Rally of South Australia

The Rally of South Australia is a round of the Australian Rally Championship.

In 2006 the Toyota Rally SA will again be based in the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Mount Crawford area with the Service Park located at Mount Pleasant.

The Forties spectator area in Mount Crawford Forest will provide fans with the best rally viewing in Australia - the course being designed to allow for five passes of the full field on both days.

The 2006 event will be conducted over 19 special stages with a total distance of 191.55 kilometres.

The longest stage, Eden High will be over a distance of 20.75 kilometres.

In 2005m the Rally of SA set another record level of attendance with 30,500 spectators watching the event.

Some 6,500 people attended the promotional start in Tanunda on the Friday evening before the competition began in earnest.

Victory in the 2005 Toyota Rally SA went to Scott Pedder/Glen Weston in their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII, followed by Neal Bates/Coral Taylor in the Toyota Corolla Sportivo, with Cody Crocker/Dale Moscatt in the Subaru Impreza WRX Sti taking third.

Legendary South Australian rally competitor Ed Ordynski with co-driver Iain Stewart made a 'guest' appearance at the 2005 event in a Toyota Corolla and finished a creditable 10th.

The Toyota Rally SA is promoted and staged by the South Australian Motor Sport Board (SAMSB), which also promotes the Clipsal 500 Adelaide V8 Supercar event that has won seven AVESCO awards as the nation's best national motor sport event; four SA Tourism Awards and has been inducted into the V8 Supercar Hall of Fame, the SA Tourism Hall of Fame as well as being named Australia's best major festival and event on two occasions.

It was after a six-year break, that the SAMSB re-introduced a round of the ARC to the State in 2001.

Prior to the 2001 Coopers Pale Ale Rally SA, the last ARC round held in South Australia was the fourth round of the 1994 season, the Clipsal Rally Adelaide.

Notwithstanding this break in national competition within the state, South Australia and South Australian drivers have had a strong influence on the rally scene since the inception of the Championship in 1968.

In past years Adelaide and South Australia was the home base of some of the country's most memorable rally events, including the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial, The State Bank Marathon and was twice the start of the Australian Safari Desert Marathon in 1995-96.

Six times South Australian Rally Champion, Stewart McLeod, won many national rounds, as did Dean Rainsford in the seventies. Tom Barr-Smith, John Taylor and Garry Chapman were also successful South Australian competitors on the national scene.

Only two South Australians have won the Australian Rally Championship outright. Barry Lowe won back-to-back titles in 1985-86 and former Mitsubishi works driver, Ed Ordynski, won in 1990 driving a VR4 Galant.

In the past five years the honours at Rally SA have gone to Subaru with three victories, while Mitsubishi has won twice.

Previous Winners

* 2005 Scott Peder/Glen Weston - Mitsubishi
* 2004 Chris Atkinson/Ben Atkinson - Subaru
* 2003 Ed Ordynski/Iain Stewart - Mitsubishi
* 2002 Possum Bourne/Mark Stacey - Subaru
* 2001 Possum Bourne/Craig Vincent - Subaru