MOTORSPORT: Australian rallying's golden treasure

It’s almost a quarter of a century since the Alpine Rally last was part of the Australian Rally Championship, but it remains a special event for the country’s rally fraternity.

Very special.

Although held only every two years now, the Alpine attracts more than 100 entries – the most of any rally in the country.

It was first run almost a century ago, in 1921. Only the Monte Carlo Rally is older.

Originally the Alpine began in Melbourne and took a week, with its first stop at Lakes Entrance, a fishing port 320km to the east of the Victorian capital, but it became synonymous with the alpine area around Bright in the state’s north-east.

But, as the roads there have been required more exclusively for forestry, the rally has moved south, with its base now at Lakes Entrance.

This is a classic gravel rally, for two-wheel-drive cars built before the turn of the century and without turbochargers.

They’re mainly late 1970s, early ’80s cars – lots of Datsuns, Nissans, Mitsubishis, Mazdas, Toyotas and Ford Escorts. A few Holden Commodores, and one of the three Ford Falcon GTs that ran in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon.

This one has the number plate KAG 001 and will be driven by Tod Reed and his father Brian, of Wodonga on the Murray River.

At one point recently there were more than a dozen cars on a reserve list, but when we spoke to clerk of course Owen Polanski he had consolidated the entries and was going to let all 105 he had in front of him start, rather than the nominal limit of 100.

This weekend’s event begins with a 950-metre tarmac stage in Lakes Entrance on Friday from 6pm, with the slowest cars first and the fastest last – at 30-second intervals.

For the next two days the starting interval will be two minutes.

From 9:00am on Saturday the field will head east as far as Wingan Inlet – between Cann River and Genoa, almost at the NSW border. That day’s course will be mainly fast, flowing major logging roads with several twisty tracks thrown in.

Orbost will be one of the day’s service points and the leg will end back at Lakes Entrance at dusk for the frontrunners and perhaps towards midnight for the tailenders.

Sunday’s action starts 36km west at Bairnsdale from 10:00am and most of that day’s stages are on the southern slopes of the High Country. It will be what Polanski calls “traditional alpine rallying”, with many crests and blind and often rocky corners.

Bruthen, alongside the Tambo River on the Great Alpine Road, will host two service breaks on this final day.

For the benefit of spectators there will be a short run through the Bairnsdale Speedway mid to late morning, while the leaders are due to finish in Lakes Entrance mid-afternoon.

The entry fee is $950 for 461km of competition – or a little over $2 a kilometre – with another 355km in transport stages.

“Competitors are voting with their dollars,” Polanski says.

“This is the type of rallying they want. It’s organised on simple 1980s lines … proper rallying, tough and challenging.

“We have entries from every state except the Northern Territory, and it’s fully competitive.

“The top 40 or 50 are playing for sheep stations. Our competitors are very keen to win. This event has a name among the rally community.

“It’s the Bathurst of rallying.”

Promoted by the Historic Rally Association, the Alpine has 438 officials – all volunteers.

The Rallysafe system will be used for timing and tracking all cars, dispensing with the need for the usual 999 safety car and allowing the organisers to run the more traditional sweep and recovery vehicles at the rear of the field.

Without time for reconnaissance and making pace notes, co-drivers are issued with roadbooks containing simple instructions and diagrams, known as 'tulips'. It’s what’s called a 'blind rally' by the aficionados.

The longest stage is 59km on Saturday, while there’s one of 46.7km on Sunday.

Unlike modern rallying, no stages are repeated. And there’s no prize money. It’s all about the honour of the silver plate for the winners.

In 2013 the victors, at the fourth attempt, were Sydney pair Jeff David and his co-driver Grant Geelan in a Porsche 911 and they’re back to defend that title.

Unlike last time, there won’t be Alister McRae, the brother of Scotland’s late and legendary Colin, and the RS1800 Escort he’d built but which was left trailing the Porsche’s dust despite the Perth-based McRae’s valiant efforts.

There’s plenty of other quality opposition though, including previous Alpine winners and ARC champions.

David 'Dinta' Officer and his wife Kate of Melbourne are in a Mitsubishi Galant. They won the Alpine in 1984 and ’86 and the ARC in ’84. Kate was the first woman to win an Australian motorsport title and ended up with two.

Barry Lowe was the ARC champion in 1985-86 in a Subaru RX Turbo and he and his co-driver wife Helen are travelling from Adelaide to rally a Holden Commodore VN with a NASCAR motor.

Ian Hill, of Gosford, and his Sydney co-driver Phillip Bonser won the Alpine in 1983 and ’87 and are in an Escort RS1800.

More recent champions are Brian Semmens, winner of the Alpine in 2003 and partnered with Daniel Parry in a Nissan 200SX, and Michael Boaden, the Australian Four-Wheel Drive Rally Champion in 2012 in a Mistubishi Lancer Evolution IX, who tackles this Alpine with Nicholas Corliss in an Escort too.

Yet another Escort is the RS1800 that famously was campaigned by Ross Dunkerton and is now in the hands of South Australian Wayne Mason with Damian Reed alongside him.

The zero car running ahead of the field will be the RS1800 that was owned by Ford and run by Colin Bond for Greg Carr and in which he won the ARC and the Alpine in 1978.

In all, Hall of Famer Carr won a record six Alpines and three ARCs. This Escort will be driven by John Hadden, who bought it from Jim Richards of touring car and tarmac rallying fame.

Flamboyant South Australian Jack Monkhouse will be a drawcard in a Datsun 180B and will have the country’s top co-driver Dale Moscatt with him.

Another attraction will be the Fiat 131 Abarth recently built in Melbourne by Alex Kovacevic and co-driven by Kathryn Cotter.

There’s tons of history to the Alpine and even more to like about it.

The East Gippsland Shire, in particular, loves it. On very conservative arithmetic the modern incarnation of the Alpine is reckoned to bring at least $2.8 million in economic benefit to its district.

So it too will be another winner come Sunday night.