The pine forests south of Bathurst, which hosted today’s 92 kilometres of stages in the 2022 Classic Outback Trial, set the scene for the seven day-long rally’s close competition amongst the leading crews on the penultimate day of the event.

Hard charging second placed Michael Valantine and his co-driver, son Timothy Valantine, steered their Datsun Stanza to a fastest stage time in the forest plantations near Black Springs today in a heroic effort to claw back some much needed time to the leader, Bathurst financial advisor Andrew Travis and his dentist father, David in their potent Nissan Gazelle V6.

The rising waters of the Turon River north of Bathurst has made the water depth at a causeway impassable for rally crews and has caused a critical Special Stage to be cancelled on Day 5 of the Classic Outback Trial.

The cancellation of the stage left rally competitors with today’s stage lengths adding to just shy of 28 kilometers – or in time, around 19 minutes.

Whilst the mighty Nissan Navara of Tiny Quinn and John Doble continues to lead the Allcomers Competition, the Classic Competition in the 2022 Classic Outback Trial is being steamrolled by Andrew and David Travis in their Nissan Gazelle as they increase the lead they have held since the first day of the seven-day Special Stage Rally.

In a very significant turn of fortunes, the dice has rolled the wrong way for several fancied Classic Outback Trial competitors – on the very first day of competition.

Day one of seven hard and fast days of special stage rallying has seen the immaculate Nissan Navara of Queensland Tony Quinn and John Doble head the time sheets in the Allcomers competition.

Just a few seconds separated the 5 fastest cars following a prologue stage in the Gunningbland Forest near Parkes, in the 2022 Classic Outback Trial. The prologue provided a preview for the 42 rally crews of what they are likely to expect in the next seven days of hard and fast competition.

Michael Valantine stormed through the 10.3 kilometres of dusty forest roads and overgrown tracks to finish the Special Stage just a single second in front of Joel Wald and Cathy Elliot. Both crews were driving Dastun Stanzas.