Coates Hire Rally Australia 2015

**Livewireshock** · 20th May 2015, 06:30

Rally Guide 1 has been out for a couple of weeks and some route announcements made, so I thought I would start this thread now to allow discussion about this years WRC round in Australia.

First major change will see Friday's stages held west of Macksville, around Taylors Arm. This is located in the next valley south of the long Nambucca Stage.

Three stages, Utungun, Bakers Creek and North Bank will be run twice on fast flowing Shire Roads. These are similar in nature to the popular Nambucca and Valla stages. All 6 stages will be run before returning to Service in Coffs Harbour. Remote Refuel will be situated near the iconic "Pub with No Beer" at Taylors Arm (do not worry visitors, the name is from an old song and beer is plentiful there now). After service a lengthened Newry Stage will be run once to end Friday's action.

The second major change is that there will be no Super Specials run at night in Coffs Harbour, however Saturday's schedule will see the Newry Long stage run again first thing in the morning, followed by the Nambucca and Valla stages, with the later two stages run again in the day, with the Valla stage held at night, just after sunset.

The change for Sunday is the exclusion of the Shipmans Stage, so no watersplash. It has been replaced by the Settles Road stage which was used as the Shakedown Stage, although in the reverse direction, in the 2013 Rally Australia.

Service Park remains unchanged, staying at the Coffs Harbour International Stadium for this year.

So quite a few changes as more farmland and less forest roads are being used, however it should be very popular with the drivers and spectators alike.

**GigiGalliNo1** · 26th May 2015, 17:46

Service park will stay in the muddy pits for non WRC competitors?

**6789** · 27th May 2015, 12:34

Thank you for the informative post Livewirestock. I'm pleased that they're ditching the super specials, they didn't really add a lot of value and were quite boring to watch. At first I thought the night stage may have dust issues (it still may), but the Valla stage is fairly open so it shouldn't be too bad.. Settlers Road is a fantastic stage, it it probably a better stage in the direction it was ran in 2013.

More farmland stages makes it easier to spectate that's for sure. Looking forward to it. Any mention of where the shakedown stage is? (PM pls

)

Regarding the service park - there will always be compromises. At least there is plenty of room for the crews there, unlike somewhere like NZ 2012.

**GigiGalliNo1** · 27th May 2015, 13:46

PM me the Shakedown location too

**Livewireshock** · 5th June 2015, 09:48

There are two Shakedown locations currently mapped. The former Tuckers Knob stage north of Bellingen seems to be the main one. Another is marked on Bucca Road. However I'm guessing one is for testing for P2 and P3 drivers.

**Livewireshock** · 5th June 2015, 09:51

Dust should not be an issue at the spectator point along the night Valla SS at least, it is on a tarmac hairpin that drops down into a gravel road.

**ZoomanSP206** · 18th July 2015, 23:59

After attending many WRC rounds in Europe (Germany, France, Monte Carlo, Finland), I plan to attend Rally Autralia for the first time this year. I'm looking forward to a new rally experience!

I had a look at the spectator points published on the rally website, and I found that the start times of the special stages (and in case of Newry Long II even the day) as shown in the spectator point pdf files differ from those in the itinerary published in Rally Guide 1. Does anyone know which times are the correct ones?

Furthermore, is the conclusion from the list of spectator points that it is impossible to see the competitors on SS1/4 and SS15? Or are the spectator points that are presented in the spectating guide pdfs just special places that provide amenities such as toilets, and it is possible to see the cars at other places too? I just remember seeing many more spectator points published for the 2013 edition (which I planned to attend, but then couldn't go to).

Thanks for your help!