The 2024 Australian Rally Championship returned to South Australia and the Adelaide Hills on the weekend of 14-15 September, with a new service park and rally headquarters centred on the new Mt Barker Oval complex. This year’s event was relatively compact and confined to the Adelaide Hills proper. Saturday’s Heat 1 stages extending northwards of the South Eastern Freeway to Kenton Valley, with 4 stages run twice. The longest stage, Charligate, was 18.98km. Sunday’s Heat 2 had stages were south of the freeway from Clarendon to the Strathalbyn area, culminating with the Power Stage of Old Bull Creek. The longest stage was Wattle Flat at 10.28km. This year’s event was expecting to see Harry Bates/Coral Taylor (Toyota GR Yaris) fresh from his recent 2nd outright at the Hokkaido Rally in Japan, Lewis Bates/Anthony McLoughlin (Toyota GR Yaris) and Scott Pedder/Glenn Macneall (Skoda Fabia R5) fighting it out for top honours with the Maguire boys, Eddie Maguire/Zac Brakey and Steve Maguire/Ben Searcy (Skoda Fabia R5s), and the Rullo boys, Alex Rullo/Steve Glenney and Peter Rullo/James Marquet (Hyundai 120 Rally 2s) and Jamie Luff/Brad Luff (Toyota GR Yaris) waiting for someone to fail. The 2024 ARC event had a healthy Subaru component and a classification for classic rally cars such as Datsun 240Z (Peter Dimmock/Paul Bennett), Ford Capri (Dave Thompson/Matthew Sanders), Honda Civic (Tony Oates/Niamh Nairn) and Porsche 911 (Sharath Hegde/B Webb). The event was also a round of the SARC and the top places were going to be between Declan Dwyer/Zoe Dwyer, Matthew Selley/Steven Hiser and Guy Tyler/Tania Wearing. A total of 37 cars were entered, with 23 of them in the ARC category. The event actually comprised 6 ARC categories: Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (Outright), ARC 2WD Cup, ARC Production Cup, ARC Junior Cup, ARC 2WD Classic Cup, ARC 4WD Classic Cup.
Please note when selecting a photo, the thumbnail that appears needs to be selected again to view the larger image.
Photos displayed are only a selection of what is available.
HEAT 1
Unforecasted misty rain with a cold strong wind greeted the teams, fans and photographers on the early stages. SS1 The Glen 1 (10.04km) was the most affected by the rain and saw Scott Pedder strike early, pulling out a 5 sec gap to Eddie Maguire and Lewis Bates, with the best Subarus being 8th fastest Bodie Reading’s Les Walkden prepared 1999 GC8 WRX and then 10th placed Josh Wiedman, also in a GC8 WRX. Both Subarus were fan favourites with their loud old school sound, and they were driven spectacularly. Callington Back 1 with the famous tunnel under the freeway saw Pedder repeat the feat. Reading was again the fastest Subaru, 8th fastest. The ‘The Glen’ repeat had Lewis Bates edge out Eddie Maguire by 0.7secs, and was again fastest on Back Callington 2 as he settled into a rhythm. Pedder, on the other hand, was had 8th fastest, the Reading put his Subaru above him with the 7th fastest time.
In the northern stages of Kenton Valley and Charligate stages, Lewis Bates took out honours on Kenton Valley 1, whilst on the next stage, the longish Charligate, brother Harry was fastest. Pedder’s Skoda Fabia was starting to drop away, 12.9secs off the pace. However, Pedder must have fixed a problem as he eclipsed Lewis Bates and Eddie Maguire on the repeat of Kenton Valley. Reading (Subaru) managed a fine 7th fastest time ahead of Peter Rullo (Skoda) and Tony Sullens (Peugeot 208). Lewis Bates topped off a good day out with fastest on the final stage of the day, Charligate 2, to take out Heat 1 and the overall win by 14.6secs. Pedder was 2nd and Eddie Maguire 3rd with Harry Bates 4th due to a penalty for checking into time control incorrectly. Reading would finish the day strongly with another 7th fastest time and 9th overall with a considerably older car than the R5s or AP4 category cars.
