Rally of the Bay 2026: 14th Outright as a Third of the Field Broke

The Lazer Rally of the Bay is one of the fixtures of the NSW gravel calendar — the North Shore Sporting Car Club has run it out of Batemans Bay for around 30 years. For 2026 it was Round 3 of the Shamrock Haulage NSW Rally Championship, and it doubled as a round of the East Coast Classic 2WD and 4WD series, the NSW Clubman series and the ACT Regional series. That pulled in a deep, quick field — 29 crews for the Bay Stages.

For us it was another day on the South Coast forest gravel we've been getting to know all year, just up the road from our ARC debut at Narooma.

The event

It's a single-day format built around eight special stages (one run twice) on the fast, tree-lined forest roads through the Eurobodalla — including the iconic River Road. The stage menu: Ridge Runner, Barking Highway, School of Lyons (twice), Runnyford Rd, Buckenbowra, Lyon of Pigs and Black River. Quick, committed gravel where rhythm and trust in the notes count for everything.

Attrition everywhere

The Bay bit hard. Of the 29 crews that started the Bay Stages, only 19 were still running at the finish — a third of the field gone. And it wasn't only the back-markers: former Australian Rally Champion Scott Pedder went out with a head gasket, and Richie Dalton's Yaris GR stopped early with a mechanical. On a day like that, just getting the car to the final control is worth something.

Up front, Clayton Hoy and Brad Jones were untouchable in their Mitsubishi Evo 6, winning outright in 1:24:10.5 from Jamie Luff's Toyota Yaris GR and Tony Sullens' Citroën DS3.

Our run

We kept our heads down and kept it clean, and the classic Subaru Impreza did its job against a lot of newer, faster machinery. We brought it home 14th outright in 1:37:39.2 — and, more importantly for our campaign, 5th in the East Coast Classic Rally Series and 4th in the ECCRS Open-4WD class, behind a trio of well-sorted Evos and Imprezas.

The bigger picture

Another round done, another clean finish banked on the gravel. Consistency is the game this year, and days that thin the field are exactly where finishing pays off. Next up is the Classic Queensland Rally in August — faster, more flowing gravel again.

Follow along on YouTube for the full recap.