The Shannons Rally SA – Rally of the Heartland made a return to the Burra base on 25-27 May 2025.  The event took in stages from last year and added some new ones such as the long Ketchowla stage starting from near Terowie, as well as ones in the west near Jamestown and Spalding from previous years.  Some of the 70-80km long night stages east of Mt Dare had been taken out for this year’s event, much to some drivers’ relief and shorter ones down south near Robertstown installed instead.  Drivers could nominate which championship to contend, including the Classic category (30 entrants), the South Australian Rally Championship (23), the East Coast Classic Rally Series (17), Invitational (4), Seniors (23!), Regularity Pro (5) and Regularity categories (4).  The SARC drivers would not compete in any of the night stages.  Drivers in any categories that had night stages could make the decision not to compete in these stages or not, but that would reduce their chances for any overall honours.  Forecast light rain would make things interesting.  The main coverage below will be of the Classic and SARC categories, until the end.  Unfortunately Mal Keough was unable to attend due to an off road excursion on one of the East Coast Rallies as he was unable to get the car ready in time, a real shame.

There’s always next year!   The highlight this year would be the attendance of Toby Price, who has won the gruelling Dakar Rally twice, in 2016 and 2019.  He is also a two-time winner in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, winning in 2018 and 2021, before making the switch from 2 wheels to 4 in off-road racing.  Toby has also won the Finke Desert Race 3 times and competing in the famous Baja 100 in a supercharged pickup truck.  He would be competing in this event in the SARC category in a Mitsubishi Evo IX.  Colin Clark, famous WRC commentator was back again, as he couldn’t keep himself away from one of his favourite events in the world. 

Please note there are many more photos available off site.  These are just random picks below.

 

When selecting a photo to view, click on the thumbnail, then click on the small photo that first appears, to then view the larger image. 

Leg 1 – Friday

Friday would start near Spalding with the Olives1 stage, which would be run 3 times over the weekend, then head north to Mothercowie and over to the famous Midnight Oil house on Diesel and Dust before the night stages of Box Creek 1, Briglen and Ketchowla.  Light rain would be the feature of the night stages.  In the Classic category the team of Leoncini/Leoncini (Toyota Corolla AE71) would dominate, taking out 5 stage wins out of 6, with O’Mahony/Nolan (Ford Escort #23) winning the first of the night stages, Box Creek 1.  However the team of Yendle/Devaus (Ford Escort #29) had secured several 2nd fastest times to finish 2nd overall in Leg 1.  The raucous Porsche 911 of David/Geelan had been consistent and finished 3rd.

In the SARC category, Price made his intentions clear taking out 2 stage wins of the 3 on offer for SARC.  Guy Tyler would surprisingly beat him by 7secs on last stage of the day, Diesel and Dust1.  Tyler had been 2nd fastest on the other 2 stages.  Declan Dwyer/Zoe Dwyer (Mitsubishi Evo VI) had a couple of 3rd fastest times to finish 3rd fastest overall for Leg 1.  After a 3rd in stage 1, Carwin Harries had put in a fine 3rd fastest time and then was forced to retire from the event.  Best of the Subarus were Brown/Brown (a 5th and a 3rd fastest) and Mohr/Mohr (a 5th and a 4th).

SS4 Box Creek 1 – night

Leg 2 – Saturday

In the Classic category on Leg 2 on Saturday, Leoncini/Leoncini would again dominate, taking out 5 stage wins out of the 8 stages, including 3 night stages of Garden Springs, Pippilini (named after the long final straight alongside the pipeline) and West to East.  The other stage wins were scattered amongst different drivers Morton/Morton (Subaru WRX) on SS7 Box Creek 2, Brinkman/Beckwith (Ford Escort Cosworth RS) on the long SS8, Yendle/Devaus (Ford Escort) on SS9 Diesel and Dust2, and David/Geelan (Porsche 911) on SS13 Black Peake at night, with the latter placed in 3rd overall of Classic at the end of the day.

The SARC category would complete the 4 daytime stages of Box Creek2, Route 21-1, Diesel and Dust 2 and Route 21-2.  Price would win 2 of the 4 stages, with Tyler winning the other two of Leg 2. Price would hold gap of 11.5secs over Tyler at end of Leg 2, with Dwyer in 3rd a further 22secs afield.  Twenty SARC cars remained in the running at the end of Leg 2.

SS7 Box Creek 2

SS9 Diesel and Dust 2

SS10 Route 21-2

SS12 Pippilini

Leg 3 – Sunday

The light rain that fell overnight in the Spalding area had disappeared by the morning’s running of SS15 Olive3.  Leoncini/Leoncini held a comfortable 5mins 48secs lead going into Leg 3 so would only need to manage the remainder of the event conservatively.  Brinkman/Bethwith (Ford Escort Cosworth RS) drove superbly to take the fastest stage times on Olive 3, Canowie and Box Creek3.  Yendle/Devaus would grab the other two fastest times on the long Route 12 and final run past the Midnight Oil house, Diesel and Dust3.  Meanwhile Leoncini hadn’t rested too much as they had secured four 2nd fastest stages times.  Leoncini/Leoncini (Toyota Corolla AE71) would claim the Classic crown, 5mins 17secs ahead of Yendle/Devaus (Ford Escort #29).  Putting in some good stage times with a best 3rd fastest on the night stage of SS11 Garden Springs was Semmens/Parry (Nissan Sylvia 200SX S12) 17mins 24secs in arrears.  The fast charging Porsche 911 of David/Geelan had put up a good fight until SS15 Olive3 when it would compete no more.  By the end 19 Classic cars remained.

In SARC, Price/Kilbride (Mitsubishi Evo IX) never took the foot off the pedal, winning 4 of the 5 stages, with Tyler/Blum (Mitsubishi Magna) again being the only driver to win a stage, being the long Route 12 stage.  However, the father/daughter combo of the Dwyers (Mitsubishi Evo VI) had snagged 4 2nd fastest stages times to push Tyler/Blum down to 3rd.  Finish 4th and 5th respectively were Mohr/Mohr (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) and Brown/Brown (Subaru Impreza WRX).  Only 14 SARC cars remained at the end.

For the East Coast Classic Rally Series, the honours would go to: 1. Leoncini/Leoncini (Toyota Corolla AE71), 2. Yendle/Devaus (Ford Escort #29), 3. Semmens/Parry (Nissan Sylvia 200SX S12).

For the small Invitational class of only 4 cars, Seabrook/Seabrook (Subaru Impreza RS) showed their class, beating the rest by 38mins 58secs.  Second would be the sister car of Seabrook/Philpot-Hale (Subaru Impreza RS), and then Canny/Hosking in the big heavy and grunty Porsche Cayenne S.

Regularity Pro had the all conquering consistent duo of Barker/Mandy Rudham winning yet another event with 358 penalty points over Mercer/Mercer (Holden Commodore VS ute 1995) and Dally/Mocilnik (Subaru Impreza WRX 2011).  Regularity had Dave Rudham/Prentice (Ford Escort) take top spot, over Meisner/Durston (Army Mercedes G Wagon 2015) and Field/Rose (Datsun Stanza SSS 1981).

In the overall Rally of the Heartland classifications, the combo of Leoncini/Leoncini would be on the top of the podium with Yendle/Devaus on the 2nd spot and a surprise 3rd spot went to the Seabrook/Seabrook team.

SS16 Canowie

Only one stage covered on Sunday as I headed off to the Truck Racing at Mallala, followed by a full AIHL Ice Hockey game at the Ice Arena, Adelaide (a very full day indeed!)