MOTORSPORT: A sudden bump in rallying's road

As a new Australian Rally Championship gets underway in Western Australia there’s a cloud over Rally Australia on the other side of the country.

Not over Rally Oz’s place on the World Rally Championship calendar, but its future at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales.

The event will go ahead this year, in its new slot as the finale on the WRC calendar on November 17-20, and the controversy may soon prove to be a storm in a teacup.

A recent meeting of the Coffs Harbour City Council voted against providing sponsorship to Rally Oz this year and next.

Only six councillors were at the meeting and the vote was 4-2.

The matter will be revisited at another council meeting next Thursday night.

The full council comprises nine members, but the maximum next week will be eight with one – who was not at last week’s meeting – resigning this week for undisclosed personal reasons.

Some councillors have become concerned at the council’s general manager Steve McGrath being on the board of Rally Australia and therefore handling the council’s sponsorship of the event and other arrangements between the two parties. McGrath is not paid for being a Rally Oz director.

The amount of sponsorship involved has not been disclosed, although it is thought to represent less than five per cent of Rally Oz’s total revenues.

The opponents within the council feel McGrath has a conflict of interest, yet one of those opponents, John Arkan, reportedly seconded the motion several years ago that McGrath take up a seat on the Rally Oz board.

Another of the four “no” voters last week, Mark Sultana, has said that his opposition was only to providing sponsorship of next year’s rally before details were known of its format.

Despite suggestions in Coffs Harbour in recent days – including by mayor Denise Knight on radio – that this year’s rally is off until last week’s decision is reversed, organisers say the 25th Rally Australia – and the country’s 24th as a WRC round – is definitely going ahead, with or without council sponsorship.

However, they say that if the fuller council maintains the stance it took last week they would have to think about taking the rally elsewhere in NSW.

There are even whispers that an overture already has been made from Kyogle, further north in NSW near the Queensland border and where there was such hostility from environmentalists when the event first moved east after almost two decades in WA.

Apart from being regarded as one of the best-organised rounds of the WRC, Rally Oz officials claim the event is worth $13.8 million in economic benefit to the region and brings international tourism promotion via a telecast they say has 68 million viewers.

That's a somewhat extravagant figure as it would make the audience three or four times that of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, although the rally is more genuinely a three-day competition.

Of most immediate concern is the message the council’s stance flags to WRC officials and participants that the event is not entirely welcome in the Coffs Harbour area, when a poll by the local newspaper, the Advocate, found overwhelming support for it.

More than 70 per cent of respondents to the Advocate’s poll said that Rally Australia sponsorship was value for money for the council.

Mayor Knight, one of the two councillors who last week supported continuing to make a financial contribution to the staging of the event this year and next, has said she hopes other councillors “will see the light [next Thursday night] and see that this [rally] is amazing for the community of Coffs Harbour”.

She said the community was “outraged” and denied McGrath had any conflict of interest “in any way, shape or form”.

Councillors had voted in 2010 that McGrath represent the council on the Rally Oz board and “nothing has changed”.

The state parliamentarian for Coffs Harbour, Andrew Fraser, blasted the council’s recent vote as “extremely short-sighted” and said he was “absolutely astounded at the naivety of these councillors”.

And Luke Hartsuyker, the federal member for the seat of Cowper which includes Coffs Harbour, said it would be “a tragedy if councillors not acting in the best interests of the community would put this event at risk – it’s just not sensible”.

Coffs Harbour chamber of commerce president George Cercato said the recent vote was “such rubbish”, that councillors opposing the sponsorship should resign and “think about the message we (Coffs Harbour) are sending to all those people in Europe and Australia”.

What a year for Volkswagen
Volkswagen could make more history at this weekend’s fourth round of the WRC, Rally Argentina, as the first manufacturer to go a year unbeaten in world rallying.

It will take a 13th straight victory for the German company with its Polo R to do it.

Rally Argentina, based around Villa Carlos Paz, 700km north-west of Buenos Aires, is the only WRC event that VW’s triple world champion, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, has not won in six previous attempts.

He was second to Finnish teammate Jari-Matti Latvala in 2014 and the year before to the other great Frenchman, Citroen’s nine-time world champion Sebastian Loeb.

Britain’s Kris Meeke won in Argentina last year for Citroen, which is not competing full-time this year while it develops its C3 for next year’s new regulations.

Meeke’s victory denied VW a clean sweep of last year’s WRC.

Ogier said the gravel in Argentina was much softer and the ground sandier than the previous round in Mexico six weeks ago and that the weather could be tricky, with thick fog often restricting visibility.

The event is on a “yellow card” warning from the governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) after safety failings last year, including injuries to fans when New Zealander Hayden Paddon rolled his Hyundai i20.

Every stage has been changed this year, with many of them being run in the opposite direction, and almost a quarter of the course is completely new.

It includes some sections that have been used in the Dakar marathon rally in recent years.

After this round there are five straight in Europe before the new event in September in China, at which Rally Australia is expected to supply a contingent of officials.

The 2014 Australian rally champion Scott Pedder has confirmed he will compete overseas again this year in WRC2 with Dale Moscatt as his co-driver in a Skoda Fabia R5.

The pair did several rounds last year, with a best result of fourth on Rally Finland, and have their sights on a podium this year.

They have linked up with British-based WRC2 champions AutoTek Motorsport for five rounds this season – Portugal in a month, Poland in early July, Finland at the end of July, the new Chinese tarmac event in September and then Rally Australia on November 17-20.

