MOTORSPORT: Rally Oz not going back west

A campaign to revive an Australian round of the World Rally Championship in Western Australia has quickly found itself down a dead-end road.

The state's Liberal opposition leader Liza Harvey started an online petition for Rally Australia to return to its 'birthplace' - it was held in WA for almost 20 years - and, urging all West Australians to "join the fight", quickly gained a couple of thousand signatures.

Harvey was trying to impress on the WA Labor government that bringing the rally back to the state would fill a major event and tourism void.

Organised by Garry Connelly, now Australia's man on the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world governing body of motorsport, Rally Oz pioneered umbrella-style rallying, going out into various areas outside Perth each day but with a super special stage and the main service park at Langley Park beside the Swan River each night.

Three times Rally Oz in WA was voted the world's best rally.

The 'roadblock' Harvey has encountered is that the man who imposed the 'death sentence' on the rally in the state 15 years ago as the tourism minister, Mark McGowan, is now the premier.

And the next WA election is more than 13 months away -- well after the 2021 WRC calendar will be finalised. Indeed, the season will be well underway by the date the election is due on March 13, 2021.

McGowan decided in 2005 to stop funding Rally Oz and it was last held in the west in 2006.

It moved east, initially to northern NSW and then - after environmental protests there - to Coffs Harbour, midway between Sydney and Brisbane, which was a headache for WRC organisers and many in the international teams because it was too remote to draw big crowds.

The last Rally Oz scheduled at Coffs, last November, was cancelled because of bushfires nearby, but Australia's round of the WRC had already been lost for this year to New Zealand, where it will be held on September 3-6.

Motorsport Australia -- the renamed CAMS -- is hopeful of regaining the event in future, although there are indications it may only be on a biennial rotation with NZ.

NSW's tourism body, Destination NSW, had been providing most of the annual $7 million funding for the event in recent years and remains interested in it.

There has been talk of taking it to Bathurst, a spiritual centre of motorsport in Australia (with the 12-hour GT race on there this weekend), perhaps with a couple of stages in or near Sydney.

Canberra, a rallying hub and often a host of Asia-Pacific as well as national rallies, is another prospect as a future home for a WRC round.

While Rally Oz was much loved in WA, a state government spokesman said this week that the tourism benefits from the event did not justify the financial investment required.

McGowan said in 2005, when withdrawing funding for it, that "last year's event cost taxpayers $5.9 million to stage but generated only $9.3 million, representing $1.60 for every $1 spent".

However, Harvey claimed this month it was time for WA to revive Australia's WRC round because the state needed more than AFL and cricket at Perth Stadium as it lacked major events after a surfeit last year, including a visit by Manchester United soccer club and major rugby league and union games. The Hopman Cup tennis and a once-major golf tournament in Perth have folded.

Harvey's petition said there had been "a major public backlash" when the rally went from WA, "exacerbated by the fact Rally Australia was a profit-making, job-creating event that won global recognition as rally of the year three times".

"Now is the opportunity to right that terrible decision and secure this event while it is up for grabs.

"Returning this world-class event to WA would again create jobs in local businesses and attract tourists from countries that love the sport, such as the booming economies of China and Japan."

Harvey's opposition colleague and tourism spokeswoman Alyssa Hayden said McGowan's Labor Party could "no longer rely on events it inherited from the previous Liberal government - it has to secure new events".

"Rally Australia is an exciting new opportunity and a cherished old favourite. It works and it hits key tourism markets to our north."

Clint Thomas, an ABC sports presenter in Perth, came in strongly behind the Liberal campaign, making amazingly strident comments for an employee of the national broadcaster.

"Rally Australia was loved by West Australians, made money for the state, drew global attention to Perth and attracted tourists - the kind of perks you would think would be music to the WA government's ears," Thomas said.

"But while there is an opportunity for the motorsport event to return to WA, it has been met with a flat no from the state government, and it is difficult to work out why."

Thomas claimed Rally Oz had a global audience of 88.5 million when in WA and an economic benefit of more than $20 million a year at its peak.

"You just need to take a walk down one of Perth's inner-city high streets [now] to see that businesses are struggling, and that type of influx of visitors [that Rally Oz would bring] for a consistent period each year would be of significant help to local hospitality venues," Thomas said.

"It would make sense to invest in events that make money for the state - ones like Rally Australia.

"Mr McGowan has had a hand in the loss of two of WA's most beloved sporting events in Rally Australia and the Hopman Cup, first as tourism minister and now as premier, and there have not yet been adequate replacements.

"It would be wise to have annual, unique drawcards like a Rally Australia to help underpin sport and tourism in WA."

However, the WA government spokesman said Tourism Research Australia's latest statistics showed WA was "leading the nation in tourism growth, recording the state's highest visitor numbers and tourism spend".

"Rally Australia was assessed by Tourism WA the last time it was held in WA as not providing a good return on investment for the taxpayer or the state's tourism industry," the spokesman said.

Colon cancer claims first Gold Coast Indy winner

He was largely the forgotten driver in arguably America's most famous racing family, but John Andretti -- who has died at age 56 after a long battle with colon cancer -- will forever be distinguished as the first winner of the Gold Coast Indy.

Nephew of Formula 1 world champion and IndyCar legend Mario and cousin of successful racer turned team owner Michael, John Andretti was a surprise victor when the American open-wheeler show first came to Surfers Paradise in 1991.

It was to be a career highlight for the son of Mario's brother Aldo, although he also achieved two Cup series wins during 17 years in NASCAR as well as four in International Motor Sports Association GTP racing, including the 1989 24 Hours of Daytona.

He also finished fifth in the 1991 Indianapolis 500 and even tried drag racing. Andretti will be remembered as much for his versatility and his charity work as his successes. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2017.

The American open-wheelers in which John Andretti is most remembered in Australia last visited the Gold Coast in 2008, when the race was won by Aussie Ryan Briscoe, and the event subsequently -- after the A1 GP 'circus' ignominiously collapsed -- became a V8 Supercars event.