Four-time Australian Rally Champion, Neal Bates, will make his International Classic Rally of Otago debut in April, when he goes up against two-time World Rally Champion, Miki Biasion.

The Toyota stalwart will bring his 1980 Toyota Celica RA40 to New Zealand after convincingly winning the classic component of this year’s Australian Rally Championship.

The international flavour at the Classic Rally of Otago will continue in 2013, with the addition of two Australian-built Alfa Romeos.

The two cars have remained in New Zealand after November’s Silver Fern Rally, and will be re-prepared ahead of the April 5 to 7 event.

Two-time World Rally Champion, Miki Biasion, will drive a Porsche 911 in the 2013 Classic Rally of Otago from April 5 to 7, joining a long list of international stars that have contested the event.

The date for 2013 Rally of Otago has been moved forward a week, with the event now to be held from April 5 to 7.

The change of date became necessary after the recent release of the V8 Supercar calendar, which saw the NZ round of the series clash with the opening round of the 2013 New Zealand Rally Championship.

The Rally of Otago will return to its regular place as the opening round of the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) in 2013.

The Dunedin-based rally will be held from April 12 to 14 next year, and is one of only two events in the 2013 championship to be held over more than one day.

This documentary follows the 1973 Heatway Rally, a mud and oil-splattered event in which 120 drivers covered 3600 miles over eight days. Classic viewing!

WATCH THE HEATWAY RALLY COVERAGE HERE

Check out a range of photos from the 2012 Drive South Rally of Otago on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/otagorally

Richard and Sara Mason, the husband-and-wife rally driving duo from Masterton, led from start to finish at this weekend’s Drivesouth Rally Otago to win the rally and take the lead in the 2012 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, powered by Brother (NZRC).
 
The Otago event is the third NZRC round of the season and Sunday’s conditions included bouts of strong winds during the morning stages, especially across the ridge-tops, before teams returned to an unseasonably calm and warm Dunedin for the afternoon ceremonial finish.
 

Mazda RX7 driver Marcus van Klink has become the first non-Escort driver to win the Stadium Cars / Nichibo International Classic Rally of Otago since 2008, taking a 34.4 second victory in the 2012 event.

The winner of the past three years, Derek Ayson, held a commanding one minute lead heading into the penultimate stage, but he punctured a tyre on his Ford Escort, relegating him to an eventual fifth place.

Multiple New Zealand Rally Champion, Richard Mason, holds a commanding 53.2 second lead after the second day of the DriveSouth Rally of Otago.

Mason and his co-driving wife, Sara, put their Subaru into a clear lead over Chris West's Mitsubishi, as Sloan Cox slipped to third.