Mitta Mountain Rally

About the Mitta Mountain Rally

The Mitta Mountain Rally is a one-day gravel rally based in Mitta Mitta, north-eastern Victoria, first run in 2016 and held annually since apart from a 2020 COVID cancellation. Its six special stages — around 160 competitive kilometres, run as a morning loop and an afternoon loop — are tackled "blind" without pace notes, on fast, narrow forest roads through alpine ash and snow gums that event briefings describe as "built by loggers not engineers." The 2026 running, the event's 10th and officially titled the Border Oils and Batteries Mitta Mountain Rally, opened the Victorian Rally Championship (VRC), the Victorian Club Rally Series (VCRS) and the East Coast Classic Rally Series, and lived up to its reputation as a survival test: of roughly 50 starters, only 21 reached the finish without incident. Danny Traverso and Anthony Carr (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) won outright by nearly eight minutes.

Championship

Round 1 of the Victorian Rally Championship (VRC), Round 1 of the Victorian Club Rally Series (VCRS), and Round 1 of the East Coast Classic Rally Series (2026)

Base

Mitta Mitta, north-eastern Victoria

Surface

Gravel

The route & format

• Format: One-day event: six special stages run once each (morning loop west/east, afternoon loop north), totalling ~160 competitive km, run "blind" without pace notes.
• Terrain: Gravel forest roads through alpine ash and snow gums, along ridgelines such as the Razorback Spur — fast, narrow, cresty and unpredictable.

Mitta Mountain Rally 2026 results

• 2026 result: Danny Traverso/Anthony Carr (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) won outright by ~8 minutes, taking 3 of 6 stages, ahead of Jake Bramble/Phil Bonser (Nissan Pulsar GTi-R) and Rowan Quill Jnr/Michelle Canning (Nissan 180SX). Defending champions Brendan Reeves/Aiden O'Halloran failed to finish after rock-strike damage.

Where spectators watched

The public is welcome and no admission charge appears anywhere in the event documentation, so spectating is free. The catch is access: the 2026 supplementary regulations say only that "spectators will be catered for by two walk-in points", and both are walk-in along rough farm and forest tracks — slippery side slopes, logs, branches at head height, possibly snakes — so you need to be fit and agile. There's no food or drink at the points, so bring your own; local community groups cater at Rally HQ in the Multi-Purpose Centre instead. Organisers ask that dogs and young children be kept completely under control, that you obey the spectator marshals, park facing the way out, light no fires and take your litter home.

Spectator points

• 2026 points weren't published

  The 2026 supplementary regulations promise "two walk-in points" but never name them, and no 2026 or 2025 spectator guide exists in the event website's media library — the most recent is 2024. The site's About page is also stale, still carrying 2025 wording. The points below are the ones used in recent years, labelled by year, to give you a sense of what to expect rather than a 2026 plan.

• Bullhead Lane — used 2023 and 2024

  On Mitta North Road, 7.5 km from Rally HQ. Park beside the road past the control, enter the marked gate before it and follow red-and-white tape 300 m across paddocks to the flying finish. A longer walk uphill gives a long view down a cresty straight, a left-hander into a hairpin right and a blind crest.

• Snowy Creek — used 2022, 2023 and 2024

  Turn off the Omeo Highway at the signposted Holloways Log Rd, about 11.8 km south of Mitta Mitta. Drive slowly for 700 m — rally cars come out of the stage here — and park before the bridge on the left or after it on the right. An easy 250 m walk along a vehicle track reaches a road crossing; viewing is open and the cars arrive with brakes working hard after a twisty 10 km descent near the end of the rally.

• Service park, Mitta Recreation Reserve

  Free to walk around and the easiest place to see the cars up close — servicing runs along the first fairway of the Mitta Mitta golf course beside Rally HQ on Mitta North Road. Non-service vehicles park in the paddock before the entry gate or on Mitta North Road. In 2026 the single 30-minute service fell after Stage 3.

How 2026 ran

1. Friday 20 March 2026

   15:00 Rally HQ opens at the Multi-Purpose Centre on the Recreation Reserve, with book-in starting and RallySafe units available. HQ closes 22:00.

