The former Kalaru racer pushed his M3-powered BMW E30is to the limits last year to win by three minutes, but the return of even more shire stages could be a boost to the driver. 

“That’s really the crux of the Valley Rally is bringing it back to Bega and it’s good to see the Shire Roads,” he said before winning last year’s event. 

They’re some of the same roads he cut his rallying teeth on before going to contest the Australian Rally Championships for Toyota, and this year the Shire Road stages have doubled with four legs around Bega before heading south. 

“That’s not to say I don’t like the Eden stuff,” Barker says, “but it’s unreal to bring it home and contest those stages.” 

In 2017 he teamed up with another Bega Valley Rally racer in Beau Griggs, who used to run a Subaru Impreza – and also had a hand in fabricating the BMW – with the pair enjoying a few laughs along the way. 

The duo were the front-runners from the outset, winning stage one and hardly skipping a beat to go on for the clean win. 

Barker has since gone on to win the at Alpine Rally in East Gippsland with his regular co-driver Damian Long as the pair won from start to finish, topping the podium on eight of 12 stages. 

“Winning the Alpine was a way of proving that we are capable of beating the best in Australia,” Barker told Rally Sport Magazine. 

Expert at driving just about anything with wheels, Barker says the BMW, which he and his uncle Pip built around 2010 was definitely a favourite. 

As a Toyota driver he was used to the competition four-wheel-drives, “but I can tell you this rear-wheel drive BMW is about the best fun I’ve ever had in a rally car,” he said. 

In a recent feature with Rally Sport Magazine, Barker said he had wanted to build an old commodore “with heaps of grunt”, but it was Pip’s touring car experience that swayed him to the BMW. 

Barker is now hungry to pit the locally built car against an even bigger field and defend his Valley Rally crown. 

However, he will have a few serious rivals on the road in two weeks with standing Australian Rally Champion Nathan Quinn confirming entry this week. 

Bega youngster Alexander Eadie will take the co-driver seat when the duo set out to pressure Barker in a classic 1979 Mazda RX-2. 

“I think I would need about 200 horsepower extra to pressure Ben on his home roads,” Quinn said with a laugh, “but you can have a good or bad weekend, so if we can have a good run we’ll be looking at that top end.”

The Bega Valley Rally will run on June 9-10 with stages in Bega and around Eden with spectator info to be published when available.