Calendar 2021
February 27th, Rally Retro Festival, Historic Rally Association, Vic
March 20th, Fluffy Duck Rally, AHRG – Cancelled – Bad Weather
May 23rd, Classic Celica Appreciation Day, Toymods Car Club
June 20th, Des West Classic Rally, AHRG
Des West Memorial Rally
The weather was not kind to the organizers of the 2021 Des West Memorial Rally with cold, rain and wind greeting the 21 competitors entered for this years event.
Organized by the Australian Historic Rally Group, this years event started from Booragul (near Toronto) and headed south towards Yarramalong, then on to Wollombi and Cessnock and on to the finish at The Hunter Valley Resort.
The weather improved at the day went on but remained cool. The route took in a wide variety of roads from bitumen to dirt from open country roads to narrow winding roads which made for a great day out driving a classic car.
A good cross section of classic cars entered the event, Ford escort’s, Mazda’s, Triumph, Peugeot’s, Lotus, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and a few not so classic (yet).
At the finish was Des West’s old Race Car, a 50’s vintage Holden in un restored condition complete with mods of the day, this attracted a great deal of interest from competitors and patrons of the Hunter Valley Resort.
AHRG’s next event is a trip to Releigh Raceway followed by the Heart Of the Hunter Rally, both in August (go to calendar page for more info) which will make for a busy month.
Yellow Duck Motorsport did not compete in the Des West but were on hand to film the event. Go to the Rally page, drop down menu, click on 2021 for video of this event.
The MK I at one of the filming locations
Jim Pope
June 27th, Euro Day, MG Car Club Hunter Region
June 26th, Bulahdelah Rally, AMSAG – Cancelled due to Virus
July 24th, North Coast Rally, AMSAG – Cancelled due to Virus
August 1st, All Holden Day – Cancelled due to Virus
August 6th, 7th 8th, Rally Roads to Raleigh, AHRG – Cancelled due to Virus
August 14th, Heart of the Hunter Rally, AHRG – Cancelled due to Virus
August 15th, Shannons Day, Eastern Creek – Postponed due to Virus
August 21st, Newcastle All British Day, Jaguar Drivers Club Hunter Region – Cancelled due to the Virus
August 22nd to 28th, Classic Outback Trial, Parks, Orange, Bathurst – Postponed to 2022 due to Virus
October 3rd, Toyofest, Toymods Car Club – Cancelled due to Virus
October 17th, All British Day, Kings School – Cancelled due to Virus
October 31st, Even Green Memorial Rally, AHRG – Cancelled due to Virus
November 14th, All Ford Day, Eastern Creek
November 21st, Mini’s Down Under, Mini Car Club of NSW – Postponed to 2022
November 27th, Christmas Run, AHRG
Christmas Tour 2021
Starting from Kurri Kurri this year Christmas Tour took competitors via Cessnock, Wyee, Wyong, Yarramalong, Kulnura, to the finish at Luguna, a total of 136 km’s of good bitumen road. The weather was not very good on the lead up to the event and on the day the weather continued to be unpleasant, light rain all day.
Seventeen competitors braved the wet weather so they could drive the course in their classic car, well not quite all of them, some left the classic at home and decided to bring a modern car.
Along the route competitors had to answer observation questions as well as general knowledge questions. The observations questions related to things they may see along the route like, ‘Name the creek?’ The general knowledge mostly related to cars or motor sport like, ‘What car won the 1966 Bathurst race?’ No one got all the questions right, the best was 20 out of 24.
At the finish most competitors had lunch at the Luguna Trading Post before heading home.
So ends another lean year of car club events due to the on going virus problem. Let’s hope 2022 turns out a lot better so we can get back to some sort of normality getting out and about in our classic cars.
Jim Pope
December 2nd – 5th, Alpine Rally, Historic Rally Association, Vic – Postponed to December 2022 due to the Virus