A multi-year climb up the Victorian rally ranks finally ended in jubilation for Brendan Reeves and his co-driver Aidan O’Halloran following last month’s Yarra Valley Stages Rally.
Reeves, who had come close to winning the Victorian Rally Championship in previous years, was able to reach the title after a strong showing in Yarra Glen and with one round of the Championship still to come.
“It was a terrific year overall, which certainly came with some challenges and hurdles we had to deal with, but it was a phenomenal effort from all who were involved – particular Aidan who was instrumental for me the entire season,” Reeves said.
“We’ve still got some work to do, so we’ll look to put in a strong showing with a couple more events this year before start thinking about what comes next.”
The Reeves Rally Team pair got the season off to the perfect start, notching up two wins from the first two stops of 2025 – first at the Mitta Mountain Rally in late-March and then again at the Ada River Rally in mid-May.
At Round 3 of the Victorian Rally Championship in Bega, the duo ran into its first hiccup of the season.
After winning four stages and leading the rally, on SS5 Upper Cobargo the roll pin in the gear selector broke leaving the Subaru stranded in 4th gear and forced an early retirement on day one. This was further compounded by a second retirement after a hard hit in the water splash during the second stage resulting in the radiator mount issue.
Reeves returned back to form at Victoria’s EROAD Australian Rally Championship stop, The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally, after securing another championship win despite battling a broken cross member the entire day and edging closer to the season win.
The title was then secured on September 20, after Reeves took home two heat wins and eight stage wins at the Yarra Valley Stages Rally, capping off a terrific year behind the wheel with one round still remaining.
“I had in previous years never thought of setting out to do the Championship, early on in my career I did stuff overseas and other different events and the Victorian Championship was more of a test bed for me,” Reeves said.
“It was more recently rallying back here now just more for fun, which I was previously doing it in my classic rally car, the Datsun 1600, and we had come close a couple of times to winning the Championship in previous years, but not quite taking it home.
“This year it was really cool to be in our four-wheel drive Subaru and be able to do it properly against the other competitors in their four-wheel drives which made it a really good, fun year.”
Reeves will participate in the sixth round of the Victorian Rally Championship at the Akademos Rally in Alexandra to close out the season on 19 October in the Datsun 1600, before stringent preparations begin for the Alpine Rally of East Gippsland on 28 November – one of the country’s marquee rally events of the year and one Reeves has always dreamt of winning.
“I’ve received a lot of questions from people asking about the Datsun’s return, so it must be a bit of a crowd favourite I guess,” Reeves joked.
“I haven’t used that car competitively since Bega last year, so it’ll be exciting to get back into it for these next to rallies, for sure.”
Further information for both the Akademos Rally and the Alpine Rally of East Gippland are out now for competitors and spectators.
