The official entry list for the 2009 Rally of Otago has been released. The rally has attracted 88 entries, in the following categories:

New Zealand Rally Championship: 22 entries

Allcomers Rally: 27 entries

Dunlop Classic Rally: 39 entries

VIEW THE 2009 ENTRY LIST HERE

2007 Otago Classic Rally winner, Deane Buist, returns to the event this year, hoping to repeat the success he tasted two years ago.

Buist won the 2007 rally driving a Ford Escort RS1800, but sold the car not long afterwards. He returned to defend his title last year, but at the wheel of a Toyota Corolla powered by the popular BDA engine.

Former British Rally Champion, Alister McRae, will be the headline act at this year’s Otago Classic Rally, to be held in New Zealand’s south island in mid-May.

McRae contested the Otago Rally at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza WRX in 2007, but will return in 2009 in a Ford Escort RS1800 prepared by Christchurch’s Bryce Biggs.

The horrific Victorian bushfires that have ravaged much of the southern Australian state have shocked the world, with whole towns destroyed and a death toll that has climbed into the hundreds.

The worst natural disaster in the country's history, now known as 'Black Saturday', has sparked an outpouring of grief  and support from countrymen eager to help those in need, with well over $75 million dollars having already been donated to bushfire appeals.

Planning is well under way for the 2009 Rally of Otago, which will be held in and around the New Zealand South Island city of Dunedin on May 16 and 17.

The event is round two of the New Zealand Rally Championship, and will include the popular International Classic Rally of Otago, which is again expected to attract some of world rallying’s superstars.

Ride with Australian driver, Darryn Snooks, aboard his Datsun Stanza during special stage 3 of the 2008 Otago Classic Rally.

The date for the 2009 Rally of Otago has been confirmed as May 16 and 17, with the event running as round two of the New Zealand Rally Championship.

The internet's video sites are starting to fill up with footage from the 2008 Otago Rally, with plenty of classy driving from this year's event - from both in the car and out of the car.

Masterton’s Richard and Sara Mason comfortably won the Rally of Otago today to extend their overall lead in the Vantage Aluminium Joinery New Zealand Rally Championship.
 

The Otago Rally has again provided exciting action for spectators on the roads around Dunedin.