After much anticipation, the EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) hits the second half of the season this weekend with The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally.
Taking place in and around the forests of the regional Victorian town of Heyfield, The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally will see the best crews in Australia take on 216 competitive kilometres spread across 18 stages.
After three Sprint events to open the 2025 season, this weekend marks the ARC’s first Endurance Round – where every stage counts to the final time, meaning crews have no room for error.
In addition to acting as the first Endurance round of the year, this year’s Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally will also enjoy a special milestone of holding stages under the night sky – something that has not occurred for a long time in the ARC.
A late start on Saturday afternoon will see 65 competitive kilometres run in daylight before crews tackle the second loop of most stages at night, including the competitor-voted Stage of the Year, Deep Creek.
Although the endurance round and night stages are the most notable talking points for this weekend, there is no doubt that the title fight remains the major headline.
Get more information on the event via rally.com.au/Gippsland.
Retirements in Western Australia and Queensland put a massive dent in Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall’s title hopes, forcing the 2014 ARC champion to withdraw from the next two rounds.
That leaves the two Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia crews of Lewis Bates/Anthony McLoughlin and Harry Bates/Coral Taylor as the most likely contenders to stop Hayden Paddon and John Kennard from claiming the championship.
Apart from a mishap on day two of the season, Paddon and Kennard have been almost flawless in their maiden ARC campaign as consecutive victories have put them in the box seat for the title – leaving the Bates brothers with plenty of work to do in an event that has proved extremely difficult in the past.
Outside of the trio of title contenders, IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing’s Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney are in search of their second podium for the year, while the WOLF Production Cup battle for silverware continues to entertain.
As it stands, Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly lead the way after two brilliant showings in Western Australia and Queensland, with their biggest threat for a hat-trick coming through reigning champion Bodie Reading and Brad Jones, as well as young rising star Jackson Long and co-driver Damien Long.
View the full entry list here.
KEY DETAILS
Serving as the fourth round of the 2025 ARC season, The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally runs as an Enduro format, where stages are split across Saturday and Sunday.
The 21 ARC crews will tackle 216. competitive kilometres across 18 stages during the weekend, with ten stages on Saturday totalling up to 125km, starting from 12:31pm AEST.
Sunday will see the remaining 90km take place over eight stages, starting off with Glenmaggie 3 from 10:11am AEST before wrapping up with the 12km Power Stage in the afternoon.
Four official Service Breaks at Galvaniize Insurance Rally Central will take place during the event, with two on both Saturday and Sunday.
STAYING IN THE LOOP
There will be plenty of coverage throughout The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally for fans to stay up to date with all the happenings from the event.
For live results of each stage, as well as the cup and overall standings throughout the event, fans can view the Subaru Results Hub on rally.com.au at any point over the weekend.
Three stages will be livestreamed throughout the rally via EROAD Australian Rally Championship’s YouTube and Facebook pages, and for the first time ever, on Instagram. Below are the estimated start times for each.
SS7 Thomson 2 – 5:47pm AEST
SS12 Thomson 3 – 10:37am AEST
SS16 Thomson 4 – 1:28pm AEST
There will also be live updates, crew interviews and extended highlights via the ARC Instagram, Facebook, X and Threads accounts.
In addition to Live streams, fans will be able to listen to the full event via the Gippsland Rally Radio, which will be broadcasting the whole weekend.
SPECTATORS
Fans wanting to come down to Gippsland to watch the highly anticipated round can do so via a spectator point on both Saturday and Sunday.
Register a place at any spectator point for free here.
The fourth round of the 2025 season will kick off with two of those accessible stages, with fans able to watch the cars passing by from the Glenmaggie stage at 12:30pm (SS1) and 3:00pm (SS6) AEST, and Cowwarr stage at 12:55pm (SS2) and 5:45pm (SS5).
On Sunday, fans will once again be able to watch the cars in action from the Glenmaggie stage, which will run at 10:10am AEST (SS11) and 1:00pm (SS15) AEST, and Cowwarr stage at 10:35am (SS12) and 1:25pm AEST (SS16).
For those unable to see the cars on stage, they can see the cars being worked on via the important Service Breaks at Galvaniize Insurance Rally Central, which is located at the Gordon Street Recreation Reserve.
Read the full Spectator Guide.
BSR AUTOMOTIVE RALLY SHOW
Before the action gets underway though, the BSR Automotive Rally Show will kick off the event in style on Friday night from 4:00pm AEST.
Taking place right at the picturesque Port of Sale, fans will be able to attend the festival-like event as every car entered will be on display for fans to get up close to.
Following on from the signing session, the top three seeded drivers in Harry Bates, Lewis Bates and Hayden Paddon will participate in the Bosch Motorsport Ballot, which shakes up the trio’s starting order for the event before crews depart from 7:00pm.
The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally takes place in Heyfield and its surrounding forests on 22-24 August.
Get more information on the event via rally.com.au/Gippsland.
