The Alpine Classic 2025
For me, the month of October typically means football finals, Bathurst 1000 and the Alpine Classic rally. While I watch football and motor racing with interest, when it comes to roaming about the countryside in classic cars, I’m much more hands on.
The Classic Rally Club of NSW holds its premier event, the two-day Alpine Classic rally, according to Motorsport Australia’s navigation assembly standing regulations. The event format was inspired by earlier Mountain Rallies, those in turn inspired by the Pirelli Classic Marathons running in Europe.
The Alpine Classic presents teams with a significant navigational challenge (sorry, no GPS allowed) regardless of which of the three classes they choose to compete in. “Tour” is fully route charted, “Apprentice” requires map reading and plotting with some hints, while “Masters” is the full catastrophe of map reading and plotting with a bare minimum of information to derive the correct route.
All classes have sensible time targets for each section of the rally, considering the event is run on regular open public roads obeying road rules. A series of observations is required as you progress, a combination of questions at specified distances and coded boards placed at unknown locations which need to be recorded. Time management is important. It is easier to plot a course while stationary, but you can’t afford to spend too much time doing so, and wrong turns while on the move can be costly.
Throw in a few manned passage controls at unknown locations, perhaps a water crossing or two, likely encounters with wildlife / farm animals / farm vehicles and a quantity of (sometimes) good condition dirt roads. Consider that the three classes may not be using entirely the same routes or questions, that on-the-ground does not always correspond to the official maps drawn 20 or more years prior, that many in the field are competing in 30+ year old cars (some of which are open topped), and you have the ideal recipe for the mayhem that is the Classic Alpine rally. Scoring is based on lowest accumulated penalties for missed or incorrect answers or boards, incorrect procedure at controls or entering from the wrong direction, being detected speeding by rally radar, and time penalties.
The event traditionally starts in Lithgow early Saturday morning, and so it was for this year’s 25th running, with the overnight stop at a significant regional town, this time Orange, then finishing back at Lithgow on Sunday afternoon. While roads are often selected to delight the driver, undulating roads do not always elicit the same response from the navigator, who apart from navigating in the here and now is also trying to read instructions and plot more of the route while on the move, keeping time, writing down answers and observations, “managing” the driver and fumbling around the cockpit for a compass or roamer device they just dropped probably due to not managing the driver’s exuberance well enough.
Competing in our 6th Classic Alpine this year and having our best finish of 3rd in apprentice class last year, my rally partner Bruce Miller and I were quietly confident of a good showing, but we both know just how hard it is to string together a solid performance throughout the two days and ~750km of the event. Concentration is critical and the ability to interpret the rally director’s nefarious instructions is all part of the game.
It took about 60kms for the wheels to fall off our attempt at the title this year. Having succumbed to the navigator’s curse of motion sickness, which I do now and then, we lost significant time in roadside recovery before continuing, deciding to shave about 10km off the correct route to minimise time penalties. Our cut-and-run strategy was a good one until about 2kms later, when we came across a manned passage control, entering from the wrong direction, a significant penalty. The rally director later confirmed that control was there specifically to catch anyone electing to take that said short-cut.
I’m pleased to say we had a relatively trouble-free run for the other 700-odd kms, with one missed question and a few minor time penalties delivering us 2nd place apprentice this year. Our nemesis is the Justin Bedingfield / Mark Tolhurst combination, so consistent in winning apprentice class for the 4th time running, and then there is always a Sunbeam Tiger or two keeping the rest of us apprentices honest.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge all the volunteer rally officials who organize the rally itself and run the controls, perform setup or sweep, conduct the scoring, assist competitors with mechanical issues and keep the show on the road. I must also thank some of the tour competitors we followed around parts of the course, who helped confirm some navigational uncertainties at critical points. Just making use of all available information…
A highlight is the traditional rally dinner, where Day 1 class leaders are presented with their yellow caps (a la Tour de France) and all in attendance debrief each other on the day’s (mis)fortunes. It is a noisy hubbub of a thing, delicately lubricated with good food, alcohol, maps and scoring results posted on the walls. Trophies for prior events are often presented as well, while a lucky door prize and / or charity raffle is a regular feature.
There were some significant moments in this event, as per usual. A poignant feeling coming across the “CB” board several times (boards are often coded with the initials of significant contributors to the club), still keeping us on the straight and narrow. Carol Both’s funeral was held on the eve of this year’s Alpine Classic, with numerous club members attending and speaking. The nearest miss with a kangaroo we’ve ever had, a big grey right across the bow, split-second with no time to brake, passing just centimetres from the bonnet. The grand presentation of a recently discovered and long forgotten 1982 Catalina Park circuit trophy to its unknowing owner, one of our rally competitors, still driving the same silver Sunbeam Tiger all these years later. Good times, good memories, long may they continue.