MOTORSPORT: Bold new direction for Australian rallying

Restrictions have been removed from turbochargers for the season about to start, next year a SUV (sports utility vehicle) class will be introduced, and from 2013 the primary category in Australian rallying will be for two-wheel drive (2WD) cars.

Pedder says it's all about making the ARC the most relevant motorsport in Australia. His top priority is enticing manufacturers to the series -- at the same as V8 Supercars is trying to do the same through its Car of the Future project.

Pedder, whose family business Pedders Suspension sponsors the V8 Supercar safety car and course car, says he will have failed if there are not four manufacturers participating in the ARC in 2013.

This year can be little more than one of consolidation at the depths Australian rallying has slipped to, which saw the ARC described at its season launch by its organisers as "in the doldrums" and "at a crossroads".

The only manufacturers participating directly in any way this season are Honda and Hyundai, while the championship has lost colorful husband-and-wife multiple champions Simon and Sue Evans and Pedder, another top driver for a decade, to retirement.

Nonetheless, the ARC -- which kicks off in Western Australia at the end of next week -- has a naming rights sponsor, global automotive parts giant Bosch, for the first time since 2007.

And it will have 36 hours of television -- nine programs (a season preview, the five rounds, a season review, and another on the Rally School junior driver development scheme) on Network Ten, each to be repeated three times of Ten's digital channel OneHD.

While this year's five ARC rounds are all gravel events, Pedder is keen for "a mix of tarmac and gravel events, a mix of endurance and sprint events" while what he says may be the future audience of young people inspired by American Ken Block "thinks rallying should be between buildings on an airfield".

As the ARC's top administrator for four months now, Pedder has adopted the term "unrestricted" as his mantra and talks of "the dawning of a new and exciting era" and "getting our great championship back on track" with "sweeping changes" next year and in 2013.

The emphasis on 2WD cars will appeal to rallying purists, while the SUV proposal is a variation -- a more realistic variation -- of a proposal we reported on here more than two and-a-half years ago.

Instead of a separate series that could have endangered the ARC, SUVs are now being embraced as a key part of the future of rallying.

"The beginning of the best era of Australian rallying is right now," Pedder said at this week's launch.

It's a brave prediction but he is a big man and professes to be up to the enormous challenge ahead.

Borrowing a line from Einstein, he said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Pedder's changes will put the ARC out of step with world rallying but that's a price he's prepared to pay for increasing its appeal to commercial supporters, competitors, manufacturers and the public.

"The introduction of the new ARC Car category will see our existing four-wheel-drive turbo cars be the first on the planet to compete for an outright national championship without the use of a turbo restrictor," he said.

"Add to this some much-needed exhaust manifold freedoms and we can quite rightly claim that the ARC is the fastest and most exciting domestic championship in the world."

Only 2WD cars will be eligible for the manufacturers' championship this year in what Pedder said was "step one in a direction to make this championship more market-relevant".

An Australian Junior Rally Challenge, run in conjunction with rallyschool.com.au, is intended to unearth future stars.

While they are needed now that Neal Bates, Cody Crocker, Ed Ordynski, Simons Evans and Pedder are gone, leaving the likes of Mark Pedder, Eli Evans and Justin Dowell as the leading lights, it is manufacturer participation that is key to the ARC's future.

"When you look back at the successful periods of the ARC you find a direct correlation to car company involvement," Pedder said. "This is not just unique to the ARC -- Formula One, the World Rally Championship, NASCAR and V8 Supercars owe a large part of their success to the involvement and leveraging programs of car companies within their disciplines.

"Car companies are the one commercial group that has the greatest to gain from involvement within a motorsport discipline.

"The key and unique element of rallying, and in particular the ARC, has been its ability to provide an exciting and market-relevant sporting product to assist in the brand image of a car company and help set it apart from its market competition.

"Car companies like to win, but more importantly they must sell cars as a result.

"Since my appointment as CEO of the championship last December my primary focus has been to re-engage with car manufacturers and importers with a longer term vision of wooing them to the ARC.

"There is no more important an element in the future success of the ARC as manufacturer interest and involvement.

"The introduction of the ARC Cars and the general opening up of the technical regulations this year was all about increasing the commercial appeal and excitement of the ARC utilising the existing cars and investments that we had within the championship.

