Photo: Roy Meuronen Photography
Sam Hill and co-driver Mikayla Cooling delivered a strong and consistent performance at the Shamrock Haulage Rally of Bathurst, finishing 14th outright in the event, 11th in the NSW Rally Championship field, and 9th in the Production Cup on the debut outing for their unique H6 Subaru.
The rally marked the first competitive appearance for the car, which began life as a Subaru RS Challenge vehicle before being transformed with an unusual engine conversion. When the regulations changed for the category, Hill and his team decided to take a different path, fitting a 3-litre six-cylinder Subaru engine in place of the traditional turbocharged setup.
The result is a very different driving experience compared to the turbocharged rally cars around it.
“It’s a high-revving engine,” Hill explained during the event. “Instead of a turbo car where you have to upshift earlier, this thing will happily rev to 7200 rpm. And with the ECU and the exhaust on the car, it sounds fantastic.”
Hill even joked before the rally that his goal was simple. “We wanted to have the best sounding car in the rally, except maybe for Jeff David’s Porsche” he said.
The car certainly turned heads throughout the day as it echoed through the forests around Sunny Corner.
Despite starting the rally with a seeding of 28, Hill quickly showed the car had far more pace than that position suggested. Across the eleven special stages he delivered a remarkably consistent run, posting stage times largely in the 12th to 14th range throughout the rally. His stage results told the story of that consistency.
That steady pace allowed Hill and Cooling to comfortably exceed expectations from their starting position and move well up the leaderboard by the end of the rally.
The event also carried extra meaning for Hill, who was effectively running the rally as a family operation. Service duties were handled largely by Hill himself, with help from his father between stages to keep the Subaru running smoothly throughout the day. But the most special part of the rally was the chance to share the experience with his daughter Mikayla in the co-driver’s seat.
For Cooling it was her first time navigating at a rally on pace notes, and Hill was quick to praise her performance.
“Yeah, look, Mikayla has done such a good job for the first time on notes. She hasn’t missed a beat all day,” Hill said at the end of the final stage. “It’s so good to spend time with Mikayla today. I’ve done rallies now with both of my girls and it’s honestly the best thing ever. I don’t think you can describe it.”
Hill even joked that Mikayla might have a challenge explaining rally pace notes when she returned to work.
“I think she’s even going to take the notes back to work next week and give them to her workmates and say, ‘Can you try and translate these? Honestly, in terms of father–daughter bonding time, there is no better” he concluded.
With the H6 Subaru finishing 14th outright, 11th in the NSW Rally Championship standings and 9th in Production Cup, the debut outing proved both competitive and memorable. For Hill and Cooling, the Bathurst result wasn’t just about the finishing position, but about proving the potential of the car and sharing a special weekend of rallying together.
