After a couple of DNFs at Mitta in the well-developed Datsun 1600, Brendan Reeves came with a trick left hand drive Subaru WTX Sti, and finally conquered at Mitta, while co-driver Aiden O’Halloran escaped from a few years scoring team duties and went along for the exciting ride with Brendo.
This year, the ninth running of the Mitta Mountain Rally, jointly organised by the North Eastern Car Club and Albury Wodonga and District Car Club, was a round of the Victorian Rally Championship, the Victorian Club Rally Series, and the East Coast Classic Rally Series, and in an attempt to bolster entries, included motorcycles this year.
The basics of previous events were retained, including the amazing service park on the golf course, modern Rally Base with excellent local catering, long no repeat blind mountain stages, wrapped up with presentation that night in the fantastic Mitta Pub. The route was a mix of new and old stages from previous years.
There were 57 starters up from 48 last year, comprised of 32 VRC, including 10 cross-entered in ECCRS, 21 VCRS and 4 bikes.
Saturday dawned overcast, and remained that way for most of the day, with some fine misty drizzle that may have briefly hampered the dust. Competitors received the traditional Mitta briefing that “The roads were built by loggers not engineers. They are unpredictable, constantly changing in direction, width, radius, shade, camber, and surface. The consequences of going off road are severe with big drop offs. There are long intervals in the roadbook with no instructions but lots of corners. It is matter of judgement what bends deserve noting in the roadbook. The guide has been: corners that may not be as they appear on approach or out of general character or might be an issue for some at high speed are noted in the roadbook, but only receive a ! Care if likely to be difficult if unaware, or !! Caution if certain damage to occur if unaware. If there are no cautions it does not mean that the roads can be maximum attacked. These roads warrant respect and a little reserve, particularly by less experienced crews. They are demanding roads, but ultimately very rewarding.”
The ballot of the first three seeded positions saw Redhead lead off followed by Reeves and Luff.
Crews headed east from Mitta to the opening stage – 22.3 km Long Bullhead, where advice for competitors was: “A longer warm up stage than normal in the reverse direction to the 2023 Bullhead Long stage. From the Watchingorra Creek valley it climbs on a relentlessly twisty road up and over the Bullhead Range, with a bony run down to Bullhead Gap, then out of the forest onto an open shire lane with few reference points to guide over the open crests. Deep gutters either side of the road can
catch the unwary or over-confident.”
Reeves/O’Halloran set a scorching pace with 15.26, some 47 seconds to Redhead/Winwood-Smith, and 7 seconds to Luff/Draper, with the top three in seeded order. In VCRS Snooks/Young lead from the front with 17.43 to Garrad/Murphy 17.53 and Taylor/Stanbrough 18.01. Corey Banks with 16.06 on a bike was beaten by only one car. Fynch/Hahn were afflicted with electrical problems, which continued when they pulled out after two stages and rejoined for SS4. Sytema/Sytema had too many punctures and retired from heat 1 to re-tyre for heat 2 along with Millard/Hughes and Martin/Fernie.
Top VCRS seeds Davis/Randell limped through the stage then retired with throttle issues.
Thomas/Crowe punctured on this stage and were then dogged by fuel pump issues for the remainder of the heat.
Only a short liaison followed before Stage 2 – 15.7 km, Tallandoon, had the following advice for competitors: “A stage first used in 2024, with the first ten km along the narrow Yabba Link and Tallandoon Tracks which climb up, then follow the ridgeline, ducking and diving over crests up to the saddle where the course joins the latter part of traditional Bullhead stages to descend, negotiating twohairpin lefts, before exiting the forest back onto a shire lane with views of Mt Bogong and a fast run to the finish. Beware the final bend before the flying finish, with its narrow culvert.”
Fastest was Reeves/O’Halloran on 11.18, a good way ahead of Redhead/Winwood-Smith on 11.49, then Bramble/Garrad on 12.14. In VCRS it was Taylor/Stanbrough coming to the fore on 13.10, only three seconds ahead of Snooks/Young, and a further 10 seconds to Van Winden/Stirland.
Crews ducked back through Mitta for an optional refuel before tackling the 42.0 km Dorchap Range stage, where advice for competitors was: “This is the longest stage of the event. Mitta tradition of saving the longest stage until the final stage has been broken this year, which allows VCRS crews to tackle the long stage. This stage was last used in 2018. It starts with 26 km of narrow road in and out of the trees along the Dorchap Range. There are close up views of Mt Bogong on right between Tulips 18 and 19. It finishes along Trappers Gap Rd, with one chicane to break up a long straight and a second chicane to slow you down a little before the spectator point on the final corner of stage.”
Redhead/Winwood-Smith on 31.06 took the honours over the dominant-up till-now Reeves/O’Halloran on 32.03 to Hocking/Hocking bursting into the top group on 32.26. In VCRS, Taylor/Stanbrough were fastest on 34.07 to Johannesen/Johannesen 34.16 and Snooks/Young 34.35. Kaitler/Wilson were slowed by a flat, but otherwise no VCRS casualties. Bramble/Garrad retired here with brake problems, as did Stapleton/Ellis crunching their suspension on a loose rock.
Heat 1 was won by Reeves/O’Halloran in VRC, and White/Dimech in ECCRS 2wd and Oldham/Farr in ECCRS 4wd.
