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Entries for the Yokohama Alpine Rally Oversubscribed

Nicola Testa has created an immaculate copy of Shekhar Mehta's East African Safari Violet GT for the Yokohama Alpine Rally.

The Yokohama Alpine gets bigger and better every running with this year’s event set to run a full field of 115 of Australia’s best Classic Rally Cars and crews.

By Owen Polanski - 10th October 2009 - Back to News

Organisers have closed entries two weeks early due to the strong demand and quite a few crews have expressed their disappointment at missing out on competing in what has become the premier Classic Rally in the Southern Hemisphere. The field will feature 8 previous Australian Rally Champions and 7 previous Alpine victors so the competition is sure to be red hot.

A number of the cars that have been entered have been built specifically for the Alpine and are sure to create a great deal of interest. Past Australian Champion Murray Coote from Queensland has built a replica of his potent 2.4 litre Datsun 1200 Coupe which he used with great success in the early 1980’s. Another stunning replica is that of Nicola Testa from South Africa who has built a faithful reproduction of the Nissan Violet GT that Shekhar Mehta won the East African Safari in.

Other notable cars include a Porsche 911, one of the original 3 Falcon GT’s that competed in the London to Sydney marathon in the 1970’s, a genuine Lancia 037 World Rally Car (the only one of its kind in Australia), a copy of a Fiat Abarth World Rally Car which will be driven by Holden Dealer Team star Wayne Bell and even a surprisingly quick Volvo 240.

Crews will start from the Rotunda car park at the Lakes Entrance foreshore from 9am on Saturday 14^th November and can be seen in action at the first spectator point directly behind Forestech from about 9.10am. The cars will visit Nowa Nowa once and Orbost 3 times for service and refuel during Saturday before finishing back in Lakes at about midnight. On Sunday morning they will be back on the start line from 9am before finally finishing back at the Lakes Entrance Golf Club at 4pm Sunday afternoon for the awards ceremony.

Event organisers will be holding a major social event at The Lakes Entertainment Centre on Friday 13^th November for anyone involved with the rally. It will also be an opportunity for the Lakes Entrance community to join in and get a taste of what classic rallying is all about. There will be video footage of past Alpines, a forum of past Alpine winners and contestants and an auction and raffle to raise funds for the local CFA brigades who will be on hand at the many refuel locations over the course of the event.

If you would like more information on all the exciting spectator points over the Alpine weekend you can download these and stay up to date with all the latest developments on our website www.alpinerally.org.au