MOTORSPORT: Rallycross all over the place

Rallycross is booming again overseas and a revival is imminent in Australia, but the market here is becoming cluttered and confused before an event is even run.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) weighed in yesterday with a call for expressions of interest in running an Australian Rallycross Championship.

It has given interested parties a month – until August 14 – to lodge submissions.

Gold Coast-based marketing man David Ridden's proposed seven-round Extreme Rallycross Championship is already scheduled to begin on the first weekend of September at Brisbane's Lakeside Park.

Although that series only has one of the $250,000 Super Lite cars Ridden has planned as his top category, he claims there is still a strong likelihood of more joining during the season and that there is lots of interest in the two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive support categories.

Ridden says another category will also be announced soon and that a shakedown day is being organised for mid-August at Lakeside Park.

Queensland Raceways promoter John Tetley has developed a rallycross course at Lakeside in Brisbane's north with a view to staging a six-round Queensland series.

Australian rallying and rallycross legend Bob Watson had scheduled a Victorian revival of rallycross – a cross between rallying and supercross, with a series of short races in a condensed format – for this Sunday at the Broadford motorcycle complex.

However, that event – and another that was scheduled for later in the year – have been postponed after Motorcycling Victoria reneged on its agreement with Watson, fearing mud carried on to the tarmac by rallycross vehicles would disrupt motorcycle competition at Broadford.

Watson, who has been aiming to entice rally and autocross competitors with under-utilised machinery, deferred his plans – which include a multiple-round Victorian series – until next year while he searches for an alternative venue.

Ridden said he had not been notified of the CAMS announcement before it was made yesterday but took it as "an endorsement of how important rallycross is in the motorsport landscape".

He said he would review the announcement today and did not rule out lodging an expression of interest for his series in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to become the Australian championship CAMS envisages.

CAMS called for submissions "to identify a candidate interested in acting as the official and exclusive agent of CAMS for the organisation and promotion of the Australian Rallycross Championship, with a view to concluding a multi-year agreement on terms to be agreed".

"The selection process is open to all candidates capable of conducting such a role for CAMS and the promotion of this championship," it said.

Ridden said he had been working on his Extreme series for two years, had spoken to CAMS about it last year and provided it with extensive documentation.

However, several weeks ago he was quoted in Auto Action magazine saying CAMS had not been returning his phone calls.

Ridden said last night CAMS had told him in October or November last year that it would be calling for expressions of interest "within a couple of weeks" but that he heard no more about that until learning of yesterday's announcement.

He said that, despite hearing repeated warnings that dealing with CAMS would be "a hard grind", he retained an open mind about the organisation and that there was "only room for one national series".

Ridden said his worry was that potential rallycross competitors were becoming confused about what was happening.

He said he was happy with Tetley and Watson planning state series in Queensland and Victoria.

Of his Extreme series, he said the one Super Lite – a Ford Fiesta from Olsbergs MSE in Sweden to be driven by Alister McRae, brother of Scotland's late world rally champion Colin McRae – could run in the 4WD class until other entries materialised.

Ridden claimed another competitor with a profile was in talks with a manufacturer about entering another of the 2.4-litre, naturally-aspirated, 4WD Super Lites from Olsbergs and another manufacturer was eyeing the series too.

He admitted that having a full field of Super Lites at the start of the Extreme series had been only "a dream".

He claimed there was a prospect of "one or two" European entries and several from America during the Australian summer.

The World Rallycross Championship, now in its second year, contains stars including Norway's 2003 world rally champion Petter Solberg and versatile Swedish ace Mattias Ekstrom. French touring car ace Yvan Muller is to compete in the World RX soon.

Ken Block and Travis Pastrana are among the names to have competed in the predominantly American Global Rallycross Championship.

Rallycross enjoyed popularity and TV coverage in Australia in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, with Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and Watson among its stars.

Only one Australian championship was run – won by Larry Perkins at Tailem Bend in South Australia, which now is about to be redeveloped into a multi-purpose venue with a V8 Supercar Championship round already slotted for 2017.