Australian Rally Championship

Competition

The Australian Rally Championship (ARC) is typically contested over six rounds held across various regions of Australia.

Championship titles and ARC Cups

In addition to the outright Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ titles, the ARC features several sub-championships—known collectively as ARC Cups—which include the Production Cup, 2WD Cup, Junior Cup, and Classic Cup.

Event formats

The championship includes a mixture of endurance and sprint formats:

• Endurance events span multiple days, with championship points awarded based on the overall rally results.
• Sprint events are structured into separate heats, typically held across two days, with points allocated at the conclusion of each heat.

Scoring and points allocation

According to the official ARC Sporting & Technical Regulations:

• Sprint events allocate points per heat in descending order from 50 for first place to 1 for twentieth, applicable across outright and cup classifications.
• Endurance events award points at the rally conclusion, with 100 points for first place, down to 2 points for twentieth.
• To resolve ties in the Outright Championship, higher overall event placings are considered; for ARC Cups, the higher outright placing is used as the tie-breaker.

Power Stage

Each rally incorporates a Power Stage—a final special stage offering bonus points to the fastest crews. The current system awards 10 points to the fastest crew, 6 to second, then 4, 2, and 1 point respectively down to fifth place. For example, at the 2024 season finale in Tasmania, the Power Stage offered 10 bonus points on top of the 100 points awarded for the endurance event winner.

Events

Six rounds comprised the 2024 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship

• Rally of Canberra: 5–7 April

• Forest Rally: 17–19 May

• Rally Queensland: 28–30 June

• Gippsland Rally: 9–11 August

• Adelaide Hills Rally: 13–15 September

• Rally Launceston: 22–24 November

Competition classes

The Australia Rally Championship caters to a range of different competitors in the series and with a number of classes and categories; competitors can start rallying at the level that best suits their budget. The outright competition is fought out amongst the names of rallying and is the ultimate test for the competitors at the pointy end of the field. The ARC's top drivers compete in Group N (Production) - cars which have direct links to their road-going counterparts. The ARC also offers opportunities for manufacturers who don't produce Group N cars to build comparable machinery under both the Group N (P) and FIA Super 2000 regulations. Another award that is desirable for competitors to chase is the Privateers Cup for competitors who don't have support from the manufacturer teams. The F16 Championship is the small car category (1600cc, 2WD) and a budget-level place to start rallying. The outright winner of the Championship is an Australian Champion in the small car category and is added to the record books. The Aussie Cup is the Australian award for large cars (over 2500cc) that enables competitors in the big cars to run popular passenger car models such as V6 and V8's. Amongst the outright awards are the opportunities to chase individual class awards that are based on car capacity and specification which gives competitors the opportunity to pursue class victories.

Cars

The more successful cars in recent years of the ARC have been the 4WD 2.0L Turbo models such as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, Subaru Impreza WRX STIs and the Toyota Corolla ARC-spec cars, which are actually running Toyota Celica GT-Four engines, 4WD system, etc.. Michael Guest and Mark Stacey campaigned a RWD 2.5L normally aspirated Ford Focus during the 2006 season, switching to a Ford Fiesta prepared for the Super 2000 class in 2007. Most of the cars in the privateer fields are of a similar make, but other makes with success have been the Mitsubishi Mirage, Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, Subaru Legacy, Datsun 1600, Datsun 240Z, Nissan Stanza and the Suzuki Swift GTi.

Drivers

As with the cars, it tends to be the factory-entered drivers that take the outright placings. Some of these drivers have been Colin Bond, Greg Carr. George Fury, Ross Dunkerton, Geoff Portman, Scott Pedder, Simon Evans, Neal Bates, the late Possum Bourne and Ed Ordynski. Privateer crews that have enjoyed recent success include Nathan Quinn and Steve Glenney. In 2015 Molly Taylor became the first woman to win a heat in the Australian Rally Championship.

Winners

Australian Rally Champions

• Fred Gocentas co-drove for Greg Carr during the 1978 season while Dawson-Damer co-drove for Colin Bond while also scoring points on one occasion co-driving for Dave Morrow which enabled him to beat Gocentas to the co-driver's title.

** Kate Officer co-drove for David Officer during the 1986 season.

*** Bill Hayes co-drove for Molly Taylor during the 2017 season. David Calder and Ben Searcy co-drove for Quinn in 2017.

Group N Rally Championship

Australian Manufacturers Champions

Australian Formula 2 Rally Champions

Australian F16 Rally Champions

References

References

1. "Australian Rally Championship overview".
2. (November 2023). "2025–2027 ARC Sporting and Technical Regulations".
3. (November 2023). "2025–2027 ARC Sporting and Technical Regulations".
4. (9 May 2025). "The ARC’s guide to the 2025 Forest Rally".
5. (12 March 2024). "Power Stage galvanised with new partner".
6. (9 May 2025). "The ARC’s guide to the 2025 Forest Rally".
7. (12 November 2024). "Half ton to make a start in Burnie".
8. David McCowen. (4 April 2015). "Molly Taylor makes rallying history by winning a heat of the Australian Rally Championship". Drive.com.au.
9. "1968 CAMS AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP, www.snooksmotorsport.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org".