"Group N, and its Group N (P) and Production Rally Car offshoots, have been a successful formula within the ARC over many years -- with Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota all running successful teams and programs.

"Unfortunately the world has changed and we have to change with it.

"With Mitsubishi unlikely to develop a rally-relevant Evolution of its Lancer beyond the Evo 10 model and Subaru up in the air in terms of its international and domestic rally programs, it is likely that without change we could have eight, nine or 10-year-old 4WD cars winning the ARC -- a championship that has built its success on being highly market-relevant.

"Super 2000 4WD is a fantastic class with significant worldwide interest, however a combination of cost, distance from Europe and the fact that most of these cars are based on European vehicles that have lower sales levels in Australia will mean that Australia's support of this class will be limited at best.

"Our future success depends on a market-relevant championship, an ARC that attracts the car companies back and which in turn leads to great commercial and sporting opportunities.

"From 2013 the ARC outright drivers and co-driver titles will be open to competitors in 2WD vehicles only.

"The plans for 2012 will be announced in the middle of this year, but the strong possibility is that we will run separate outright championships for 2WD and 4WD as an interim measure.

"Our initial strategy for technical regulations relevant to this new and exciting 2WD outright era is that we want the pinnacle of Australian rallying to be exciting, affordable and enable the wide range of car companies with relevant 2WD vehicles within their range line-ups to view the ARC as a platform for the marketing and promotion of these vehicles.

"Last year there were 37 small, medium and large 2WD passenger vehicles with annual sales higher than 2000 vehicles sold.

"This represents a large pool of target vehicles that can use the ARC as a marketing platform for their brand.

"In simple terms these new outright 2WD (rally) cars need to be fast, exciting and market-relevant.

"My strategy is to see the release of regulations at this year's Rally Australia (in NSW's Coffs Coast region in September) enabling manufacturers and teams enough lead time to finalise their plans for entry into the 2012 ARC for a year of competition and development before the shift to a 2WD outright focus from 2013.

"Like with the FIA Group N and A and PRC system that has worked well for us over many years, we already have an exciting set of regulations within the FIA R2 and especially R3 regulations (as per the Honda Australia Civic Type R driven by Eli Evans) to develop a set of parity rules.

"This strategy would enable car companies who already have an international vehicle platform to utilise this option -- and, for others who don't, the ability to build and develop a car to a consistent set of regulations.

"We want to encourage participation by as many manufacturers and teams to embrace the outright ARC by providing a set of regulations that provides a sporting chance to as many vehicle types as possible.

"I am confident we can achieve this and that, with this new direction, we will create the most exciting, most market-relevant and commercially-appealing era in the ARC's 43-year history.

"And, on the theme of market relevance, the 2012 ARC will see the inclusion of a new and exciting class for SUVs. The SUV market is the highest growth segment in the Australian 'carpark' and has more vehicle sales than the traditional large car market segment.

"In 2010 one in five vehicles sold in Australia was an SUV and there are 30 target vehicles in this market with significant sales in Australia.

"As the managing director of Subaru, Nick Senior, suggested at the recent press launch of that company's new Forrester, there really is no motorsport category in Australia to cater for the growing range of SUV models and we intend to change that.

"Motorsport bodies cannot continue to ignore this market and I strongly believe the ARC is the perfect place for car companies and privateers with parts suppliers, for example, to promote these vehicles and highlight the performance, reliability and safety of them.

"This market is only going to continue to grow within Australia.

"I am not expecting factory teams running SUVs in 2012, but I will be working with the manufacturers to provide opportunities for promotion of these vehicles through the ARC and hopefully the ability to run an SUV component of their team with their multiple 2WD outright vehicles.

"Again we will be working on a set of technical regulations for this class to be released at Rally Australia.

"The rules most likely will specify quite standard trim with a 'showroom-plus' specification.

"In other words it will be a pretty stock vehicle plus safety equipment and freedoms for suspension, brakes and exhaust.

"As a championship we need greater relevance to push forward as a mainstream sport and entertainment option, and we need to adjust our approaches to keep up with the changing desires and expectations of the general public, our competitors and the commercial world.

"In general we need to adopt a sport-wide culture of the acceptance of change. We can no longer roll on each year with a similar product and expect commercial, participant and public support -- the world is changing and we need to change with it."

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