Some of the photos from the 2025 MSS Safety Rally Barossa (South Australian Rally Championship event) run on 3/08/2025 and 4/08/2025 in the southern Barossa Valley. Rally headquarters would again be at Rowland Flat. The rally attracted the likes of Toby Price, well known for his Dakar Rally exploits and a recent convert to rallying in Australia and a big supporter of rallies in South Australia. This would be Toby and co-driver Holly Kilbride’s first attempt at the Rally Barossa, having already competed in the Rally of the Heartland in their 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX earlier in the year. Going into the rally, his main rivals would be the hard-charging Guy Tyler and Matt Dillon in their brutish Mitsubishi Magna, Declan Dwyer (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI 1999) and Glenn Brinkman and Scott Beckwith (1992 Ford Escort Cosworth in Martini livery) and a gaggle of Subaru WRXs headed by Michael and Casey Mohr. Stuart Bowes would return with a 1975 Mercedes Benz 450 SLC. Unfortunately Declan Dwyer would be a late withdrawal from the event.
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Leg 1
Saturday’s Leg 1 comprised 3 night stages with the 17.91km long SS1 Trial Hill stage being the run up the bitumen section Trial Hill before doing a hard left after a few kilometres south to join up with the southern part of the Corryton stage. Price would make his intentions early, obviously not afraid of the dark, winning the stage by massive 36secs! Brinkman would be the next closest followed by the Mohrs. But hang on, where was Guy Tyler? The Magna’s clutch said “No!” on the start line, and that was Tyler’s rally done. A real shame that, as without Dwyer already out of the event who would give Price a real challenge? At the end of the stage it would be 3 Subaru WRXs holding the 3rd to 5th spots, ganging up to mount a united challenge.
The next stage, SS2 Glen Devon located south near Mt Pleasant had a surprise in store….a cow on the loose! Price would again add significantly to his early lead, 14secs faster than Brinkman. Sam and Tristan Crowe would be the fastest of the chasing Subarus, just pipping the Mohrs. One of the crews went through a fence and one crew hit a tree. The final night stage SS3 Lambtail 1 was located between Keyneton and Angaston By the end of the stage Price would have a lead of 58secs going into Leg 2. It was looking rather ominous. Ross Yendle in a 1987 Ford Escort would have a mechanical issue and would be out of the event.
Leg 2
SS4 Uphill 1
Leg 2, comprised only daytime stages, started with Uphill 1 (8.82km) and culminated with the iconic SS11 Steingarten stage dropping the competitors a stones throw from Rally Headquarters in Rowland Flat. Mohr’s Subaru turned up looking rather 2nd hand with what looked like the entire stock of gaffer tape from the local hardware store covering the front right corner! Price would beat a hard charging Brinkman by 10secs, with the latter determined to stay within striking distance of Price should something go wrong. Fifteen secs further back from Brinkman would be the Mohrs, pipping Tyson and Kim Brown (Subaru WRX) by a mere 0.5sec. Daren Herring and Adam Branford (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI) were non-starters for Leg 2 and had retired.
SS6 Lambtail 2
Heading northwards along the High Eden Road, SS5 Corryton 1 would be the longest of the daytime stages. Price was in a league of his own without Dwyer and Tyler in the rally, adding another 16.8secs to his lead over the rest of the field. Jaxon Rippon (1996 Subaru WRX) had been putting in some good stage times and now joined the 3 Subarus of Mohr, Thomas and Brown ahead of him. SS6 would be a rerun of Lambtail and there were no surprises as Price would claim another dominant stage win. Greg Park and Brian Ward were entertaining in their Peugeot 505 doing Scandinavian flicks.
SS7 Goldfields 1
The driver’s favourite, the iconic Goldfields stage (13.08km) west of Williamstown was next. Tyson Brown must have really loved this stage as he recorded a fine 2nd fastest stage time, 18secs behind Price, just beating Brinkman in the Escort.
SS9 Corryton 2
The stages would now be a repeat of the morning loop of stages with the exception of Lambtail. The long SS8 Uphill 2 stage really suited Price’s driving style and he added 22.5secs to his overall lead. Brinkman (Escort) would be the next with Thomas (Subaru) in 3rd. SS9 Corryton 2 heading back northwards over High Eden followed. Price had the fastest time by a mammoth 36.8secs. Brinkman was out of the rally, so the scraps belonged to Mohr, Brown, Thomas and Rippon, all in Subaru WRXs. Exiting the event would be the Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 replica of Bruce Field and Karien Heimsohn after the Alfa lost grip in some loose stuff and then a tree helped the car into a slow roll with it ending up on its side, driver side down. Brinkman’s Escort would develop engine trouble and he too had to pull out of the event.
A rerun of Goldfields was the penultimate stage. Price was expected to again trounce the field, but a gremlin in the car had other ideas, and surprisingly after leading the field by over 4mins, Toby Price and Holly Kilbride were out of the event. With Brinkman (Escort also out), Subarus occupied the top 4 spots, with Mohr currently the best. He would just pip Tyson Brown by 0.5sec at the end of this long stage. And Rippon would grab the 3rd fastest time as he was really going ahead leaps and bounds with confidence in his blue and yellow splash liveried Subaru.
SS11 Steingarten
On the last stage of the event, a small crowd had gathered above the bitumen Trial Hill section top watch the cars enter Steingarten Road. Mohr and Thomas would have the equal fastest time over Brown and Rippon. A surprising result and a classic example of never say never as Michael and Casey Mohr (2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi) claimed the overall rally win, which will be very handy for the South Australian Rally Championship. Second place went to the Browns (1999 Subaru WRX) over Sam Thomas and Tristan Crowe (1998 Subaru WRX). Fourth place went to the surprised Jaxon and Cooper Rippon, faces to watch in future events. Rounding out the top 5 was Brian Smith and Douglas Glover, more familiar to fans as Car 99 in rallies of late. With the clean sweep of the top 4 spots by Subarus came the good news that there was another Subaru winner, this time Anthony Dally and Kelly Mocilnik (2011 Subaru Impreza WRX) in Regularity. Second place went to Graham Wallis and Levi Whitehead (1985 Peugeot 505) and 3rd to Dave Rudham and Dan Prentice (1979 Ford Escort).
