MOTORSPORT: Kiwis trying to snatch Rally Australia for 2020

New Zealand is trying yet again to pinch Australia’s round of the World Rally Championship, while the Dakar Rally is definitely on the move – to Saudi Arabia.

The Kiwis are confident of replacing Australia on next year’s WRC calendar, even if it is only for 2020 or is the start of a renewed rotation of the Antipodean round between the two countries.

NZ hasn’t had a WRC round since 2012, but Rally NZ chairman Peter Johnston has said he hopes to know “in the next couple of weeks whether it (a WRC round in NZ in 2020) will happen”.

Australia’s online RallySport Magazine has reported that the company WRC Promoter has renewed calls for Rally Australia to be held closer to a major population centre than Coffs Harbour, where it has been held since 2011.

The WRC has previously applied pressure for the November event to start in Sydney but organisers say the logistics have been unworkable.

RallySport Magazine said “the rumour mill was buzzing” at NZ’s Otago Rally on April 12-14 “with talk that NZ could snatch the WRC round from Australia in 2020”.

A senior sports writer for Fairfax Media in NZ, Davd Long, has reported today that “the WRC are unhappy with the Australian round being at Coffs Harbour and want it held in a place with a higher profile”.

Long has quoted Johnston saying: “We’re hopeful of having it back in 2020. The WRC promoters aren't keen to go back to Coffs Harbour, so they are thinking that maybe there’s an opportunity for NZ.

“We’re right on it at the moment.

“The Australians are fighting like crazy to retain the event there, but … this will be the last year at Coffs Harbour and they’ll have to move it.

“Even for 2021, they’re going to have to take it to a new venue.

“That’s easier said than done and we’re ready, we’ve got all the roads, we’ve got everything planned, we have good support – but we are after a naming rights sponsor.”

Johnston said the latest push had “a lot of support” from Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development, an arm of the Auckland Council.

The previous campaign to get the WRC round back across the Tasman foundered because of lack of NZ government financial support, but Johnston said Rally NZ is in fresh talks with the government.

The Coffs Harbour event enjoys funding from Destination NSW.

A Rally Australia spokesman told RallySport Magazine that “Rally Australia’s negotiations with WRC Promoter over future events are continuing, with the full commitment of our major supporter, Destination NSW”.

“There has been no suggestion from WRC Promoter about being anywhere else but the Coffs Coast.”

However, NZ’s top rally driver Hayden Paddon, a WRC competitor with Hyundai until dislodged by the Korean manufacturer’s recruitment of French great Sebastien Loeb part-time this season, has said he has heard that the prospect of a shift of the Antipodean round across the Tasman “is looking promising”.

“It’s sort of come out of the blue somewhat,” Paddon told RallySport Magazine editor Peter Whitten.

“There seems to be quite a lot of support in NZ to make it happen again, financially, so it’s looking good.”

Meanwhile, the Dakar marathon rally – originally run from Paris into North Africa but for the past decade in South America – will be held in Saudi Arabia next year.

Details of the intended route are expected to be announced next week.

Dakar director David Castera said the move to Saudi Arabia would be “a massive challenge” but it was “a blank page with limitless possibilities”.

“I’m inspired and delighted to have to design a course in such a momumental geography made for the most audacious itineraries,” Castera said.

Saudi Arabia General Sports Authority chairman Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki AlFaisal Al Saud said:

“We aim to produce an unbelievable and unforgettable experience for drivers as they discover the beauty of Saudi nature and a unique spectacle for motorsport fans not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the region and around the world.”