Greg Latham and Nathan Long have won the 2013 Border Rages Rally driving their Mitsubishi EVO 4 on the fast and challenging shire roads centred on the township of Kyogle, in northern NSW.
The three-day event was the fourth round of the Queensland Rally Championship and the second round of the (NSW) Webstor East Coast Classic Rally Challenge.
Peter Roberts and Andrew Bennett had a commanding lead in their EVO 6 until they went off on Sunday morning.
A great drive by Jack Monkhouse and co-driver Ben Atkinson in the two wheel drive Nissan S15 Silvia rewarded them with second outright. The fact that Jack brought home a 2WD in front of some fancied 4WDs lays testament to his skill and the quality of the roads. Steven Shepheard and John McCarthy came third in their Mitsubishi EVO X.
Justyn and Steuart Snooks won the Webstor East Coast Classic Rally Challenge in their great looking and flamboyantly driven Datsun Stanza. Another Stanza crew of Allan Griffin and Brad Smith were the overall winners for all the Classics entered.
Allan’s neat and clean lines brought him home ahead of the always entertaining husband and wife teams of Keith and Mary-Anne Callinan and Ross and Lisa Dunkerton, both driving sweet sounding Ford Escorts.
Derek Ayson, multiple winner of New Zealand’s Classic Rally of Otago, ran Ed Mulligan’s fantastic sounding “Bimmer” as Car ‘0’ with the intent of having a good look at the event for a possible invasion of some very quick rally crews from across the ‘Ditch’ next year. He really liked what he saw.
Clerk of the Course Stephen Davies said, “Derek is welcome here anytime he would like to come. He made a great impression with the organisers, others crews, and the spectators of the event.”
The organisers had one of the best spectator points in the country, Hillyards, all set for Sunday morning. A train line crosses the road just before the start of the stage. A train broke down across the road just as the stage went green, trapping most of the competitors on the wrong side.
Experienced rally organiser Steuart Snooks said he thought he had seen everything that might go wrong at a spectator point, but this topped it. Thankfully the driver dragged the train clear enough for the event to get back underway.
Photo by "Rohan Hills/Lorne Close from Australian Motorsport Photography"
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