Sport
15 February, 2026
Ripper Reeves" Third in family to claim title
BRENDAN Reeves has the become third in his family to win the Victorian 2WD Rally Championship.
Reeve’s name its now etched in motor racing history alongside father Mike and brother Nathan after being awarded the title.
Brendan, 37, was presented with his award last Saturday along with co-driver Aidan O’Halloran, adding more silverware to the family’s cabinet.
Four early season victory set up Brendan’s great season.
The title triumph marks a lifetime around the sport.
Brendan got involved long before he could drive, watching his dad at rallies and later helping at service stops where the drivers paused for new tyres and fuel.
By the time he was 17, with L plates on, he was competing in rallies. In 2011-2012, Brendan took part in the elite junior World Rally Championship in Europe, having won a scholarship.
“That first year was in a little Ford Fiesta – we finished fourth, but we had some really good results, just learning rallies,” he said.
“Then we raised some sponsorship and did the next year without the scholarship money.
“We were second all year, but in the last rally we had a mechanical issue and had to serve a 10-minute penalty and we finished fourth again.”
Brendan’s aspirations of going to the very top level of rallying didn’t work out, so he returned to Australia and his trusty 1971 Datsun 1600, albeit with a modern drive line.
He drove that car to second place in the Victorian titles before switching to a Subaru for the 2025 season.
With the title secured before the last round, Brendan dusted off the legendary Datsun for the final rally of the year.
“We broke something and we got a DNF in the Akademos Rally at Alexandra.”
Brendan said eastern Victoria was considered the best terrain in Australia for rallying, and it came with challenges.
In 2022 he took part in a rally at Marysville when it snowed heavily for two days.
The two-wheel-drive Datsun wasn’t ideal for the conditions, and Brendan couldn’t even follow in competitors’ tyre tracks because of his wheelbase, but he still finished as runner up.
This season, he plans to enter only a couple of Victorian rallies as he resets – and seeks sponsorship – for a possible full-scale return to the championships in 2027.
With rally tyres lasting an average of 70 kilometres per set on the unforgiving Victorian gravel, participants go through as many as 10 tyres every event.
The Datsun’s two-wheel-drive was even harder on the tyres, which lasted between 20 and 40 km per race.
It’s an unforgiving sport but one that has the family hooked. His sister, former American champion rally co-driver Rhiannon Gelsimino was competing last weekend in the United States.
Rhiannon’s husband Alex was winning the Sno*drift Rally in the US last weekend when he broke a timing belt 100 metres from the finish line.
And Rhiannon was co-driving with extreme sports legend Travis Pastrana in the same race and was leading with three stages left when they crashed into a snowbank.
- GARY WALSH