The final round of the 2021 Till Hino Motorsport Australia Victorian Rally Championship takes place this weekend, with the battle for the title expected to go right down to the wire.
 
Taking place in the regional Victorian township of Gippsland, crews will tackle 124km over eight stages run around the mountains north-west of Heyfield and between Walhalla, Toombon, and Glenfalloch.
 
Originally to be run as a round of the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship, the drivers eager to hit the track after the event has already been re-scheduled twice during the year due to COVID-19.
 
While 59 drivers are locked in, 40 will compete solely in the VRC component while the remaining 19 will run in the Victorian Club Rally Series (VCRS).
 
As the VRC round will be conducted over two heats with a single service after the morning’s four stages, there will be plenty to compete for over the course of the 121 competitive kilometres.


After four completed round, Darren Windus currently leads the championship outright on 156 points, while Brendan Reeves is his closest competitor just 18 points off the leader and hot on his tail.
 
In third place, a further 34 points off Reeves is young gun Adrian Stratford.
 
Although winning the title might be a difficult task for Stratford, it’s not entirely out of reach with a maximum of 60 points on offer during the event. However, he will need a lot to go his way should he be successful in snatching the championship from the two drivers ahead of him.
 
And with the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship’s season finale in Monaro next weekend, Stratford admitted he was using the event as preparation for next weekend.
 
“To be honest we’re in two minds with our intentions,” Stratford said.
 
“We’ve got this weekend which is the final round of the Victorian championship and next weekend we have the final round of the national championship, so we’ve got to keep our heads screwed on.
 
“If we play it safe and just get to the end, I think that’s all we have to do, and whatever happens will happen.
 
“We’re basically going to use this rally as a bit of testing, just as we have to change some things on the car. We would love to go out there and go for the win, however pushing that hard comes with a lot of risks and I think the smartest thing to do would be to treat this rally as a testing event.
 
“We’re extremely excited about the Gippsland Rally. It’s been a long time coming for this rally and we’ve heard that the roads are really great, so we can’t wait

“We are still going to go out there and go as fast as we can because mathematically there’s a chance, we can still win the championship, however we will be driving as smart as possible.”
 
Spectators will be allowed to attend the event and details regarding spectators can be seen here. 
 
The final round of the 2021 Till Hino Victorian Rally Championship takes place in Gippsland on Saturday 4th December.