After missing last year’s EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) season, Dean Ridge has confirmed he will make a return in 2026.
With his sights set on taking out the all-new East Coast Cup, the New South Welshman will make his return to the championship in machinery familiar to rally fans – the ikon-back yellow Ford Fiesta G4.
As it stands, Ridge is locked in to run at the brand new Narooma Forest Rally midway through the year and the season-ending Gippsland Rally in November, while he is more than likely to run in the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland in April – pending results in some non-rally events.
Ridge has long been a part-time competitor in Australia’s top tier rally competition for almost 30 years, making his debut all the way back in 1998 at the Bridgestone Coffs Harbour Rally.
Since then, he has gone on to compete at events all around the country and in a number of state rounds in New South Wales, while also taking a 13-year hiatus between 2005 and 2018.
In recent years, Ridge has mostly run in the 2WD Cup field and has been quite successful within the class. His most prolific year came in 2022 when he finished second to Guy Tyler in the class by just 10 points, racking up a victory and a trio of podiums in the process.
At state level, he has regularly occupied top five places in the New South Wales Championship, with a well-deserved victory coming at Bega Valley last year and the Narooma Forest Rally back in 2023.
Ahead of his return to the Championship, Ridge was confident of enjoying success in the East Coast Cup if he could make it to all rounds.
“Basically, we will be starting our year off with some local events away from the ARC, including the NSW Rally Championship’s Bathurst round and an off road event two weeks later, but then we’d be looking at doing the East Coast Series later in the year.
“At the moment, we’re 50/50 on whether we will be doing Queensland or not, as we just need to see how we go at this off road event and it’s a short turnaround, but I am pretty keen to get to Queensland and we’re definitely doing Narooma and Gippsland,” Ridge said.
“We will be in the yellow submarine, which I am excited to bring back for our return after missing 2025.
“We obviously did a few state rounds last year, which were quite lucrative, and some other smaller events, but we’re hopeful of coming back to the ARC and getting some big results in the class.
“I might not be a spring chicken anymore, but I always try my best to get a podium and I’d like to think I’ll be up there at the pointy end again anyway.
“We ran a few years ago in a front-wheel drive Citroen in the 2WD Cup and had a bit of success at Coffs Harbour and then I think prior to that, we ran in the Fiesta for the 2WD Cup again and really enjoyed the rounds we attended courtesy of some great competition, so I am just looking forward to coming back and hopefully getting some overall success.”
The opening round of the 2026 EROAD Australian Rally Championship season, the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland, will take place in Gympie on 17-19 April.