Heat 2 began with the 30.9 km Mt Wills stage. Advice for competitors was: “This stage was first used in our first year, 2016 as an exacting opening stage, and again in 2023. It is a very scenic drive following Mt Wills Creek amongst towering grey gums, in and out of Sassafras gullies up into thick alpine ash forests towards the creek’s source at Mt Wills. Besides being relentlessly twisty, the road is constantly changing in width, surface, undulations, camber and corner radius, with many of the large trees close to the road on exits to corners, all demanding tidy driving.”
Fastest was Reeves/O’Halloran on 25.52 to Redhead/Winwood-Smith, 26.10 and Lee/Lethlean 26.25.
In VCRS Snooks/Young on 28.54 knocked off Taylor/Stanbrough by three seconds, with the same margin to Garrad/Murphy. Hocking/Hocking went out here with overheating issues, Gorst/Gorst mechanical, and McAllan/Simmons gearbox failure. Myers/Storer lost clutch and limped to stage end, then retired ending a fine run at fifth outright. Hore/Loughnan in VCRS also limped to stage end with gearbox problems, then retired.
A short liaison followed on the Omeo Highway to the 14.3 km Dunstans Down stage. Advice to competitors was: “This road has traditionally been used uphill as the shortest warm up stage we could find. Originally built parallel to the highway as a private road it enabled grossly overweight log trucks get from the bush to the Lightning Creek sawmill without using the Omeo Highway, except to cross it! It descends ever so gradually for 600m through towering Grey Gums and Alpine Ash trees on a constant grade with relentless, constant bends for the entire stage. It has not been graded for a few years, so the grass, dogwood and blackberries are encroaching and making the road narrower.”
Road conditions were favourable as the first four cars broke the stage record, and stage places reflected the outright order with Reeves/O’Halloran 12.01 to Redhead/Winwood-Smith 12.12 to Luff/Draper 12.22. In VCRS and another tight finish, Johannesen/Johannesen on 13.08 were one second better than both Snooks/Young and Garrad/Murphy. North/North succumbed here to fuel pump failure. Josh Moyle had the front wheel slide out from under him, bringing him down and breaking his little finger, and so resulting in the only MIV callout for the day.
VCRS and the bikes returned to Mitta here as the bikes had to remain behind the cars. Corey Banks continued to be fastest bike on all stages and was third overall when the bikes finished up. A remoterefuel followed immediately before tackling the final 37.0 km Razorback stage. Advice for competitors was: “The tradition continues of saving this until last although it is not the longest stage this time. Commences with a fast, narrow, cresty run through the snow gums, and then opens up onto a wider
road, through the alpine ash forests along the Razorback Spur ridge before a long twisty descent down to Snowy Creek. Beware the sharp bends around the ends of spurs and red earth patches if wet on the descent. There are glimpses to be had of Mt Bogong and Mt Wills to the West and the Dartmouth Dam to the East. Spectators will be gathered on the final corner of the event.”
Reeves/O’Halloran on 27.19 and Redhead/Winwood-Smith 27.55 both broke the stage record, while Lee/Lethlean recovered from earlier stage 3 problems to post third on 28.34. Draper/Draper rolled a long way off the road, giving the Recovery crew quite a task to get the car back on the road. West/West broke the steering and fortunately stayed on the road.
Reeves/O’Halloran made a clean sweep taking out VRC Heat 2, while Sytema/Sytema made up for their heat 1 DNF by winning the Heat in ECCRS 2wd and Oldham/Farr survived to take out ECCRS 4wd.
The champagne presentation and spray were held for outright and VCRS podium places at parc ferme on the edge of the oval below rally base with the scenic backdrop of Mt Welcome.
Provisional results were posted at 7.30 pm as the basis for award of trophies for VRC, ECCRS and VCRS outright and classes to take place later outside that evening at the Mitta Pub, preceded by some great footage of the day’s action on the big screen courtesy of Jake Lucas. The traditional Mitta vases were presented by sponsors; Chris Aggenbach from Aggenbach Flooring, Tod Reed from Wodonga Car World and Ian Douglas from Border Oils and Batteries.
A huge team of volunteers was thanked that included:, Steuart Snooks and Steve Davies– Road Team, Brian Royal- Secretary, Steve Roman – Equipment, Luke Whitten – Entries Secretary, Jodi Mann – Officials, Col Elliott – Clerk of Course, Ian Douglas – Radio, Ron Harper and stand in on the day Scott Spedding – Checker, Kim Winks – CRO, Warren Brown – Radio network, and Trevor, Kim and Andrew Woods – Scorers, along with Stage commanders – Steve Roman/Ray Wingrave, Greg Keen/Steve Dunbar, Jeff Beaumont/Jenny Cole, Geoff Byron/Craig Jarvie, Syd Smith/Bronson Waldner, Mark Richards/Paul Kent, and Service Park Controls Del Garbett, plus Course cars, 0 Gary Kendrick/Paul Franklin, 999 Kev Battocchio, Sweep Mick and Julie Carey, and Recovery 1 and 2 Ben Quick, Luke Webster and the 4 MIV teams: Ian Enders/Andrea Box, Jim Reeves/Matt Reeves, Matt Webster/Maggie Bromley, Frank O’Brien/Peter Lock.
