MOTORSPORT: Big-city showcase for new-look ARC

Future of rallying is… Calder Park!
The organiser of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) is claiming the new opening round to next season at Melbourne’s Calder Park will be the most significant in the ARC’s 45-year history.

Officially announcing Rally Calder yesterday [Tuesday, August 30], ARC chief executive Scott Pedder said it would be: “an event designed to bring rallying to the people”.

“Rally Calder forms the cornerstone for the future of rallying in Australia and will be a showcase for the sport,” Pedder said.

Calder Park, no longer a touring car championship or stock car racing venue but within 30km of the city centre, is still owned by Bob Jane, who is leasing it to the ARC for this new event.

Four decades ago Calder Park hosted rallycross events that featured a young Peter Brock. And, in a useful segue, YouTube sensation Ken Block will stage the Australian round of his Gymkhana World Tour there this Saturday. Pedder sees Block as a perfect teaser to Rally Calder but said the ARC’s plans for the new event on March 2-4, 2012, were well in train before Block booked the venue.

The ARC event will include competition on the Thunderdome and the traditional road circuit as well as the complex’s expansive grassy and gravel grounds. It will conclude with semi-finals and finals in all categories on the third day.

More action photos from Calder Park launch at motoring.com.au

“The world has changed and so we [rallying] have to… Rally Calder represents the start of a new and exciting era in the ARC,” Pedder said.

“Rally Calder is the most important event in the history of the ARC,” Pedder stated.

Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) president Andrew Papadopoulos said: “This event style will change the face of rallying in Australia. CAMS fully endorses this new concept.”

At this week’s announcement Pedder expanded on the revamp of Australian rallying, which is seeing a switch primarily to two-wheel-drive cars, the introduction of a new SUV category next season and a likely upgrade of classic rallying to full national championship status, with Ross Dunkerton, Barry Lowe and Neal Bates competing.

The Australian Junior Rally Challenge will continue next year too and Rally Calder will host the start of an Australian Side by Side Rally Challenge to be contested by all-terrain vehicle manufacturers Polaris and Can-Am, which Pedder called “the Holden and Ford of the powersport market”.

It is envisaged that challenge could become a four-round championship.

Pedder said he had “a passion for change” born of “an eternal frustration that rallying in Australia has never received the time in the sun that it deserves”.

“That time stops here and now… We are at the beginning of the most successful period in the history of not only the ARC but Australian rallying in general,” he said.

“Right now is the start of something very special indeed. The 2012 ARC will be the world’s most market-relevant motorsport championship.

“The launch of the ‘unrestricted’ turbo cars (this season) has been a resounding success, with some much-missed noise and excitement back in the forest.

“With two rounds to go [next week’s new Rally Australia on NSW’s Coffs Coast and then Rally Victoria in Gippsland on November 11-12] entry numbers compared to 2010 are up 80 per cent, and compared to 2009 it is 170 per cent.

“Round one of the 2012 Bosch ARC will be Rally Calder and, in a first, the entire round will be held within a 3-square kilometre motorsport complex.

“Believe me, this is not going to be a Mickey Mouse event. Staged over three days, Rally Calder will be a true test of man, or woman, and machine with more than 100km of competitive sections over 20 stages -- stages that will introduce urban rallying elements like tunnels, jumps, water splashes, gutters, roundabouts and even a junkyard!

“Seven different stages will be used in both directions and multiple times to make up the 20 different challenges to confront the crews. And the mix of tarmac and gravel will give this event a unique flavour.

“The ARC field will be split – 2WD outright cars and classics in one group and the 4WD outright cars and SUVs in another.

“Rally Calder also will be round one of the Australian Modern and Classic Tarmac Rally Championship, with some of the world’s most famous sports cars blasting around the national circuit and around and within the Thunderdome.

“We will also be joined by all-terrain vehicles and Rally Calder will see some of Australia’s hottest road cars via a unique car club shootout over multiple disciplines to match make-versus-make and mate-versus-mate to find out Australia’s No. 1 car club.

“We will have legends races and a celebrity race and numerous other motorsport demonstrations.

“Rally Calder will be an event to remember – one to put rallying well and truly on the map and follow on from the cult success of Ken Block this Saturday.”

Pedder reiterated that the switch to a 2WD-only outright championship from 2013 “is simply about market relevance and adapting our championship to the Australian ‘carpark’ ”.

“Next year, as an interim measure, we will crown both a 2WD and 4WD Australian Rally Champion,” he said.

Regulations have been drawn up for a new Group G2, adding to the existing list of 2WD options including PRC, FIA Group N and R and Showroom. Pedder said G2 “needed to produce a great sounding, exciting and fast car that also was highly market relevant”.

It is open to front or rear-wheel-drive cars newer than seven years as well as model run-ons.

Four engine options are available, with the detailed G2 regulations here.

The SUV regulations will adopt a Showroom-style approach with freedoms only to wheels, tyres, brakes, suspension and exhaust, while the engine can be only naturally aspirated or turbodiesel. Teams must use the standard gearbox as marketed with that exact model – automatic or manual. The SUV regulations are here.

Classic rallying will be elevated to a new level next year, with CAMS in the process of approving a national championship.

The classic field next year will include five-time Australian Rally Champion Ross Dunkerton in a RS1800 BDA Ford Escort, two-time champion Barry Lowe in his V8 Holden Commodore and four-times champion Neal Bates in a replica Toyota Celica, joining the regulars in Stanzas, Escorts, Porsche 911s and a GT Falcon.

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