Adelaide Rally alive and kicking

The 2025 Shannons Adelaide Rally will become the biggest in the world in November thanks to a star-studded record-breaking field.

A world record and capacity field of 471 entries are locked in to take part in the iconic event held in the heart of South Australia’s capital on November 21-23.

Due to the length of road closures, organisers believe there is no more scope to fit in any more entries.

However, that has not stopped many big names from taking part, including Supercars stars Greg Murphy and Scott Pye.

But there is more rallying pedigree in the form of ARC rivals Hayden Paddon and Alex Rullo, who will likely fight for outright honours in their Hyundai i20 N Rally2 cars.

There is also a famous name in Alister McRae, plus Irish legend Frank Kelly and Kiwi regular Stewart Reid.

Part of the success of the Adelaide Rally, which was first held back in 1997, has been its openness, with something for everyone from uncompetitive and nontimed classes to outright where $20,000 is on the line.

Another key factor is every stage’s close proximity to the city, allowing those involved to drive by day and dine by night.

Shannons Adelaide Rally Event Director Tim Possingham was delighted to see the event achieve a long-standing goal of selling out.

We have been tracking towards this number for a few years now and are so pleased with what has been going on,” he told Auto Action.

“I am surprised given Targa Tasmania is running on the same dates and did not know how that would play out, but our event is just going from strength to strength.

“There is a movement towards touring and lifestyle. It is more speed-limited competition and touring that is not competitive or timed. That is proving to be really popular.

“But at the same time we are really pleased to attract drivers like Alistair McRae, Hayden Paddon and legends like Frank Kelly from Ireland in his blue Escort.

“It is great to have them in the outright competition as well.”

Following the tragedies at the iconic Targa Tasmania event, it has been a challenging recent period for tarmac rallying.

But Possingham said the Adelaide Rally has been able to adapt and grow.

“It has been a difficult time navigating what has happened to the sport after the fatalities in Tasmania,” he said.

“There have been rule changes and what Motorsport Australia called a “hard reset” on tarmac rallying.

“To be honest it has been quite confusing for the competitors to navigate their way through the changes and get clarity around things.

“People have left the sport and it is hard to get people back, but we have chosen a different path and tried to attract traditional gravel rally cars to set up for tarmac.

“It has not been easy navigating through these challenges, but we were very, very lucky to run through COVID where we had the biggest growth.”

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