Vintage offroad racing has been on the upswing here in North America
with the popularity of the NORRA series of events in Baja Mexico but its
popularity hasn't moved over into the world of stage rally. While
there are a handful of vintage racers still out there--Greg Healey's '78
280Z, the Huebbe's VW Bug and Jason Lightner's '76 Porsche to name a
few, gathering enough of them in one particular place at one particular
time to make a legit event would be unheard of.A bit of that has to do just with the popularity of the sport here in the States...there just aren't enough fans to have built enough vehicles over the years to create a stable of raceable vintage vehicles.
Australia is different however.
Prime example? The Alpine Rally 2013 that just took place. The event saw 99 "classic" vehicle entries (when was the last time a stage rally drew 99 entries here in the States let alone 99 vintage vehicles?) to cover up to 256 competitive kilometers for a cost of $795. For an additional point of interest the organizers estimated that to handle the road closures over this event they would need 150 road closure officials and an additional 50 control officials. Compare that to the cost and number of workers we in the US would use for our events.
The collection of vehicles at this event was especially cool. Far from a collection blue Subarus and red and white Evos we have tons of RWD action of all sorts and a couple drivers we even know over here in North America (Will Orders and Alister McRae). Enjoy some of the better photos courtesy of Peter and Luke Whitten.
Oh and the results?? Jeffrey David took the win in a Porsche 911, Alister McRae finished 2nd in a Group 4 Ford Escort and third was Wayne Hoye in a Datsun 260Z.
Alpine Rally Website...
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