Oberon Classic Rally 2022

This is the article as submitted to the Oberon Review. The Editor made some effort to get the story because I had made a small error when I emailed it.

Oberon hosted a round of the NSW Rally Championship for the fourth time on April 23 after missing in 2021 because of COVID19 restrictions. Based again at the Oberon Leagues Club, The Midstate Freight Oberon Stages Rally was Round 2 of the MTA NSW Rally Championship, the East Coast Classic Rally Series and the NSW Clubman and Hyundai Series.

The rally was run over ten stages (five stages run twice). The first stage was in the Roberts Road part of Essington State Forest (north of Sewells Creek Road) and Stage 2 ran through Essington forest from Chain Of Ponds Road to the intersection of Knights and Dog Rocks Roads. Stage 3 was in the Barrakee Road part of Vulcan State Forest, Stage 4 was in Mount David State Forest (an area that hasn't been used in rallies for some time) and Stage 5 was again in Vulcan around Beemarang Road. Lunch and a service break were at the Oberon Leagues Club before the cars set off to do the course again. There was a refuel and tyre change point in Avoca Pioneer Park at Black Springs which crews could use after Stages 2 and 7.

Weather was almost perfect on the day despite pessimism from some visitors to the town (one control official asked me if it was true that Oberon is the coldest town in Australia) and the roads were all dry (and very dusty in places). There were 18 retirements out of the 50 starters, 15 for mechanical problems, two who touched trees and one who ran out of allowable late time. This seems to be about average for non finishers these days.

The overall winners of the rally were Riley Walters and Andrew Crowley, who would have been hard to beat as they were fastest over eight of the ten stages. Second place went to Peter Dimmock and Leigh Pierce, with Jamie Neale and Tommi Flegl taking the third place on the podium.

Nobody could be unsatisfied by the rally and Jon Thomson and his crew from North Shore Sporting Car Club put on their usual excellent and well-run event. Oberon provides some of the best rallying country around and the 300 or so people that an event brings to town to spend money on food, fuel and accommodation are welcome. We are all looking forward to the next rally in the area.

This is what appeared in the paper.

Once again I didn't get credit either for writing or the photos. I'm not too worried about no byline because the text bears little resemblance to what I wrote. And I would NEVER refer to a rally as a race of any kind. Remember that the Editor had chased me to get the article before the printing deadline.

Something appeared in the Oberon Review on April 15, 2022

You can read the full report on the rally here.