The township of Buchan, 35 minutes from Lakes Entrance and home to the wondrous Buchan Caves in East Gippsland, Victoria, played host to the first round of the 2019/20 AASA Australian Tarmac Rally Championship, the Snowy River Sprint.
A faulty gear linkage on the Mitsubishi Evo should have ended outright contenders Danny Traverso’s and Jason Page’s podium chances on Saturday.
An oil spill which caused the downgrading of a special stage, however, saw them go to bed two minutes behind the Dodge Viper of rally leaders John Ireland and Janet Binns.
Mechanical issues on Sunday ended the Evo's pursuit, giving the Dodge Viper a well-deserved victory at the Snowy River Sprint.
The flying Barrie Smith and Dale Moscatt in an Audi, finished second, with Steve Bowen and Cheryl Dominguez rounding out the top three.
In the Classic competition, the expected three-way battle between the Morling Escort, the Porsche 911 of Mark Clair and Ray Farrell, and the Gluskie motorsport BMW became a two-horse race. The Escort retired on the first special stage of the event due to mechanical issues.
Danny Traverso’s and Jason Page.
The competition between the BMW and Porsche was fierce, with Mark Clair and Ray Farrell the eventual winners by 39 seconds. Topping off a great weekend, Mark Clair and Ray Farrell finished an impressive sixth outright, with Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter in seventh place.
Just a few days before the Snowy River Sprint, pesky gremlins caused electrical problems for Paul Nudd’s MX-5 Tarmac Rally car. Using his ‘for sale’ black MX-5 with a half cage, Paul Nudd entered and won the speed limited Super Sports category at Snowy River.
Jeffrey Wilson and Paul Gibney driving a Subaru WRX STi, finished second. Even though he was speed limited to 130km/h, Paul Nudd with co-driver Peter Hellwig, finished 15th outright.
The question is, will Paul Nudd and Peter Hellwig remain in Super Sports and seek a Championship title, or will they return to the open competition?
The AASA Australian Tarmac Rally series heads to Marysville and the famous “Great Tarmac Rally”, which is to be held over the weekend of October 12 and 13.
Story: Mark Biggs
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