Subaru Rally Team Australia’s Dean Herridge and co-driver Glenn MacNeall are the outright winners of the Subaru Rally of Canberra with a total event time 2:58:40.5. Second outright went to Fin Juha Kangas and co-driver Julia Rabbett in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VII. They came in 10.6 seconds behind Herridge.

Toshihiro Arai of Japan finished third 15.5 seconds behind Herridge in his Subaru Impreza WRX Sti with a total event time of 2:58:56.0. Three of the top four competitors were driving the Subaru Impreza WRX Sti. The event is the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Malaysian Karamjit Singh took the honours with a time of 3:00:05.6. Singh and co-driver Allen Oh beat Armin Kremer and Timo Gottschalk by 2:54.2. Katsuhiko Taguchi and Mark Stacey came in third.

The last stages of the event were packed with excitement. At the end of stage 12, Herridge had a lead of 29.2 seconds over the nearest competitor, Toshihiro Arai. In stage 13, Herridge placed sixth and had his lead narrowed to 11.6 seconds by Juha Kangas who posted the fastest time for the stage. For stage 14, Herridge maintained his lead with a solid performance of 1:30.5, enough to give him the race title.

Herridge’s fellow Subaru Rally Team Australia driver and defending champion, Cody Crocker hit a kangaroo early in the day but finished fourth with an event time of 2:59:12.2 completing an excellent weekend for the team.

Brad Goldsbrough and co-driver Dale Moscatt rolled their Impreza WRX Sti just five kilometres before the end of stage 10 and while there were concerns that the damage would put them out of the race, they returned to complete a final event time of 3:04:49.5 and finished in eighth position.

Chris and Ben Atkinson rolled their Suzuki IGNIS Super 1600 early in the day but still managed a top ten placing and a total event time of 3:05:03.4.

The inaugural Subaru Rally Challenge ran over the weekend revealing some great talent. Subaru initiated the series which pits rally enthusiasts against each other in limited edition 2004 Subaru Impreza 2.5 litre RS models.

Twenty-year-old Eli Evans and his sister co-driver Kylie Evans won the event and finished 13th overall in the Subaru Rally of Canberra. In second place were John Goasdoue and co-driver Glen Weston who finished 11.9 seconds behind.

Sentimental favourite Ross Dunkerton seized the Subaru Rally of Canberra National Rally in a Mitsubishi Magna VR-X marking a centenary of rally titles over his career.

Dunkerton came out of retirement to compete in the event and finished with a winning time of 3:19:02.6, about 20 minutes off the pace of Subaru Rally of Canberra winner Dean Herridge. Dunkerton’s co-driver, Bill Hayes, has been navigating with Dean’s father Rob Herridge in WA events over the past three years.

Runner up by just 3.4 seconds was Darren Gee and co-driver Jamie Neale in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO III.