It is with great sadness that the Classic Outback Trail farewells a long standing member of its competitor family.
Ted Perkins passed away on Friday morning after a long and brave battle.
Continue reading
Mechanic turns Driver for Classic Outback Trial
Rally car preparation specialist John Rawson is the latest entry in the 2020 Classic Outback Trial.
Proprietor of Tayell Service Centre, a small but well known rally preparation business in the Melbourne suburb of East Bentleigh, 64 year old Rawson will compete in his 1978 Datsun Stanza in an attempt to win the 2,300 kilometer special stage rally.
Continue reading
Toyota Altezza for the 2020 Classic Outback Trial
Melbourne’s Paul Lahiff, who finished 50th in a Holden in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trail, has chosen a 1999 Toyota Altezza to take on “allcomers” in the 2020 Classic Outback Trial.
Paul started his rally career in 1973, driving a Holden FC. Most recently, he competed in the 2019 Alpine Rally of East Gippsland where he finished a creditable 46th out of 110 starters in very tough conditions.
Continue reading
The Hulk Runs for Victory in COT20
Brisbane’s Luke Dimech and his hulking Holden Monaro are the latest entry in the 2020 Classic Outback Trial.
Luke and his older South Australian brother, Neil, who will take on the co-driver duties, are keen to pit their skills in the recently rebuilt Monaro GTS 350 against 49 other contenders, most of whom will be driving smaller and more nimble machines.
Continue readingCOT20 Bulletin 1 now available
COT20 Competitor Bulletin 1, for the COT Rally Classic and Allcomers competitons, has been released.
It is available on the Rally Documents and Forms page.
Tom Snooks
Clerk of Course
Big Mercedes guns for victory in the Classic Outback Trial
The latest entry in the 2020 Classic Outback Trail is the Mercedes Benz 450 SLC of South Australians Stuart Bowes and co-driver Jeremy Browne.
The pair will try their luck in the big 5.0 litre V8 Merc over the seven days of the Classic Outback Trial which starts early in November and is based around Parkes, Orange & Bathurst in the Central West of NSW.
Continue reading
Change of Date for COT20
The effect of COVID-19 and the nation-wide community lockdown has extended to the 2020 Classic Outback Trial.
Despite attempts to conduct the event during the original period of mid-August, the 7 day, all daylight special stage rally, plus the regularity event conducted in conjunction with the Trial, will now be held from November 1 – 7, 2020.
Continue reading
“Allcomer” Vehicle Eligibility Introduced; Supplementary Regulations Issued
An exciting initiative for the 2020 Classic Outback Trail will be the introduction of the Allcomers category, aimed at encouraging competitors to get their cars out of the garage and re-engage in rallying!
It will be similar to the Allcomers Category which is used in many New Zealand rallies and has proven to be popular and is keenly contested. The category caters for a wide variety of cars of varying technical specifications, but with modern safety engineering being a cornerstone of the category.
Continue reading
Orange accommodation choices with extra space for tow vehicles
We received this useful email today from Lana at the Orange Visitor Information Centre:
“Good morning Phillip
This is a courtesy email to advise your team of some accommodation choices in Orange that have larger than average parking areas for your towing vehicles.
Continue reading
End of the road for Classic Outback Trials?
The legendary car trials that have captured the public’s imagination since the ‘round Australia’ Trials of the 1950s, could have reached the end of the dusty Outback road.
The Event Director of Australia’s only remaining marathon gravel special stage rally, Philip Bernadou, has announced that this year’s Classic Outback Trial to be run from November 1-7, will be his last.
Continue reading