Classic Queensland Rally 2026 Preview: Night Stages, Otago Order and Our First QLD Start
Three weeks after the Rally of the Bay, the season points north: on Saturday 15 August we'll take the start of the Classic Queensland Rally — our first-ever rally in Queensland, and round of both the Queensland Rally Championship and the East Coast Classic Rally Series (4WD and 2WD).
The event in one paragraph
The Classic Queensland Rally is a single-day gravel event organised by the Brisbane Sporting Car Club, based out of the Manumbar Campdraft Grounds in the Gallangowan State Forest area, roughly 90 km north of Kilcoy. The format is compact and clever: three forest stages, each run twice in daylight — then once more in reverse, at night. All the details, FAQ and entry links live on our event hub.
Why this one suits the wagon
Two reasons we've had this round circled.
First, the running order. Cars start "Otago style" — classic and modern machinery interleaved, so spectators see a 90s wagon and a current-spec car back-to-back instead of the classics trailing round at the rear. For an event that literally has Classic in the name, our 1995 GF8 is exactly the kind of entry the format celebrates.
Second, the night stages. Running the same three stages in reverse in the dark is a genuinely rare format — and we have unfinished business with night stages. At the Rally of the Heartland our light bar failed completely and we crawled through the dark on standard beams. Same discipline, another chance.
What we're up against
It's fast, flowing forest gravel — "classic rally roads," as the organisers put it — which is a different discipline from the tight South Coast forests we've spent winter in. Repeating each stage three times (twice forward, once reversed) also rewards exactly the thing we've been building since Narooma: learning a road and going quicker on the next pass. At Narooma, five of our six second passes were faster. The numbers page keeps the score.
For spectators
The event runs out of the Manumbar Campdraft Grounds with around two spectator points offering multiple viewing opportunities across the day — and because of the Otago running order, you won't have to wait long between interesting cars. Check the official BSCC event page for spectator directions, timings and event documents.
Follow it live
As always: our result, stage times and the full recap will land on the event hub within a couple of days of the finish, and every stage we run gets a full onboard on @shakewellracingpov. If the light bar behaves, the night-stage onboards should be something special.