The Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland, organised by the Eastern Southland Car Club, takes place on Saturday July 18.
A ceremonial start is scheduled for Friday July 17 at Invercargill Central, where the public can see the cars close up and meet the drivers.
This is the club’s second national championship rally but the fourth time they have held a rally in memory of one of Southland’s best ever rally drivers — Barry Robinson who farmed in the Eastern Southland area.
Their previous national championship rally was in 1984, which was won by club member and former Mataura mayor Inky Tulloch.
This year’s event will be the first time the club has run a full rally with pre-prepared safety notes of each stage to help drivers and co-drivers.
A round of the national championship used to be a regular feature on the southern motorsport calendar until 2004.
It returned in 2024 and now the country’s best rally drivers are set to hit the roads of the region once again.
On Friday night, the cars will be in Invercargill for the ceremonial start before rally itself begins outside Wyndham’s Three Rivers Hotel in Redan St at 8.30am, Saturday.
The high-speed special stages feature a blend of the Eastern Southland Car Club’s Wyndham Rally course combined with parts of the Rally of Southland from previous years.
The first stage takes place at Tuturau at 9am.
The cars return to Wyndham at 9.28am for the first service park of the day before two more stages — Wyndham Valley at 10.10am and Waikawa Valley at 10.38am.
The cars visit the second service park of the event in Tokanui at 11.09am followed by stages at Pine Bush and Graham Rd — the latter being a copy of that used for the Rally of Southland.
The cars return to Tokanui for another service park at 12.44pm before the two remaining stages of Fortification at 1.42pm and — an iconic Rally of Southland stage — Dunsdale.
Both have been used in various directions and guises in past rallies.
The event will end at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill at 3.45pm after 160km of special stage mileage and 180km of touring stages.
“The early stages are what we have used in the recent Wyndham Rally events and we have stuck with them as they work well,” Roger Laird of the Eastern Southland Car Club said.
“Then as we head back to Invercargill, we get to the more traditional old Rally of Southland stage, Dunsdale, a very cool 22km stage.”
The event is round three of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship and round four of the Mainland Rally Series. — Linsay Beer
