Expected to attract a field of around 80 modern and classic rally cars, Hotham Auto Corsa is Australia’s newest major closed road tarmac rally.

The event’s official indicative course comprises 255 competitive kilometres over 14 closed-road stages, with the competition field stopping at Mitta Mitta, Falls Creek, Mount Beauty, Omeo and Mount Hotham. Mount Hotham’s Hotham Heights Village will play host to the event’s headquarters and evening celebrations.

Omeo locals and show goers will be in for a treat with event’s field of modern and classic cars touring past the Showgrounds on Park Street and stopping near the Golden Age Hotel in the town centre before heading back up to Mount Hotham for the night.

Adding to an already action-packed day at the Show, a selection of the rally’s high profile cars and their crews will be on display inside the Showgrounds from about 2.30pm.

Hotham Auto Corsa Event Director, Stuart Benson, said: “Connecting the rally with the Show was a great opportunity for public to meet the teams and take in the variety of rare and sports and touring cars taking part in the event.”

Omeo Show President, Peter Whittington, said that the involvement of the Hotham Auto Corsa rally cars would add an exciting new dimension to the show.

“I hope locals, tourists and spectators of the rally take the opportunity to come along to the Show and take a look at the cars and all the other exciting activities the day has to offer.”

Wood chopping at last year's Omeo Show

Locals are reminded to keep in mind when heading home after the Show, that there will be several closures of the Great Alpine Road across the weekend likely to impact those heading towards Bright and Wangaratta. Check local notices or this website for times closer to the event.

For more information on this year’s Omeo Show go www.omeoshow.com.au

The inaugural Hotham Auto Corsa will be held over 250 competitive kilometres around Mount Hotham in Victoria’s North East and take in towns including Falls Creek, Mount Beauty, Omeo and Harrietville.

Phil, a successful construction engineer, will drive his rotary-powered Mazda at the two-day, 11-stage rally. Tom, a professional sports massage therapist, will navigate for his dad.

Phil is a long time tarmac and endurance rally competitor having recently completed the Icelandic Saga historic endurance rally where he and his wife Lyndy drove their classic Mini Cooper S to a second in class result.

Phil is excited by the opportunity to compete in the new Victorian tarmac rally, which will be based at Hotham Heights Village. “It’s fantastic to have the opportunity to drive the roads around Mount Hotham,” he says. “This is the first time they have been used for a closed-road motorsport event, which adds to the excitement and uniqueness of it all.”

“I understand the event will also interact with a lot of the small communities around the course, which is great from a competitor’s perspective.”

Hotham Auto Corsa will be Phil and Tom’s third rally together. The pair’s last competitive outing was in the 2010 Targa Wrest Point in Tasmania in Phil’s 1998 model RX-7. Here their campaign came to a sudden and unfortunate end, crashing out on day one of the event. Luckily, both escaped unscathed but sadly the car was a write-off.

Two years later Phil finally found himself a suitable replacement RX-7, which enabled him to get back into competitive tarmac rallying. Recent events in his Hotham-bound car have included the 2013 Targa High Country and the 2014 Targa Tasmania with Auto Corsa Group Director, Darren Fogarty, as his navigator.

“Tom and I will spend a few days up at Hotham before the event driving the roads, to make sure we learn the course ready for day one of competition – which, as well as building our confidence as a team, is great father/son time!”

Phil’s wife Lyndy and daughter, Penelope, will make up the pair’s support crew for the weekend.

The Eames family have grown up in motorsports and made plenty of friends in the racing community. Having spent a few years in circuit racing rather than rally driving, the Hotham Auto Corsa Alpine Tarmac Rally piqued Peter’s interest as he has a soft spot for Hotham; the scenery is beautiful and it’s where he first learnt to ski, and he’s looking forward to reconnecting with old friends.

“We’re looking forward to getting out and having a bit of fun again. I know Rex Broadbent’s going up - we haven’t competed against each other for a couple of years. We’ll catch up with some of the guys that we haven’t for a while,” says Peter.

The nature of rally driving perhaps lends itself to building friendships. “In rallying you’re effectively racing the clock, not the other person, so you don’t have the issues of blocking that you have in circuit racing. It’s more of (dare I say it) a gentleman’s sport – you take your turn and see who’s the best,” says Peter.

