For the final time in 2025, the EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) will take over an Australian town as the best rally drivers in the country put on a show for the locals.
This weekend, attention turns to the picturesque beachside Tasmanian town of Burnie for Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania, where four championship titles will be decided, giving the perfect segue for the year’s final notable narratives.
Will a Kiwi be crowned as champion of Australia?
There isn’t much of a question that Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have been a dominant force this year.
Of the five events so far in 2025, the pair have stood atop the outright podium in the past four with their only mishap coming back in round one when they had an incident with a kangaroo.
That incident saw them out of the rally and fail to win the heat, which only happened one other time when Harry Bates and Coral Taylor edged them out in Heat 1 of the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland.
Outside of those two heats, Paddon has been the dominant force and won everything else, putting himself in a commanding position to take out the title come Sunday afternoon.
All the Kiwi duo need to do to claim the title is finish 12th or higher no matter where Lewis Bates and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin finish.
Of course, that Canberra incident proves that anything can happen in this sport, so there is no doubt that Paddon will be keeping an extra eye on all his surroundings and being extra cautious at every turn.
Can Lewis win the title?
Mathematically, yes. Realistically? Maybe.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia star has been highly consistent in 2025 and his reward is being the only driver standing in the way of the 2024 European Rally Championship winner.
His consistency saw him win in his home state of Canberra earlier this year, as well as being a regular visitor to the podium throughout the season.
And although there is an 85-point gap between him and Paddon, there are 110 points on offer this weekend, meaning there is a chance he could snatch the title from the grasp of the Kiwi.
However, with the above said, a lot has to go his way.
Firstly, victory in Tasmania is a non-negotiable. If he wants any chance of winning, he needs maximum points.
Secondly, he needs Paddon to have an off-weekend – which is something the New Zealanader doesn’t do very regularly.
Lewis can finish second place, win the Power Stage and technically, that would give him the edge, but it would only slightly put him ahead of Paddon, meaning he is relying on a DNF for Paddon – which again isn’t impossible, just highly unlikely.
WOLF Production Cup Bodie’s to lose
As a result of the recent withdrawal of current WOLF Production Cup leader Clayton Hoy, Bodie Reading has the best chance of sealing the cup for the third time – only that he needs to make sure he wins the Cup.
Anything less than a victory, and Clayton Hoy will be crowned champion after what has been an impressive showing in 2025.
With that said, Reading loves this rally and is good at it too, so it’s not a major question of if the local Tasmanian can win, it’s more about whether he can stay on the road and get the basics right and have a clean weekend.
His biggest antagonist for the event will likely be fellow Tasmanian Ben Newman, but Reading and co-driver Brad Jones should be confident they can seal the deal.
The four-way Subaru WRX Battle Royale
Like the WOLF Production Cup, the current leader, Toby Price is not in attendance in Burnie, which means it’s up to those featuring in the season finale to make their own luck and seal the title.
Glenn Brinkman, Andy Van Kann and Jackson Long are the three drivers in with a sniff for the Cup title, but it’s very much the former two who have the best chance of winning.
With three crews entered, it’s a matter of just finishing the event for Brinkman and Van Kaan, with any result enough to take both of them ahead of Price, while Long will need to win and have both other drivers fail to finish.
Neither Brinkman nor Van Kann have won a round in the class this year, but now would be the best time for them to do so – and whoever finishes ahead of each other this weekend will be crowned champion of the Subaru WRX Challenge.
If neither driver finishes, and Long cruises to victory, then he will be equal on points with Price and it will go down on countback.
One-v-One Street Fight in 4WD Classic
The last of the four titles up for grabs has a similar conclusion to the WOLF Production Cup – whoever wins will be crowned champion.
With Shane and Sylvie Garner in one corner, and the rising Molly Spalding and Matthew Dillon in the other, the ARC 4WD Classic will see these two consistent crews go head to head in a fight that is going to go right down to the wire.
There isn’t much that separates the two crews, and although the Garners have a far superior pointscore than Spalding and Dillon, once drop rounds are taken into account, the ledger is far closer.
Put simply, if the Garners win and Spalding and Dillon finish second, the husband-wife duo will win the class by 35 points, however if the results are reversed, then the difference is just five points in favour of Spalding and Dillon – setting up an epic conclusion to the season.
