I regularly take part in tarmac rallies around the country, and as I live in Melbourne, the Australian Tarmac Rally holds a couple of events based out of Marysville, which is about 100km North East of Melbourne.
Several weekends ago, my son (Ollie) and I competed in one of the ATR events called ‘The Great Tarmac Rally’ which uses classic tarmac rally roads from Marysville to Reefton Spur as well as the back road from Eildon to Jamieson. We entered his 1992 Nissan Silvia with an LS V8 motor in the ‘Rally Challenge’ category which has a top speed of 130km/h and had a ball.
Another ATR event is ‘The Lake Mountain Sprint’ in February that utilises the road from Marysville to the snow hub at the summit of Lake Mountain. This road is a classic tarmac rally stage which varies from open sweeping sections to winding tight corners and over the years the weather conditions have seen competitors face fog, snow, and sleet one day to bright sunny days the next, so it can be a true test of crews and their machines.
Of late, the Lake Mountain Road has also been utilised by car manufacturers to promote their cars with corporate days on closed roads, as well as film crews to safely film promotional pieces like this V8 Supercar clip promoting the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship:
The Mountain Is Calling – Supercars Take on Epic Mountain Run – Supercars
Nissan also used it for the launch of their new 300Z car in Australia:
Nissan Z NISMO unleashed on Lake Mountain
Due to its close proximity to Melbourne, Lake Mountain is very popular in winter for cross country skiing and tobogganing, and in summer it has numerous mountain biking tracks so is becoming a big downhill biking destination. If you’d like to find out more, go to lakemountainresort.com.au
But to be honest I can’t wait till February 2025, when we’ll be able to race up the Lake Mountain Road in the Silvia.