MOTORSPORT: Rally Australia slipping away?

The organisers of the World Rally Championship and the organiser and major backer of Rally Australia are on different pages – and perhaps never the twain shall meet.

Reports persist that this year’s Rally Oz at Coffs Harbour on November 14-17 will be the last in that area, with New Zealand trying to grab Australia’s spot on the 2020 calendar.

The Red Bull-controlled company WRC Promoter has been unhappy about the crowd numbers at Coffs and concerned that there is not a large enough population in that area for it to improve.

The 2020 WRC calendar is expected to be announced in the next couple of months.

NZ was an integral part of the WRC for a long time but has not hosted a round since 2012.

The suggestion in recent months has been, particularly in NZ media reports, that what is now the sole Antipodean round go across the Tasman for a year, at least, until an Australian location for the event that would draw better crowds can be found.

It has seemed that WRC Promoter would settle for a start or finish stage in or near Sydney, but without a suitable solution being found over the past couple of years the talk has mounted of the event at Coffs being on borrowed time.

Now Peter Whitten, who for 20 years has been the editor of Australia’s Rally Sport Magazine, these days at rallysportmag.com, has reported that the NSW government, which backs Rally Oz through its Destinations NSW tourism and major events agency, wants it kept at Coffs.

“The government is only interested in putting money into the event if it is centred around Coffs Harbour, as other major [NSW] centres already have high-profile motorsport events,” Whitten has written.

“Newcastle, south of Coffs, holds the annual Supercars finale, while Bathurst hosts a number of major motorsport events throughout the year.”

Whitten said that, while those close to Rally Oz “aren’t 100 per cent certain everything will be the same in 2020”, they also were “not sure NZ has everything in place – most importantly the funding – to take the event for a single year”.

“Would a [NZ] government want to put millions of dollars into a one-off event if there was no chance of it coming back again? Maybe. Probably not.

“Which, of course, opens another can of worms. Is a one-year deal all that’s on offer to NZ, or could there be more to the story than even the rumours are suggesting?”

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, will compete at Victoria’s Eureka Rush Rally in August.

Rally Tasmania around Launceston on June 21-23 and the Eureka Rush at Ballarat on August 25 are part of this year’s revamped Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, as well as being part of the Australian Rally Championship.

Paddon leads the APRC after dominant wins in NZ’s Otago and Whangerei rallies.

He has driven his own AP4 Hyundai i20 in NZ but on this side of the Tasman will drive the R5 i20 recently bought by Tasmania’s Walkem Motorsport for brothers Marcus and Scott Walkem. (An R5 car is a second-tier world rally car without all the hi-tech, while an AP4 is basically an R5 without Federation Internationale de l’Automobile homologation.)

Although there has been no news of Paddon competing in Tasmania, he tested the Walkem R5 there yesterday and said it was “an easy and balanced car to drive”.

The WRC reaches its halfway mark this weekend, with Sebastien Loeb – driving an extra event for Hyundai after out-of-form Norwegian Andres Mikkelsen was ‘benched’ – and his successor as the sport’s top dog, fellow Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, clashing on gravel in Portugal.

Long-time Citroen superstar Loeb, now 45, was a stunning third in his first start on gravel with Hyundai at the previous round, the new rally in Chile, and has vowed to fight for what would be an 80th WRC event victory in Portugal.

However, he may need to support the Korean manufacturer’s lead driver, Belgian Thierry Neuville, who has recovered from his massive crash in Chile.

Ogier, back with Citroen this season after six world titles with Volkswagen and M-Sport Ford, is 10 points clear of Toyota’s Estonian Ott Tanak in the drivers’ championship and 12 ahead of Neuville (122-112-110).

Oigier is going for what would be a record-equalling sixth win in Portugal.

Loeb and Ogier have won the past 15 world titles.
A highlight of the seventh round of this year’s championship will be the WRC debut of Skoda Fabia R5 Evos for Czech Jan Kopecky and young Finnish teenager Kalle Rovanpera.

Although he’s a global ambassador for the Finke Desert Race, Toby Price missed the deadline for entering the gruelling Queen’s Birthday weekend event in central Australia – but he’s now made it via the wait list.

A two-time motorcycle winner of the Dakar Rally and six-time two-wheel victor at Finke, Price is aiming for his first win on four wheels at Australia’s major off-road event – a multi-terrain two-day trek from Alice Springs to Finke and back, covering 480km.

He’s driving a trophy truck, while his main rivals are in buggies – including 2018 winner Shannon Rentsch, who has said the Finke “is what every event around the country would strive to be”.

There are 165 cars entries, with the field increased from 150 this year, and they include all eight winners of the past 20 years. The bike section will have 650 starters, with 83 still on the wait list.

Price was second among the four-wheel competitors in 2016 but hasn’t finished the past two years.

“Racing only the truck [and not a bike] is the safer option to know that I’ll be ready for Dakar 2020 (in Saudi Arabia after a move from South America),” Price said.

“After the [wrist] injury (carried through this year’s Dakar), I’d like to focus on one category – and the one I haven’t won yet.

“I’ve got to look to the future and be smart about my injury.

“Maybe in 2020 we will do the bike again and see if I can get the seven [wins on two-wheels].

“And the double (winning on both two and four wheels in the same year) is not out of sight – it’s something I want to achieve.”