Organisers have confirmed a number of new and modified stages ahead of this year’s Kennards Hire Rally Australia in November.
Beginning with the traditional ceremonial start on Thursday evening, the three-day event will take in 21 special stages for more than 300 competitive kilometres in the 25th Rally Australia.
The opening day will see drivers head north of its Coffs Harbour base, with new stages including the 9.7km Pilbara stage, Eastbank at 18.9km, and Sherwood, the longest at 26.6km.
Organisers described the additions as a mixture of fast, open roads with technical sections, and will be run twice; once in the morning before being repeated in the afternoon.
The familiar Nambucca stage returns for Saturday morning though has been shortened, allowing for two new stages at Welshs Creek and Argents Hill.
On both Friday and Saturday evenings, the Destination New South Wales Super Special Stage around Coffs Harbour returns, as does the stadium-style Super Special Stage on Saturday morning.
Rounding out the event will be the renamed Settles Reverse, which will now be known as Pilbara Reverse, while the Bucca and Wedding Bells stages remain unchanged.
“We have seen how wild and fierce the new 2017 World Rally Cars are in the other rounds and we can’t wait to see how they perform on our Australian roads,” event Chairman Ben Rainsford said.
“The changes we have made for the 2017 route promise exciting new challenges for the drivers and a fantastic climax to the season.”
The season will then wrap up at the WRC Gala and Awards night hosted at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
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