Bega Valley Rally revs up with largest number of competitors in 20 years

About 84 driver-navigator pairs are expected to contest in the two-day rally over this long weekend of June 11-12.

Bega Valley Rally director Ian Slater said he was "over the moon" to see so many entries this year.

"It's such an iconic event that people always want to come and get involved with and has been going on for 60 years," Mr Slater said.

The rally will run across five shire roads and 14 stages, with the Bega Saleyards serving as a start venue and the Seahorse Inn at Boydtown as rally headquarters.

Event secretary David Stephens said the rally would act as a great economic booster for the region and attract many visitors to the area.

"This event brings about half a million dollars into the Bega Valley," he said.

Mr Stephens said the event will attract rally drivers from across Australia with some coming from as far as Queensland for the event.

He said this would mean local hospitality sectors from accommodation to food and dining businesses, along with locally owned petrol stations will be greatly benefiting from the rally.

"We've all seen how businesses have been struggling after the fires and COVID-19 and this event bringing that much money into the area is really great for the shire," he said.

The start of the event will be at the Bega Saleyards on Kerrisons Lane, rather than at the Bega Showground like in previous years.

The drivers' briefing will commence at 11.30 Saturday morning at the saleyards, with the first car leaving at 12.30pm.

The first stage of competition will be held at the Upper Cobargo Road section and the first car is expected to come flying past around 1pm.

Mr Slater said the Upper Cobargo Road is the most renowned stage of the valley, which has often attracted hundreds of spectators.

"The first stage is famous in itself but another famous road is the Snake Track [at Kiah], it's 22 kilometres of corners and you either love it or you hate it," he said with a chuckle.

Due to safety concerns there will be no official spectator points this year, however people will be more than welcome to check out the cars and meet some of the drivers at both the Bega Saleyards and Seahorse Inn.

Stages will include the following locations - Upper Cobargo Rd, the northern section of Buckajo Rd, Broadwater, Coopers Gully and Niagara Rd.

"We're bringing back the Coopers Gully stage this year which hasn't been part of our rally for years," Mr Slater said.

Mr Slater said the organising committee wanted to bring back a lot of the roads that had been used in the rally during the '70s, which were some of the "best shire roads".

There will also be three night stages over the Saturday and Sunday which will be located in state forest south of Eden, along with the rest of Sunday's stages which will also be hosted south of Eden.

Mr Slater said he and the organising team were grateful to property owners across the shire roads for their understanding and support of the rally.

Mr Slater said he was also grateful to the Bega Valley Shire Council for its support in granting access and permits to run the rally on shire roads.

"The council are very supportive of what we do because they understand how important this event is to the Valley and they're right behind us on it," Mr Slater said.

Mr Slater said he was thankful for all the locals who put their hand up to volunteer their time in helping run the rally over the weekend, with an expected group of 150 people involved.

"The majority of the people helping us is our local people who give up their time for it and we really value them, without their help, we wouldn't have an event," he said.