Champion drivers ready for 'best rally roads in the country'

The Stewart Motorsport driver will be competing in the Sapphire Coast Sporting Car Club's 51^st Bega Valley Rally along with 65 other entrants.

It is the second-longest running competition of its kind in the country behind Victoria's Alpine Rally.

Making the 145 kilometre journey from Batemans Bay, Stewart will be among the closest competitors to the Bega Valley tracks, with others travelling from far reaches of NSW, Queensland, South Australia to make their mark.

But it's a New Zealand rally car champ by the name of Derek Aysons who will be travelling the furthest, and although he won't have his own car, a fellow racer has loaned him one of theirs.

The entry list also includes four-time Australian Rally champion Neal Bates in the RA40 Celica, the current NSW Rally champion Richie Dalton in a Mark 2 Escort, internationally-credentialed Brendan Reeves in a Datsun 1600, and young guns Riley Walters in a WRX and Josh Redhead in a G4 Hyundai.

Challengers will be driving specially built G4s, late model four-wheel drives, and the ever popular two-wheel drive classic rally cars, with the very accomplished Derek Ayson driving a 400hp Opel manta.

Sitting in the passenger seats will be their co-driver, who take on the role of the navigator, reading off a set of pace notes that provide drivers details on what lies ahead, where to turn, the severity of the turns, and if there are any obstacles.

The Bega Valley Rally is held over two days with 230 competitive kilometres, across 14 stages which includes four of the famous shire road stages north of Bega, before teams head south towards Eden for the remainder of the rally.

There are three night stages and five stages run in forests south of Eden, in what Stewart said were some of the best rally roads in the country.

For the southern part of the rally, there are two spectator points on Burrawang Road (signpost Burrawang Forest Road), one 850 metres from the highway and the other 2.5 kilometres from the highway.

The first car was due Saturday, 6.30pm at spectator point 1, and on Sunday, 10.30am at spectator point 2.

The origins of the Bega Valley go back to the early 1960s, when it was variously known as the Snowy Rally and Southern Mountains Rally.

In 1973 it was based at Bega and became the Bega Valley Rally. It has become one of Australia's iconic events and believed to be the second longest running event behind Victoria's Alpine Rally.

Traditionally run on the long weekend in June, it is a national special stage rally, using stages only once and conducted on shire roads near Bega and state forest roads further south around Eden.

The event usually sees a full field of exciting modern 4WD rally cars along with many classic rally cars from the '70s, '80s and '90s and attracts competing crews, their support crews, spectators and officials from all over south-east Australia.