In SARC, Matt Selley (Mitsubishi EVO8 RS) was simply too dominant having the fastest times on 7 of the 8 stages, often over 40secs faster than 2nd fastest which was usually Declan and apprentice co-driver Zoe Dwyer (Mitsubishi EVO6) who had one stage win and five 2nd fastest times. These two teams were in a class of their own, often a minute plus ahead of the rest of the pack. Darren Crozier (Subaru 2005 WRX) took the 3rd podium spot. Surprisingly Mitch Garrad was able to score four 3rd fastest times in his Subaru RS Impreza, beating a few of the WRX entrants. Guy Tyler who was expected to be amongst the front runners had issues from the get-go, finishing SS1 in last place, minutes behind the rest. Heat 2 is further down below.
SS1 The Glen 1
SS3 The Glen 2
SS5 Kenton Valley 1
SS6 Charligate 1
SS8 Charligate 2
HEAT 2
With Heat 2 on Sunday, the other drivers would need to find something special to beat the hard charging Lewis Bates. The day offered much better conditions and opened with Clarendon 1 stage. Pedder beat Lewis Bates by a slender 0.8secs with brother Harry just behind. Alex Rullo was the best of the rest. The following stage, Meadows had long flowing sections, tight twisty stuff in the forest and a mammoth jump at the top of a hill for the brave. Multiple SARC winner Declan Dwyer would announce it was possibly his favourite stage ever! Harry Bates got the better of brother Lewis and made his intentions known he was up for the fight. The two Maguire cars were next fastest followed by a hard charging Subaru of Reading with 5th fastest! Pedder would break his suspension or steering and continued on, slowly crabbing through the stage. The 2023 Subaru WRX of Timothy Hiles had an excursion off the road, but continued on minus the back window, broken boot lid and mangled rear wing. The next stage Bugle Ranges had two treacherous railway crossings waiting to catch out the drivers. Harry Bates would again eclipse Lewis, laying down the gauntlet. Eddie Maguire again had the 3rd fastest.
Clarendon 2 was where Lewis Bates decided to pounce and held off brother Harry by 3.3secs, with Pedder just behind. With damage sustained on the Bugle Ranges 1 stage, Wiedman’s Subaru was not healthy as took more 13mins slower the leaders. Lewis would repeat this with a 2.5sec faster time on Meadows 2, and again Reading took his Subaru to 5th fastest, well ahead of some the faster R5 cars! Wiedman had some issues was limped through 3mins behind the leaders, but not as much trouble as Molly Spalding with her RS Impreza allocated a time of 10mins slower. Lewis Bates’s attack strategy was working as he edged out Harry by a miserly 0.1secs on Bugle Ranges 2. Who would blink first was the question! Pedder, now with the suspension sorted, had the 3rd fastest time, and then ramped it up to beat Lewis Bates by 1.6 on Wattle Range 1, a few more seconds ahead of Harry, and then also take out Old Bull Creek1, beating Lewis by 4secs! Pedder now had the better of everyone and showed what could have been if the suspension failure hadn’t occurred on Meadows 1. Late in the day Garry Yeomans in one of the new Subarus would have a rollover and was out of the event. Another 4.7sec gap to Lewis Bates on the penultimate stage clearly showed he would have been on the money for a Heat win. Harry Bates was dropping away from Lewis however after the earlier challenge. He would however win the power stage over Pedder and Lewis Bates, but it wasn’t enough for the Heat win as Lewis made it 2 from 2. Second in the heat was Harry, followed by Alex Rullo having a great weekend before the two Maguire cares. Best of the Subarus was Reading again, finishing 8th overall. Darren Crozier (Subaru) didn’t have a good day, accumulating 4 penalties.
In SARC, the Dwyer combo was working a treat as Declan daughter Zoe racked up the first 3 stages, and then another 4 more by the end of day, to dominate Heat 2 and take the outright win. Selley had been 2nd fastest on most of the stages, with 3 fastest stages, but on stage 17, Wattle Flat 2, he was out of the event. Mitch Garrard (Subaru RS Impreza) had put a few solid 3rd fastest stages times and even 2nd on the last stage to take 2nd overall. Darren Crozier (Subaru 2005 WRX) had 4 penalties through the day so was always going to have a tough day out and this resulted in Michael Mohr (Subaru 2004 WRX STi) taking 3rd spot.
SS10 Meadows 1
SS11 Bugle Ranges 1
SS14 Bugle Ranges 2
SS15 Wattle Flat 1
SS17 Wattle Flat 2