The father and daughter team work together in the family’s medical supplies business by day. For rallying, they previously had a lightweight E-type Jaguar and up until recently a 1974 Porsche Carrera RS in which Peter was one of Australia’s leading tarmac classic rallying competitors.

“When we had the E-type we used to watch the top three guys in Porsches who would finish and go and have dinner and we’d still be putting the car back together. I thought, ‘geez there’s got to be something in these Porsches that’s worthy of a shot,’” says Peter.

Having recently sold the RS, Peter is preparing his Group S Porsche (normally used for national circuit racing) for Hotham Auto Corsa. The November event will be the car’s first tarmac rally.

Peter is usually driver and Rebecca navigates. “Bec’s always happy to tell me when I’m going too slow,” says Peter. Rebecca does occasionally take the wheel, which Peter admits is a challenge for him. “It’s alright when I’m being insane, but it’s not real good when it’s somebody else,” he laughs.

The duo had taken a break from rallying, and the Hotham Auto Corsa Alpine Tarmac Rally will be their first appearance at a rally event in three years.

“We stopped competing in rallies because they brought in a lot of computerisation and it got to the point where you really didn’t talk to any officials during the day; so it sort of lost that racing community type feel. For us anyway, we felt it was getting too boring just sitting in a car and not really conversing with anyone, including the volunteer officials. In earlier days it was a lot more fun,” says Peter.

Auto Corsa Group co-director, and former Targa Tasmania clerk of course, Stuart Benson, confirms that Auto Corsa’s events will be designed not just for the competitor but also, whenever possible, give the community, spectators and officials the chance to connect.

“Having grown up around rally events and worked in the industry throughout my life, and benefited from the friendships I’ve made at rallies and other types of events, it’s important to us to provide our sporting community with opportunities to have fun together,” says Stuart.

Stuart said Hotham Auto Corsa would comprise a number of exciting opportunities for the local region to connect with the event including a number of static car displays and pop up start and finish celebrations.

The Melbourne-based promoter of closed road motorsport events released the regulations two weeks ago in draft form requesting industry feedback to inform further development.

Auto Corsa Group co-director, Stuart Benson, said feedback had been received from a number of competitors as well as some of Australia’s leading race experts including Holinger Engineering, MoTeC and Supashock.

“It was important to us that our regulations preserve the highest levels of competitor safety while also being logical and easy to understand.”

In order to achieve a rich mix of classic and modern cars in Auto Corsa Group events, the company looked to overseas trends for ways to make competing with heritage racing vehicles more affordable.

“For example, we’ve allowed pre-approved modern engines swaps for a number of heritage vehicles of the same make,” Mr Benson said.

One pre-approved swap is a Ford Duratec engine into an Mk1 or Mk2 Ford Escort. While the swap does not necessarily improve performance, it makes ongoing maintenance cheaper and easier.

“There are many heritage vehicles out there that were either previously ineligible or restricted from entering due to high costs associated with competition,” Mr Benson said.

“It has been our goal to get these classic vehicles out of their garages and onto the road where they can be driven in a controlled environment the way the manufacturer intended.”

The first major event to which the regulations will apply with be the inaugural Hotham Auto Corsa Alpine Tarmac Rally and Mount Hotham International Hillcllimb that will be held this year from November 14-15 in the stunning alpine region of Victoria’s North East.

Auto Corsa Group has signed a three-year deal with the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort Management Board to deliver the two events.

View the technical regulations here

ABOUT THE EVENTS

Hotham Auto Corsa Alpine Tarmac Rally

The inaugural Hotham Auto Corsa comprises 11 closed road stages over 250 competitive kilometres. The event will be based at Mount Hotham and take in roads around Falls Creek, the Alpine National Park and nearby towns including Harrietville, Omeo and Mount Beauty.

The rally is expected to attract a competition field of up to 200 cars across its Tour, Challenge and Competition categories.

Mount Hotham Alpine Cup International Hillclimb

At 29km, the inaugural Mount Hotham Alpine Cup International Hillclimb is the world’s longest hillclimb event. It is expected to attract production car-based circuit, sports, Time Attack and rally cars from around the world.

The driver-only event will be held on the same weekend of the Hotham Auto Corsa over a stretch of the world famous Great Alpine Road. Each competitor will tackle the 241-corner tarmac trek from Harrietville to Mount Hotham six times over the weekend.

For more information contact:

Stuart Benson
+61 (0) 412 868 979
stuart@autocorsa.com.au