Last year, Mountain Motorsports announced the sometimes-shaky Mt Buller Sprint was a goer for the next three years, particularly with a new alliance formed through Targa organisers Octagon; the collaboration forming the inaugural 2009 Australian Tarmac Championship.

However, Octagon has expanded its tarmac rally portfolio for 2010/2011 with the new three-part Australian Targa Championship encompassing the established Targa Wrest Point and Targa Tasmania, and the new Targa High Country based around the Buller mountain in north-east Victoria.

Targa High Country (or its rather trippy acronym, THC) is but one month before the December date of the annual Mt Buller Sprint. As a brand new event, THC is already over-subscribed with a massive 220 expressions already received - almost as much as Targa Tasmania, and despite its clash with the Melbourne Cup. The two-day event should only be around 150 or so.

While Mountain Motorsports looked to miss out on the Sprint with the new rally capturing such massive entries, it would appear that competitors keen on tackling the mountain again - and any that may miss out - may actually end up boosting its numbers for the eighth annual event.

The Pacific Hire Mt Buller Sprint is scheduled for the weekend of Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th December, using all sixteen kilometres of the Mt Buller Summit Road. 

Organisers are promising a minimum of 10 runs plus a prologue over three days for classic and modern cars, and includes a n/c modified car category, and a touring category for non-rollcaged cars under closed-road rally conditions.

Storage for cars and trailers will be investigated for THC competitors (assuming the car finishes it clean and in good nick, of course), which may appeal to the interstaters. The Sprint is $260 more than the full price of THC at $2750, but this is better value than in previous years.

So competition may be a good thing for, err, competition. The catch? At least 60 people need to enter before September for it to run.

Mt Buller Sprint