The star-studded collection of names scattered across the three categories in the Drive South-sponsored event mean the 15-stage event would be super competitive, he said.
Although last year's national championship winner Dean Sumner leads out the field for the three night stages in his Mitsubishi Evo 9, a new-to-Subaru Hayden Paddon will be hungry to gobble up the distance between them.
The hatchback is similar to the Subaru the Geraldine prodigy is hoping will win him this year's Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), and judging by his first round win last month he is in fine fettle to do just that.
Sumner said despite the extra weight of carrying the number one plate, he hoped his calm mental attitude would pay off against Paddon's speed.
"I have to be realistic. He's going to be very quick," Sumner said.
Third seed Emma Gilmour is back at home in Dunedin with her fiance Glenn Macneall as co-driver and the same Subaru as last season.
Former national champion and Otago winner Chris West (Mitsubishi), who capitulated 2010 victory in Rally Otago to Sumner, after losing a wheel on the final stage, is fourth seed. Another winner of both this event and the national series, Richard Mason, rounds out the top five in his hatchback Impreza.
With 39 competitors, the International Rally of Otago classic field is the most competitive for some years.
Headlining the entries is Finland's 1981 World Champion, Ari Vatanen, whose appearance is thanks to his co-driver and four-time Rally of Otago entrant Italy's Fabrizia Pons.
"She just rang and asked him [to drive] as they had rallied a lot together in the past and much to everyone's surprise, he said, 'yes I'm interested'," Oakley said.
Vatanen will lead the classic field away in a Ford Escort RS1800 but the local favourite is the event's winner for the past two years, Derek Ayson, of Clinton, in his Nissan-engined Escort.
Fans of the 1980s Group B rally supercars will be thrilled to see flamboyant driver Andrew Hawkeswood returning with his replica Audi Quattro S1 in the allcomers section.
Kieran Hall, of Nelson, is taking a step back from the national championship this season but will no doubt chasing him hard in a Subaru Impreza. Snapping at their heels will be the Mitsubishi Evos of Andrew Graves (Gore) - the 2010 category winner - and Dean Bond (Balclutha), who was victorious in 2009.
Challenging all the drivers will be the re-introduction of night stages, which have not been run for more than 10 years.
"Every year we try to do something different. We will be very interested in the reaction," Oakley said.
The competitors will complete 50km of special stages tonight at Taieri Beach, Henley and Whare Flat, with some using specially mounted, high intensity, gas discharge xenon headlights to illuminate their routes.
Tomorrow the northern roads used in the previous three years have been replaced by four morning stages around Lawrence. After the rally's longest stage, 48km through Berwick Forest, the day concludes with the popular Anzac Avenue tarmac superspecial.
Sunday includes repeats of some stages used today and Saturday, as well as three further stages, all in the hills on either side of the Taieri Plains. The rally is scheduled to finish at the Dunedin Railway Station at 2.35pm.
Rally of Otago
High speed action
• What's new: Three night stages run close to Dunedin. Four stages around Lawrence and the service park located there on Saturday.
• Best places to watch:
- Today: Attend the autograph-signing session at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery between 6pm and 7pm, then find a Whare Flat corner in the dark (9.05pm).
- Tomorrow: Pay $10 to watch the competitors whizz around the Anzac Ave superspecial tarmac stage (3.30pm).
- Sunday: Marvel at the speeds achieved on the rally's fastest stages Kuri Bush (10.50am) and McIntosh Rd (11.15am).
