Bega Valley Rally celebrates 50 years of memories in their annual two-day event

Bega Valley Rally assistant director Pip Barker said this year's event would maintain the two day classic structure of the rally for the weekend of October 28 and 29, to "keep the tradition going".

While the rally had initially been set for the June long weekend, the date was pushed back to October due to a number of difficulties that had come up in the lead up to the June event.

While the push-back meant there were fewer entries this year, Mr Barker said there were some exciting new entrants in the mix.

"We have a couple of entrants from Canada who have leased a car from a guy in Victoria and they've come over here to do two rallies, one of them being Bega because they'd heard such good reports about it," he said.

"We're pretty chuffed, these guys are former Canadian rally champions. Mind you it's going to be a big eye opener for them here, particularly on the slippery shire roads and being on the other side of the road."

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Mr Barker said there were other rally car drivers travelling from across Australia to attend the event as well with people coming from as far as Adelaide, Melbourne and Queensland.

"We're quite privileged that all these drivers have picked our rally to travel to, but with the Canadians we think they're mostly here to experience what Australian rallies are like and with the Bega Rally being such an iconic event, it was the one they chose," he said.

Mr Barker said he had fond memories of the rally over the years, an event he noted used to be "a pretty big deal in the town" in the '70s and '80s.

"My first real involvement with the rally was through my work as a mechanic, I did a lot of work on the rally cars over the years," he said.

Looking back Mr Barker said he was proud of the quality roads and level of skill of local drivers involved over the years.

"We've got some of the best rally roads in the country and in the '80s we won the state rally championships for three consecutive years," he said.

The three drivers who won the state championship included John Atkinson who won in 1984, Mark Hankinson in 1985 and David Eadie in 1986, he said.

Mr Barker said he remembered helping Mr Hankinson prepare for his first rally which happened to be the Bega Rally of 1972.

"I helped prepare the care and service it for him and he went on to become a very good driver," he said.

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Mr Barker said the community behind the rally was one of mateship that stood the test of time.

"Most of the guys are still in the Valley and a lot are involved with the Rally, some of them have also moved back to the area and gotten involved again through the committee," he said.

Mr Barker said prior to the early 70s the rally had been known as the Snowy Mountains Rally and used to go for three days.

Then in 1973, after many of the tracks being declared under the protection of national parks and the suitable area to race had contracted dramatically, organisers of the event decided to base the event at Bega instead and change its name.

"The Bega Valley Rally is currently believed to be the second oldest rally in Australia," Mr Barker said proudly.

Mr Barker said while the rally had a long history in the Valley, member numbers were dropping like many other volunteer-led groups in the area. Mr Barker added that the low volunteer numbers meant that they didn't have the capacity to organise an event after the rally to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

"It comes back to numbers of people doing jobs, the organising committee can only do so many things and unless we have more people coming up to offer a hand then there's not much more we can do," he said.

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Mr Barker said despite that they'd found a way to celebrate it by getting some caps made to give out to the crew and cars and all the people that had been involved in the rally.

"It's just a special embroidered cap sort of thing," he said.

Mr Barker said for any persons interested to meet the drivers or rally committee members were welcome to stop in at the Bega Saleyards where the cars will be getting ready from at 8am.

"The first car leaves the Saleyards at 2pm but people are welcome to roam around and look at the cars, talk to the drivers and crews," he said.

Mr Barker said the community was also welcome to stop in at the Seahorse Inn, the second rally headquarters location for the weekend event.

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