Doin' it in the dirt: Rally drivers head to Orange for John Giddings Memorial event

Cars will hit speeds of up to 180km/h on the gravel stretches within the forest, which offers competitors in the 2022 John Giddings Memorial Rally their first major drive of the year after the north coast round was washed out.

AMSAG president Michael Bannon said the forests on the western and south western slopes of Canobolas offered the expected 45 teams some great driving experiences.

"Our events are blind events, we don't go over the course prior to the even and write down detailed instructions, as competitors like they do in the World Championship and the Australian championship," Mr Bannon explained.

"We get given a book of instructions the event organiser writes for us," he said adding the books gives drivers and navigators a general description of hazards.

"Everything in between is up to us to judge as we're driving it.

"It's a good area because it's different sort of terrain - you 've got lots of elevation changes and some of the trails are quite tricky and technical but then you come out into nice, fast open areas. It's got a mix of everything you could want in terms of variety."

The service base for Saturday's rally will be at Towac Park with two classes to be contested. Vehicles made prior to 1991 will feature models like the Datsun 1600 and Ford Escort. The Open class is contested by later makes like Subaru WRXs and Mitsubishi Evos.

Mr Bannon said drivers' average speed in last year's event was around about 100km for a stage, with stages covering distances from 25km to 15km.

"The top running cars on the really fast open sections will be topping out at around the 180 to 200km/h but you're probably only doing that for a minute or less because you're stopping and turning and going back onto a little fire trail," he said.

Rallying was in the news last month following the death of a driver in the Targa Tasmania Rally and the Orange rally's namesake, John Giddings, died after crashing his Datsun 180B in Four Mile Creek forest area in the 2013 event.

"We all know motorsport is dangerous, it's something that's accepted and it's part of the thrill for competitors that adrenaline rush of doing something that's high-paced but the event itself is in a controlled environment,," Mr Bannon said explainingg strict safety standards had to be met.

"its an accepted risk but it is a terrible situation when it occurs."

Spectators are encouraged, instructions are at https://bit.ly/AMSAGOrangeRally

The event will start and finish at Towac Park, with the first car leaving at 8:30am, they will be due back into Towac Park at around 11:30am for their mid event service break. The first car is due to finish around 4:30pm back at Towac Park with the last car due in around an hour later.

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