Pedder said there was a chance of adding another two European rounds to the schedule.

He anticipated that the R5-spec cars would be more competitive this year under the major technical changes in the WRC2 series with the Regional Rally Cars (RRCs) runner smaller 28mm turbo restrictors.

Molly takes on greats Evans and Dunkerton
Molly Taylor is the headline act as the face of Subaru’s return to the Australian Rally Championship after 11 years out of it, but there’s plenty of opposition for her at this weekend’s season-opening Forest Rally in WA – a lot of it from Subaru privateers.

Taylor, who made history at this event last year as the first woman to win an ARC heat and finished second overall, will represent Subaru in a new production-class WRX STI prepared by Les Walkden Rallying and with Bill Hayes as her co-driver.

Four-time national champion Simon Evans is back with a much older Impreza WRX STI and Ben Searcy as his co-driver after a frustrating, aborted 2015 season in a Honda, while his multiple champion brother Eli is rallying in China this year.

But 70-year-old legend Ross Dunkerton, one of WA’s favourite sons but these days based in north Queensland, is in a modern Subaru at the Forest Rally prepared locally by Maximum Motorsport.

“It’s 22 years since I have driven a fast four-wheel-drive car on a loose surface,” an excited Dunkerton said.

Then there’s the first all-WA two-car team in the ARC, yet another two Subarus from Maximum Motorsport, to be driven by Tom Wilde and Brad Markovic.

The priority is now heavily back on four-wheel-drives now after the bold but ultimately unsuccessful emphasis on 2WDs.

The field of 43 cars – 18 of them competing in the ARC, the other 15 in the WA championship – includes another former national champion, Justin Dowell, in a Hyundai i20 Proto.

Mark Pedder is competing again in his Peugeot 208 Maxi, with Dale Moscatt his co-driver.

Harry Bates, starting only his eighth rally, will be in the Toyota Corolla S2000 that his father Neal drove to victory in the 2008 Forest Rally, while Adrian Coppin is in a similar car.

Neal Bates is in a classic Toyota Celica with long-time co-driver Coral Taylor, mother of Molly.

The event starts tonight with tarmac runs on the foreshore at Busselton and another eight stages tomorrow and nine on Sunday with timber town Nannup at the centre of the action.

Australian Rally Championship calendar
April 22-24 – Forest Rally, WA
May 27-29 – National Capital Rally, ACT
June 17-19 – International Rally of Queensland, Sunshine Coast and Mary Valley
September 9-11 – Rally South Australia, Barossa Valley and Mt Crawford
November 18-20 – Rally Australia, Coffs Harbour

Ex-postie’s chance to deliver on track
The Australian who won the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy International Final at Britain’s Silverstone circuit last year makes his race debut this weekend at Italy’s equally-famous Monza.

Marcus Simmons, a former courier van driver with Australia Post, will drive a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the opening round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup.

“The first race of your career is special and to drive at Monza with so much racing heritage is a tick off the bucket list,” Queenslander Simmons said.

“It has been an incredible journey to this point and I know I will have a lot of support from Australia riding along with me this weekend.”

Simmons is paired in the GT-R with Frenchman Romain Sarazin, the European winner of the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy last year, and a British graduate of the academy, Sean Walkinshaw.

They have had intense pre-season training and practice, including testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.
NISMO.tv will have a live stream of Sunday’s qualifying and three-hour race.

Audi loses WEC win, Volvo in strife and heavier Hondas
Audi has been stripped of its win in the opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone after the victorious R18 e-tron quattro’s front skid block was found to have worn more than the permissible 5mm, handing the round to Porsche.

That’s the No 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by France’s Romain Dumas, Switzerland’s Neel Jani and Germany’s Marc Lieb.

The No 1 Porsche, which Australian Mark Webber had put in the lead on the opening stint after starting third, was crashed by New Zealander Brendon Hartley into a GT Porsche.

Audi, which attributed the excessive wear to unexpected “heavy bouncing” of its car, had indicated that it would appeal its disqualification but has since decided against it.

“We accept the exclusion and, in the interest of the sport, look ahead,” said Audi motorsport chief Wolfgang Ullrich said.

“It is our job to avoid increased wear – we accept this responsibility.

“We made our decision in the interest of the sport and hope that the eight remaining world championship rounds will be similarly thrilling as the season opener.”

While Volvo won the V8 Supercar round at Phillip Island last weekend, one of Polestar Volvo’s S60s in the World Touring Car Championship was disqualified from two races at the Slovakia Ring after its air restrictor was found to have expanded significantly.

Polestar has not appealed the exclusion of Swedish driver Thed Bjork.

His teammate, Fredrik Ekblom, also Swedish, was excluded from qualifying at the Slovakia Ring after he missed a weight control, while Bjork’s qualifying time at the earlier Paul Ricard round in France was deleted after his car failed a ride height test.

The WTCC S60s, run by Polestar Cyan Racing, have 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engines based on Volvo’s Drive-E motor and producing about 400hp.

Honda’s Civics, which have scored two wins in this year’s WTCC in the hands of Britain’s driver Rob Huff and Portugal’s Tiago Monteiro, will have to carry 70kg of ballast at this weekend’s round at Hungaroring.

The Citroen C-Elysees of Argentina’s Jose Maria Lopez and France’s Yvan Muller, already have 80kg of ballast, Lada’s three factory Vestas 50kg, but the Chevrolet Cruze and Volvo S60s none.