PHOTOS: Roy Meuronen Photography
Sometimes a rally result tells only half the story.
For Josh Redhead and Ray Winwood-Smith, the 2026 Lazer Rally of the Bay wasn’t about where they finished. It was about dust, noise, opposite lock, plenty of laughs, and proving that even a 50-year-old Datsun Stanza can still put on a show.
After contesting the previous round in their Mitsubishi Evolution V, Redhead Motorsport elected to leave the faster car at home and bring the crowd-favourite Stanza to Batemans Bay.
“I think we’ve traded horsepower for smiles today,” Redhead joked before the start. “We had plans on going to Tasmania, so I didn’t want to risk it in the other car. We thought we’d come down and try and do some skids. It’s a fun car, but it makes a lot of noise and goes nowhere real quick.”
The classic Datsun had recently undergone a freshen-up, including rust repairs and a new colour scheme, and while Redhead knew outright victory wasn’t realistic, he was looking forward to tackling one of NSW favourite rallies.
“We’re in an old car, but it’s all part of what we do,” he said. “We’ll see what happens today. I think if we’ve got a tailwind, we might go alright!”
The rally also provided an important opportunity to continue developing the team’s pacenote system ahead of future events.
“This weekend’s a big one if you can find a rhythm with your pace notes,” he explained before the start. “We’ve definitely worked on a few things. Probably not quite where we wanted to be, but it’s a step forward regardless.”
As expected, the ageing Stanza didn’t make life easy.
By the first service break the team had already encountered a growing list of mechanical issues.
“We’ve had a morning with a few dramas,” Redhead admitted. “The rubbers that hold the steering rack have disintegrated, so on these fast-flowing roads it’s a little bit daunting when you turn in and the car doesn’t do anything.”
The problems didn’t stop there.
“We’ve lost a brake master cylinder,” he added, before shrugging it off in typical Redhead fashion. “But yeah, we’ll service it, regroup, head back out and have another go.”
Despite the mounting issues, there was never any thought of giving up.
“I’m having a ball,” he laughed. “It’s always a good time when you get to pull the helmet on.”
The afternoon became even more entertaining – and considerably more challenging.
With the steering rack bushes almost completely gone, simply keeping the Stanza on the road became an achievement in itself.
“That’s probably one of the scariest things I’ve driven in a long time,” Redhead said after the afternoon stages.
“We now have no rack bushes left, so there was nearly a full revolution of the steering wheel before it actually takes up. I had a few pucker-up moments in there.”
Asked whether he was still learning about pacenotes, Redhead couldn’t help but laugh.
“Probably not learning so much about the notes, because we’re trying to focus on actually keeping this thing on the road. So probably not where we wanted to be with learning the notes side… but look, there’s some giggling going on, that’s for sure.”
The team ultimately elected to retire before the final night stages, but not for the reason many expected. Although the steering rack bushes and brake issues had made the car increasingly difficult to drive, it was a failed alternator that finally ended the weekend.
After the rally, Redhead explained that the alternator had actually failed on the previous loop. Because the carburetted Datsun requires very little electrical power to continue running, the team didn’t immediately realise anything was wrong until they reached regroup and switched the engine off.
“We got into regroup for the last stages and then the car wouldn’t start. Realised the alternator had packed up on the previous loop. Being 50-year-old parts, and because it’s carby, I didn’t realise there was a problem, as it requires no power to run the car. So we opted to pull the pin for the night stuff. We didn’t want to sit in the bush for four hours waiting to be picked up.”
Summing up the day with a smile, Redhead added:
“The master cylinder and steering wasn’t gonna stop us… but an alternator would!”
While the result sheet records the Redhead Motorsport team as a retirement, it hardly reflects the spirit of their weekend.
From spectacular slides and a determined drive through mounting mechanical problems to the unmistakable sound of the Datsun Stanza echoing through the Batemans Bay forests, Josh Redhead and Ray Winwood-Smith once again reminded rally fans why some of the most memorable performances aren’t always measured by the final results. Sometimes, they’re measured by the smiles they leave behind.
