When we started this article earlier in the year, we should have been at the Forest Rally in Nannup. It was the largest of the 2024 WA Rally Championship. Since then we’ve had a few more events. The Grimwade stages rally in Donnybrook, the Karri Rally in Manjimup and what should have been the Safari Rally.
Where were we?
We didn’t go to Grimwade this year, nor the Karri Rally in late August. For the Forest rally it was the first time in over 25 years that we hadn’t attended. We had no cars in it and we weren’t competing so we went on holidays.
As a whole, numbers have been down in 2024 WA Rally Championship events. Is there a problem with the WA Rally Championship? I’ll let you make up your own mind.
From our point of view it’s just a weird anomaly in the universe. At this point in time, for different reasons people in our team are not entering 2024 WA Rally Championship. They’ve got business commitments, family commitments and there’s probably some economics at play as well. Where we’ve had six or seven cars at each rally for many years, 2024 is a very quiet season.
That said, the show is still going on so let’s take a look at how the midpoint of the 2024 WA Rally Championship stacked up.
2024 Forest Rally
Round two took competitors to Nannup for the 2024 Forest Rally which is also a round of the Australian Rally Championship. A few eastern states cars came over with 59 starters on the list. Numbers were down from last year. The event had also lost its long time sponsor Healthway.
The largest round of the 2024 WA Rally Championship saw state competitors race over two days with a single day of competition for Clubman Cup. Having not attended the rally, we decided to follow along online.
Results? What results?
This proved to be a very difficult undertaking. You’d think in this day and age that live results should be easy and accessible. The Australian Rally Championship however, has made it incredibly difficult. We had to revert to using the local point system (post event) to work out the standings.
Clubman Cup
Let’s start with the Clubman. Rob Russell and his co-driver Eden Hughes were in third place in their Toyota Corolla. The Wright Brothers took their Hyundai Excel to second place and winning their second Clubman event in a row was Luke Dunkley and Alex Baird in their Excel.
For 2024 WA Rally Championship State competitors the forest was split into two heats. Points were awarded for each. Within state two wheel drive it would be Glenn Alcorn and John Charleson that would win heat 1 in their Toyota Sprinter. They had a DNF in heat two. Young Sam Moody and Dave Christian in their Mitsubishi Lancer had similar problems when they retired from heat 1 however finished first in heat two. This however would leave both teams out of the standings for the Forest.
Scotty Bennett and Gav Turner took their Mitsubishi Lancer to third. Father and daughter Dave and Kelly Thomas took their Subaru BRZ to second and the win was taken by Tony Oates and Niamh Nairn in their Honda Civic.
With rally two cars starting the 2024 WA Rally Championship, a production class has been added. This year third place at the Forest was shared between two teams. Cam Pusey and Adrian Burnie in their Legacy RS and Tim Hiles and Morgan ward in their STI hatch. Both teams had troubles on opposing Heats however they still finished well enough to take podium places.
Production Cup @ the Forest
Second in the production standings went to Frank O’Hair and Murish O’Connell in their WRX. The pair actually won Heat two as well. Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith took the production win in their WRX. This was to be the last outing for the Subaru before they move to an AP4 Yaris for the rest of the 2024 WA Rally Championship.
Onto the outright standings for the Forest. Dylan and Abbey King did well in their AP4 Yaris in heat 1 however a DNF in heat 2 put them out of Podium contention. That meant that Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith had also taken third overall for the weekend.
Pete Rullo and Jimmy Marquette had taken their Hyundai I20 rally 2 to second place and winning the forest rally was Alex Rullo with co-driver Steve Glenney in their Hyundai i20 rally2.
Grimwade Stages – The little rally that could
Round three of the 2024 WA Rally Championship, the Grimwade stages rally based out of Donnybrook was just a few weeks after the forest. In stark contrast to the entry numbers for the forest, Grim Wade had a little over half as many. The organisers almost had to pull the plug until a last minute cash injection allowed the event to continue.
State competitors raced over six stages (three sections run twice) with Clubman running half distance.
Let’s get straight onto the clubman results. Brothers Hayden and Adam Wright put in another good showing in their Excel finishing in a solid third. In second place was Gav Turner with Sammy Polak alongside in the Mitsubishi Lancer. For Gav it was also his debut driving in a rally.
The white Excel of Luke Dunkley is proving fairly uncatchable this year. Luke completing his hat trick this time with Tiana Chapman alongside taking the win at Grimwade.
Vale Gerry McGroarty
At round 3 Jerry McGroaty and Kirsty Moore brought out their Datsun 1600 and took the two wheel drive State third place. Sadly the 2024 WA Rally Championship was the last time we’d ever see Gerry competing. A few weeks after Grimwade and whilst overseas, Jerry passed away suddenly.
State 2WD championship
Glenn Alcorn and John Charelson fought hard in their Toyota Sprinter and they were in second place by just 15 seconds. Nick box and Caleb “cash” Ash always charged hard and in their Sylvia S13 there was no disappointment. They took the win in state two wheel drive.
Production Cup
Amongst the production cup contenders Ben Perard and Anthony Staltari took their WRX to third place. Tom Loughton and Michael Lloyd brought their Lancer Evo 10 to second. Shaking off their troubles from the previous rounds Tim Hiles and Morgan Ward took their STI hatch to a convincing win in the production cup.
Onto the outright standings and the rally two battle. We’ll start with Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith that debuted their AP4 Yaris. Unfortunately the car gave a bit of mechanical drama and they had a DNF.
The podium places were somewhat business as usual. Pete Rullo this time with Ben Searcy brought their Hyundai I20 rally 2 to third. Husband and wife Dylan and Abbey King brought their Toyota Yaris AP4 to second place and out in front Alex Rullo with Jimmy Marquette alongside took their Hyundai i20 rally 2 to the win.
Karri Rally – The Long Wet!
Over the mid season hump in the 2024 WA Rally Championship and teams trekked the “long way down” for the Karri Rally. A change of organisers and direction saw the rally take on a new format.
Starting on Friday afternoon, the rally had a short spectator stage followed by a 30km night stage to kick of proceedings. Feelings amongst competitors were mixed. The extra time away from work needed to compete seemed to be front of the debate.
The rally itself probably would have been a great event, if not for the torrential rains! The final stage was cancelled due to the sodden conditions.
The results were fairly similar to the last few rounds of the 2024 WA Rally Championship. Dylan King took an inaugural win in his Yaris AP4, this time with Daymon Nicoli alongside. The Rullo family would make up the podium places with their I20 rally2 weaponary.
The end of an era – Safari Rally
The Safari Rally was a milestone in the 2024 WA Rally Championship for all the wrong reasons. Slated to run in late September, it should have been the 59th straight running of the event. Up until that point a long held continuous record.
With only a few weeks left until rally cars were due to roar through the Forests around Mundaring Weir, a strange announcement was made. The organising club would not run the event. The reasons cited seemed a little odd to outside observers. No doubt there was more going on under the surface.
So with the 2024 WA Rally Championship down to five rounds, the Experts Cup rally in late October will cap off the season. A favourite with many teams it’s likely the event will see a resurgence in numbers. Watch this space to find out how it all unfolds.
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