Selected photos from the 2020 SARC Adelaide Hills Rally run in the Adelaide Hills and Mid Murray Motorplex near Cambrai on 17-18 October 2020. The event ran over two days comprising a separate heat for each day. On Saturday the stages were run in the between Gumeracha and Lobethal (as Retreat Valley and Kenton Valley stages) before heading over east of Charleston as Charliegate Short stage and then south east of Birdwood as Blumberg Creek stage. All stages were run twice. The heat finished with two runs of the short MMM supper special stage at the Mid Murray Motorplex, with 2 cars running at the same time.
On the Saturday Guy Tyler and Mike Dale (Mitsubishi EVO9) would dominate Heat 1 scoring fastest times in the first 4 stages to lead Luke Anear and Andy Sarandis (Ford Fiesta R5) by 28.7secs. Zane Admiraal and Matthew Heywood (Subaru WRX) had been consistent with three 3rd fastest times to be 39.6secs behind Anear. Aaron Bowering and Heath Weedon (Subaru WRX) had consistent 4th fastest times to hold 4th outright. In the first stage Stuart Bates and Lincoln Bates had an off-road excursion in their Subaru Impreza RS and damaged the front suspension. In the first run of Kenton Valley Paul Knopka and Neil Branum would have a scare as their Subaru WRX pushed wide and the car climbed an embankment resulting in the car on two wheels but Knopka was able to gather it all in and they pressed on. Some good 5th place results went to Rick Powell and Karien Heimsohn (Subaru WRX), and Rob Edge and Anja Strauss (Subaru WRX).
Open flowing council roads of Charliegate Short stage and the tight twisty council roads in the Blumberg Creek stage provided a contrast. Anear would need to get the clutch fixed in service resulting in the team plummeting to 21st place, but they did score fastest time on Charliegate Short 1 (SS5). Tyler grabbed 2nd fastest to still lead the event, with Admiraal now finding himself holding 2nd outright. Bowering still maintained 4th outright. These positions remained the same up to the end of Blumberg Creek 2 (SS8), however Anear had a lot of ground to make up, and scored the fastest time on Blumberg Creek 1 to jump right back up to 10th outright! His 2nd fastest time on Charliegate 2 (SS7) saw him climb to 4th outright. Wayne Mason/David Langfield (Ford Escort Mk2) had to withdraw with an unspecified mechanical issue. Worse was to come for Rick Powell and Karien Heimsohn as their Subaru WRX left the road in spectacular fashion and the team were lucky to have come out incident relatively uninjured. Kristian Wohlstadt and Alison Short (Subaru WRX) picked up a couple of 5th fastest stage times, and Jamie Pohlner and Adam Brandford (Subaru WRX) 5th fastest in Blumberg Creek 1 (SS6).
Tyler took it easy on the remaining superspecial stages, with Tyler tootling around for the 27th fastest time but taking out Heat 1 nonetheless. Admiraal would finish 2nd outright, Bowering 3rd, Anear 4th and Paul Heenan/Andrew Kriesel (Mitsubishi Galant VR4) in 5th, despite only 19th and 17th fastest around the dusty MMM stages.
Saturday – Heat 1
SS1 Retreat Valley 1
SS4 Kenton Valley 2
SS5 Charliegate Short 1
SS6 Blumberg Creek 1
SS8 Blumberg Creek 2
