MOTORSPORT: Extreme Rallycross at a halt

The ambitious attempt to restart rallycross in Australia through the Extreme series is officially at a standstill.

But Extreme Rallycross promoter David Ridden isn’t giving up yet.

Although Ridden has had to cancel the two rounds that remained on his calendar, he is still hoping to stage an event in the first quarter of next year – now in a major regional centre in either NSW, Victoria or Queensland.

The Extreme series – originally scheduled for seven events in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide – did not attract the expensive, imported  Super Lites Ridden had anticipated, nor generate sufficient other interest from potential competitors.

Gold Coast-based Ridden this week confirmed the cancellation of the series “due to the lack of competitor entries” after having run just one event – at Brisbane’s Lakeside Park in early September.
However, he proclaimed: “Rallycross is here to stay.

“We know there is a definite future for rallycross here in Australia.

“We are working behind the scenes with our partners on a very exciting rallycross event in 2016 showcasing modern-day rallycross, with the announcement for this event due in December.”

The only rallycross now scheduled for Australia in the immediate future is the start of a “grassroots” Queensland series at Lakeside Park on Saturday, November 14 – which was to have been the venue and date for another round of the Extreme series after the earlier cancellation of those at Melbourne’s Calder Park in late September and at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.

The other Extreme event to go in the final cancellation was to have been at Adelaide’s Wayville Showgrounds on December 11-12.

Ridden lost his major sponsor, Sidchrome, after his one event in Brisbane flopped and it became clear the series – originally envisaged with as many as 10 of the $200,000, 220kW, 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated four-wheel-drive Super Lites but which began with only one – was unlikely to proceed.

While Queensland Raceways promoter John Tetley went ahead mid-year with the creation of the first new rallycross course in Australia in more than 35 years at Lakeside Park – combining a gravel section with part of the traditional tarmac circuit – Ridden said a lack of other suitable venues around the country exacerbated the problems for his Extreme project.

Greg Evans, organiser of the long-established V8 Race driving experience at many of the country’s circuits, echoed Ridden’s comments on the shortage of suitable permanent facilities for rallycross.
Evans, like Ridden, had expressed interest to the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport in gaining its imprimatur for an Australian Rallycross Championship.

However, CAMS decided this month against authorising a championship.

CAMS general manager Mike Smith said “the infrastructure in Australia for this type of event isn’t yet sufficiently viable for a national series.

“We are very keen to progress it (rallycross) as a discipline, but we just don’t think it’s the right time to create the national championship,” Smith said.
Rallycross is enjoying a new boom overseas, with a world championship coming to its conclusion in Argentina next month and another series predominantly in the United States – to which former V8 Supercar supremo Tony Cochrane has recently become a “special advisor”.

A major rallycross event also has been announced for New Zealand’s Baypark Stadium near Tauranga on the country’s east coast at the end of next February, promoted by Ron Dixon – father of NZ’s multiple IndyCar champion in North America, Scott Dixon.

Australian rally legend Bob Watson – a rallycross competitor when the sport thrived here through the 1970s with drivers including Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Larry Perkins and Colin Bond – had planned two trial rallycross events in Victoria this year for under-utilised rally cars.

Those events did not proceed after Motorcycling Victoria decided against allowing the use of the Broadford motorcycle complex north of Melbourne, also scuttling Watson’s plans for a six-round rallycross series next year – of which Evans would have been the promoter.

Ridden said that – while he, and everyone interested, wanted to see a strong revival in “grassroots” rallycross competition with cheap entry fees for competitors – he only saw himself staging high-level events.
He said these would now require the support of state governments and options were being considered in the three eastern seaboard states.

Ridden has an overseas trip planned to update himself on developments in rallycross in preparation for an event that will be held in regional Australia early next year and will hopefully be announced in December.