Reigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will contest this year's National Capital Rally in a major ratings coup for event organisers.
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The New Zealander, who won his second Supercars title last year with Holden, was keen to drive the Kowen Forest circuit in April and NCR officials were quick to accommodate his request to compete in the Australian Rally Championship series opener.
Canberra's annual rally runs from April 1-3, between rounds two and three of this year's Supercars series.
"Rally drivers are the best-of-the-best," van Gisbergen said.
"You're driving a car as fast as you can and it's on gravel, it's so foreign to me, listening to someone else tell you where to go.
"It's an awesome challenge and I want to see if I can adapt and get better and better at it and hopefully have a proper go at it.
"I've always grown up with rally, but it's nerve-wracking to finally be in the national series in a proper car. I've dipped the toe in the water in New Zealand... but to do a Championship round is going to be pretty tough to jump straight in."
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The 32-year-old will drive the top spec Skoda Fabia R5 rally car, prepared by Race Torque Engineering, and sit alongside Glen Weston who has won three Australian titles navigating for Eli Evans.
He'll be up against Canberra young gun Harry Bates, who won the last full iteration of the Australian Rally Championship. Covid forced an early end to the 2020, and 2021 seasons.
Canberra's season-opening rally was one of only two events that were run in 2021, alongside the Queensland weekend held in Gympie.
It's left competitors and fans alike with a massive appetite for the sport's return, and van Gisbergen's inclusion has already created an avalanche of interest ahead of the season opener.
"The good thing is it draws in viewers from the V8 Supercars, because they are equally interested to see how one of our favourites goes up against the regular rally drivers," Brindabella Motor Sport Club president Dougal Wilson said.
"We see it happening with rally drivers going and competing in tarmac events all the time, but it's pretty unusual for it to go the other way.
"We are hoping we'll see a boost, particularly when it comes to television audiences. They don't need to physically get up and go anywhere, it'll get broadcast on Channel Seven and the other news outlets - that's exposure not only for rallying but also again for Canberra."
Wilson and his team have spent the past seven months canvassing Kowen Forest to develop this year's circuit.
"We had competitors come out to us at the end of the event [last year] and say 'That's the best bloody stage I've run on in the last three years'," Wilson said.
"That's the reward we get for spending hours and hours and hours in the forest. Hopefully also with the television coverage, people will be saying look how good the roads are in Canberra, and it builds for the future."
Jill Coppin, business manager at Innate Motorsport which helps organise the Australian Rally Championship, was delighted with the inclusion of van Gisbergen.
"We're so excited to have him involved, it's such a fantastic rally as it is," Coppin said.
"To have someone of Shane's calibre enter the event, it's just exciting, it's going to create a great atmosphere, a great feel and I guess it's going to bring a new audience to rally as well."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
