Baker’s Beach Blast: notes, night rally, and coming home in one piece
May 30, 2026
Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Dover, Tasmania.
The Stormhill Sprint runs out of Dover, which is about as far south as you can go in this country and still find someone willing to close a road for you. The event has never been shy about its name.
Before anything else, thanks to Matt at Statewide Earthworks, who put a brand-new set of Dunlops under the car. On a weekend where grip was largely theoretical, that was not a small contribution.
Competitors were met with near-freezing temperatures, rain that did not stop, wind that arrived sideways more often than not, and stages with roughly the friction of a wet supermarket floor. The roads were new to Jay, which is a polite way of saying every corner arrived as a surprise backed by a promise. He spent the opening stages finding a rhythm rather than chasing one, and by Stages 3 and 4, with Steve Glenney calling, the times had come to him.
Then the regroup ran long. The sun did what the sun does in Tasmania in winter, and two scheduled night stages quietly became four; nobody had planned for four. The weather picked that moment to get worse, and for a while getting to the end of a stage was a more useful ambition than getting to the end of it quickly.
The field thinned accordingly. Mechanical failures accounted for some crews, several significant accidents accounted for others, and Jay and Steve simply kept driving the car in a straight line more often than not and bringing it back.
Fifth outright. Fourth in the Tasmanian Rally Championship standings. The car needed a wash and a set of front brake pads, which after four unscheduled night stages in that weather is close to insulting, and it is now back in Crichton’s shed waiting for the next one.
That next one is the Subaru Wilderness Rally Tasmania out of Burnie, 14 to 16 August, round four of the EROAD Australian Rally Championship and the first endurance round of the year. Friday test day, then more than 200 competitive kilometres across 15 stages, including the 42km Mawbana stage run in reverse and two night stages on the Saturday evening. Jay has just done four night stages he never signed up for. That is unlikely to hurt.
Thanks as always to our supporters, sponsors and the volunteers standing out in that weather so the rest of us can drive through it.
