54 entries confirmed for Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally

The MLT Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally returns this Saturday with a top-class field of 54 entries.

The rally will commence at the MLT Three Rivers Hotel in Redan Street, Wyndham at 9.15am from where competitors will tackle five Special Stages.

The first stage, Wyndham Valley, is over 17.49 km and is followed by the 17.02 Mt Herbert stage. A Service Park in Wyndham follows prior to the 28.12km third stage in Waikawa Valley followed by the longest stage of the event, Quarry Hills over 44.08km. The cars return to Wyndham for another Service Park before the final stage at Tuturau over 21.15km.

The rally then ends back at the MLT Three Rivers Hotel in Wyndham with the first car due at 3.47pm after 128km of Special Stage competition linked by 126km of touring stage mileage.

The rally was instigated last year by the Eastern Southland Car Club to remember Robinson, a South Island rally legend, who passed away in March 2022.

Robinson farmed in the Mokoreta area near Wyndham during the height of his rallying career which saw him win multiple Wyndham and Otago Rally’s and also come so close to winning the 1983 New Zealand Rally Championship but for an engine failure in the final round which left him runner-up in the championship. He also won the inaugural Catlins Coast Rally in 1991 with his daughter Anna alongside in the co-driver seat.

Those that cannot attend the event on Saturday can follow the action via livestream on the MLT Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally facebook page while the results will be available at chrissport.nz. Full rally information including route maps is available on the Eastern Southland Car Club page.

Rally Secretary, Roger Laird says, “we are back for the second Barry Robinson Memorial Wyndham Rally, and delighted to have the support from the Mataura Licensing Trust, Traffic Management Services, Yuasa Battery plus that of Rayonier Matariki Forests, the Southland District Council, Gore District Council, Prime Range Fresh Shop Lorneville, Matt McRae and the landowners on the rally route. Laird added that is “so good to see last year’s winning crew Andrew and Hayden Graves out helping on the event while so too are the well-known Hudson family of Christchurch including Jared, co-driver for Hayden Paddon.”

Top seeds Caleb Macdonald and co-driver Kerran Graeve of Queenstown will lead the field away in their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6 in which they finished third last year with second seed Carter Strang of Wallacetown next in his EVO 10. Strang was second last year. Mark McMillan of Invercargill is the third seed in his Subaru WRX Sti with Derek Ayson of Gore in a leased Ford Fiesta AP4 next.

Seventh seed, Robbie Stokes of Waikuku, currently leads both the NZ Rally Championship and the Mainland Rally Series and will be leasing a Paul Cross Subaru Impreza H6 for this event.