For spectator instructions and locations as well as competitor entry list visit nwcctas.net from the 16 June. There will also be regular information updates on the web site leading up to the Rally.
The rally has attracted mainland entries again this year and generally boasts the largest field of the 4 round Tasmanian Rally series. Among the mainland competitors is Carl Stewart driving a Datsun 1600.
An older car but extremely fast, he is expected to provide some serious competition for local 2wd competitors like Kade Barrett (Plymouth Fire Arrow), Stewart Rattray (VL Turbo Commodore), Nathan Newton (C210 Skyline) and Neil Ogden (LA Lancer). His speed and ability will also see him amongst the outright .leaders
Making a return to gravel rallying is Mitch Roberts in a Mazda MX-5 turbo. His last result (as a navigator) in this event ended with an upside down parking location on the side of the road. He is keen to make amends and prove he is better suited to the Drivers side of the car.
Major competition for outright honours is likely to come from Marcus Walkem (favourite), Sam Kirkland (current series leader) as well as the recent Targa Tasmania winner Jamie Vandenberg who will have a brand new navigator for this event. As a co-sponsor of the event Jamie is keen to get back to his gravel rallying roots.
Hot competition will also come from Jason White who is to sit in the passenger seat beside Eddie Maguire in a Lancer Evo5 which is a role reversal from the same event last year. Jason or “whitey” as he is known to all and sunder is known for his driving expertise but sitting in the Navigators seat is a whole new ball game.
The winner of the Hellyer Rally will be the recipient of the “Victor Huddlestone Cup” and long time club competitor Craig Brooks is desperate to get his name on that cup again. He has employed the services of Rebbeca Sheldrick from Launceston to point him in the right direction. Both these crew are familiar with non finishes and are both keen to wipe the slate clean and start the partnership with a strong finish and hold the cup high.
Father and son team Andrew and Kurt Wylie will compete in identical Subaru WRX’s. Kurt a non finisher in this event last year is also keen to keep the pressure on his father Andrew, a former State Champion and see who is the dominant one of the family.
Lee Peterson from Hobart is another former State Champion but will not be competing, instead will be assisting his 17 year old son as he continues his entry into the sport. Piloting a Daihatsu Charade this young man has the potential to be a future star and will be interesting to follow his career event to event.
North West Car Club 2013 rally series titleholders Keith Abblitt and Adrian Hodgetts will debut their recently acquired WRX STI after pensioning off their earlier Liberty model and will be trying for an outright victory as he steps up to State level competition.
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