The 2023 Riverina Redneck Rally will be leaving Trundle on 27 March with more than 70 cars travelling 2500km over five days before finishing in Temora. Photo: Riverina Car Rally, Facebook.
The Riverina Redneck Rally has now raised more than $500,000 for charity Country Hope with less than a week to go before the 2023 event begins.
The rally will see more than 70 cars and 170 people travel 2500 kilometres in five days, making their way from Trundle to Temora.
Teams will travel in 2WD vehicles and drive over harsh terrain and dirt roads while using resources on hand to repair any damages inflicted throughout the five-day trek.
Riverina Redneck Rally director Gavin Gilbert said despite the reduced COVID-19 restrictions, the 2023 iteration had been the hardest to organise.
“We’ve had some challenging years with bushfires and COVID restrictions, but 2023 has proven to be very difficult with the floods that have hit a lot of different areas,” Gavin said.
“It’s a very entertaining event for a lot of people and we want to put on the best event we possibly can, but this year we only managed to finalise the route we are taking four weeks before the rally. Normally, that would be six to 12 months in advance.
“We got pretty nervous there at one point and thought we might need to scrap the rally this year, but we settled on a route from Trundle to Temora and the response to that has been fantastic.”
Entrants in the 2023 rally have already raised more than half a million dollars for Country Hope. Photo: Riverina Redneck Rally, Facebook.
Despite the difficulties, support for the rally has come out in full force with a record-breaking $500,000 as of 17 March.
“We set the target at $400,000 thinking we’d get nowhere near it, so to see we have $100,000 over that target is really incredible,” Gavin said.
“People can continue to donate for about a month and a half after the rally, which starts on 27 March. We would love to see those donation numbers continue to climb.”
The top fundraising team this year, Sent Pack’n, made up of captain Leigh Murphy and Steve Wilcox, has raised more than $83,000 alone.
“It has been a huge effort by those guys to raise that amount of money,” Gavin said.
“They really hit the ground running and went out of their way to raise as much money as they could for Country Hope.”
Since 2017, when the event began, Riverina Car Rally has raised more than $2.7 million in total for Country Hope.
A 2022 Riverina Redneck Rally team repairing their vehicle for the next day’s drive. Photo: Riverina Car Rally, Facebook.
Country Hope is a charity that provides emotional and financial support for rural families with children who are facing terminal or life-threatening medical conditions.
“We see the work that they do firsthand and the relief that they can provide families who are doing it tough, and we want to be able to support them in doing that,” Gavin said.
“While being a part of the rally and doing the tour is great, we really are here to help support those who are doing it tough.”
To check out more about the rally, click here. To learn more about Country Hope, click here.
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