2. Saturday 21 March 2026

   06:30 Rally HQ opens, 07:00 book-in closes, 07:15 start order posted, 07:30 crew briefing and the ballot for the first three road positions, 08:00 start of competition from the Recreation Reserve. One 30-minute central service in Mitta Mitta after Stage 3, plus optional remote refuels in both heats. 18:00 finish, 19:30 provisional results, 20:30 trophy presentation at the post-event function at the Mitta Mitta Pub. The club-series field starts at least five minutes behind the last state-event car, and the bikes run after the cars.

3. Provisional stage times

   Third-party timing data (not from the official regulations) put the six stages at Bullhead 08:17, Six Mile 09:17, Mount Dorchap 10:27, then after service Tallandoon Ridge 12:32, Eskdale Spur 13:12 and Granite Peak 15:03. Treat these as unofficial.

Access, timings and prices checked 30 August 2026. Organisers move spectator points and road closures at short notice — confirm on the official event page before you travel.

Getting there & staying

• Getting there: Mitta Mitta sits on the Omeo Highway 93 km south-east of Wodonga and 415 km from Melbourne — the regulations call it "an hour's drive south east of Albury/Wodonga". Albury Airport, next to Wodonga, is the nearest commercial airport. The Omeo Highway approach is sealed but narrow and twisty; the organisers deliberately route the second-heat fuel trailer to keep service traffic off it. Spectator access roads are gravel. The Mitta general store opposite the pub sells fuel including 95 RON and Eskdale has an IGA, but there's no pump fuel in the service park. The township has Telstra 4G; coverage on the stage roads through the valleys and forest isn't documented, so plan for gaps.
• Where to stay: Mitta Mitta is genuinely tiny — around 35 people in the township, with a pub, a general store and a caravan park, and no motel — so the organisers publish an annual accommodation guide covering the whole valley. The nearest beds are 15 km away at Eskdale and the former dam-construction village of Dartmouth: the Dartmouth Motor Inn, Dartmouth Hotel and Eskdale Hotel, plus roughly 15 self-contained cottages mostly in Dartmouth from about $135 to $300 a night. Tallangatta adds a hotel and motor inn. At Mitta itself there's a guesthouse, a host farm, glamping on the highway and rooms above the store. The Mitta caravan park on Mitta North Road is literally adjacent to the service park. Free camps in the valley include Katie Peters Reserve, The Walnuts, Snowy Creek Campground, Lightning Creek and Pigs Point Reserve. Book early — the whole valley's stock is a few dozen rooms.
• While you’re there: Dartmouth Dam, 15 km away, is the obvious side trip — one of Australia's biggest earth-fill dams and a key link in the Murray Basin water system, reached by a signposted road off the highway. From Mitta Mitta the Omeo Highway climbs south through the Alpine National Park foothills past Anglers Rest towards Omeo and Falls Creek, on some of the most spectacular touring road in the country. The valley is also a base for Mount Bogong and Alpine National Park walks, trout fishing, and rafting and canoeing on the Mitta Mitta River — and there's a golf course at Mitta Mitta whose first fairway is the rally's service park.

Entering

Entries are made through the WOLF online system, which also serves as the official noticeboard. In 2026 they opened with the supplementary regulations on 6 February and closed 20:00 Wednesday 11 March, with a hard cap of 60 cars and later crews becoming reserves. Fees were $976 for the state-championship event and $816 for the club series, including the road damage fund, personal accident insurance, the entry system and RallySafe hire — though the car needs its own RallySafe loom, antennas and mounting kit fitted beforehand. Both crew need current Motorsport Australia Rally Licences or better plus affiliated club membership, and all grades of crew are eligible. There is no official scrutiny at the event: you present a Regional Rally Scrutineer's report or self-scrutiny forms dated after 18 February. The rally is run blind — pace notes bring instant disqualification with spot checks during the event, and reconnaissance anywhere in the area is banned for four weeks beforehand. Enduro motorcycles have run since 2025 and enter separately through RiderNet, running behind the cars in their own category.

History & form

• History: First run in 2016; held annually since except a 2020 COVID cancellation. 2026 was the 10th running.

Worth knowing

• Notable: A genuine attrition event: roughly 50 starters, only 21 finished unscathed. Local volunteers feed competitors and the trophy presentation is held Saturday evening at the Mitta Mitta Pub; enduro motorcycles have joined the closed-road stages since 2025.