Here’s just a small sample of the photos taken at the 2024 Shannons Adelaide Rally run on closed roads within the Adelaide Hills over 3 days on Cherryville 1 (Friday) and Corkscrew (Saturday). The large field of about 400 cars consisted of various tour groups, to Spirit (limited to 120kph) and Challenge (limited to 130kph) categories to almost unlimited speed category of the Competition cars. Competition cars would have 11 entrants, down quite a bit on previous years. With the event being on the same weekend as the Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb at Mt Gambier with its 150 entrants may have contributed to this somewhat. The categories are further split into Classic and Modern sub categories. The tour groups can see cars bunched up as the drivers are able to enjoy the Adelaide Hills roads, using all of the road while they are closed to the public. The latter 3 faster categories’ cars are released at 30sec intervals. The rally visits several of the hills towns giving the public a chance to see the cars and drivers up close, and there are a few special stages with vantage points set up especially for spectators.
Heading the Competition field would be the two Hyundai i20n Rally 2 cars of Peter Rullo/James Marquet and Alex Rullo/Steve Glenney. The very experienced team of Oscar Matthews/Naomi Tillett (Mitsubishi Evo VI) would be striving to stay in touch with the Rullo cars, as well as Richard Lovell/Karl Radziszewski (Subaru WRX STi Spec C) and John Ireland/Ian Wheeler (Mitsubishi Evo 10 RS). At the tailend of the entrants list would be Mike Lowe/Kerry Chevis in the Abarth Berlina Corsa 1000, ironically one of the tallest drivers in the smallest cars! The Challenge category had 13 entrants headed by Justin Perkins/Stewart Alderman (Toyota GR Yaris), Rohan Payne/Travis Payne (Subaru WRX) and Ben Mann/Brendan Mann (Subaru WRX STi). The Spirit group had 24 entrants. Individual tour groups comprised the Main Tour Group, Prima Tour Group (who only ran in limited stages on day 1), and groups representing Zagami, Porsche Club, Porsche Centre Adelaide, Mercedes AMG, BMW, Hyundai, Honda and Solitaire. And there was also a Limited Speed Division.
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Day 1
Modern Competition, as expected would be dominated by the two Rally 2 cars of the Rullo’s. Son Alex Rullo would beat father Peter Rullo and Oscar Matthews, both by 48mins at the end of Day 1. Lovell in the Subaru was 4th. Classic Competition saw Dermody/Doble (1978 Ford Escort RS 2500) take Day 1 honours over 2mins ahead of Coulter/Colliver (1985 Toyota Sprinter) and Hegde/Webb (1985 Porsche 911). Dermody in Classic group would record faster times than the Subaru of Lovell in the Modern group.
In the Challenge category it would be a Subaru 1-2 with Mann/Mann (2002 Subaru WRX STi) beating Wheeler/Patridge (2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) by 27secs, and Spry/Spry (2003 Subaru WRX STi V-Limited) by about 50secs at the end of Day 1. The Yaris of Perkins/Alderman only survived one stage.
Day 2
Day 2 in Modern Competition was a repeat of Day 1 results with the top 4 teams in the same positions, but Alex Rullo clearly dominating the entire event. Drivers in the Classic Competition category finished the day in the same order as Day 1. Dermody in Classic group would again record faster times than the Subaru of Lovell in the Modern group.
In Challenge category the Mann/Mann Subaru team held off the Spry/Spry Subaru by 1min 8secs and the Andrews/Wegener 2018 Ford Focus RS, 25secs further back. The raucous 1979 Rover SD1 of Raymond/Mathwin-Raymond would be a DNF in Stage 12.
Day 3
Day 2 in Modern Competition was a repeat of Day 1 results with the top 4 teams in the same positions, but Alex Rullo clearly very much in control to take out the event outright by 1min 26secs over 2nd placed Peter Rullo, with 3rd placed Oscar Matthews 23secs further back. Drivers in the Classic Competition category finished the day in the same order as Day 1 and 2, with Dermody 7mins clear of 2nd placed Coulter. Dermody in Classic group would again record faster times than the Subaru of Lovell in the Modern group.
In Challenge category the Mann/Mann Subaru team held off the Spry/Spry Subaru by 1min 28secs and the Andrews/Wegener 2018 Ford Focus RS, 27secs further back. Outright then Mann/Mann 1st, winning by 1min 24secs, Spry/Spry 2nd 27secs ahead of Andrews/Wegener. Payne/Payne (2003 Subaru WRX) in 4th and the 2005 Citroen C4 VTS of Dodson/Deinnocentis in 5th.