Shitbox Rally rises up

Australian roads may be full of them and they may be despised by practically every other road user, but shitboxes have come, in recent years, to mean something other than polluted air and traffic obstructions.

The annual Shitbox Rally (the organisers stress it’s not a race) doesn’t celebrate the older, worn-out car so much as capitalise on its ability to win the grudging respect for the underdog that lies deep within most of us.

Using as a central tenet the belief that the seemingly impossible isn’t always, the Shitbox Rally involves a number of teams driving supposedly worn-out cars over a ridiculously long trek through some of the Australian outback’s most challenging roads to raise money for the Cancer Council.

It could hardly be argued that the idea, which was pioneered by businessman James Freeman when he decided in 2010 that he wanted to drive around Australia and thought it would be a good idea to raise funds for the Cancer Council along the way, hasn’t found traction.

The first event in 2010 attracted 17 teams and raised $104,000 for the Cancer Council. By the time of the second running in 2011, the number of teams had increased to 109 and the money raised to $690,000.

It’s not looked back since. Last year, 200 teams raised, for the first time, more than $1 million with a total of $1.25 million.

Today the event rates as the Cancer Council’s biggest fundraiser, with more than $2.5 million raised since the inaugural event. The target for this year set at no less than $1.4 million.

The basic rule for entrants is that the car is worth $1000 or less. After the event, the cars will be auctioned off by event partner Mannheim at the Shitbox Auction on Saturday June 17.

The 2014 event aims to attract more than 200 teams and will start on Saturday May 31 from Perth, travelling over more than 3700km to the finish in Darwin a week later, on Friday June 16, after travelling through the Pilbara along the famous former cattle route, the Gibb River Road, and the Kimberley on the way.

The entry list includes everything from old Falcons and Commodores to a 1994 Holden Statesman claimed to have been owned by former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Watch this space for live reports to be filed by participating teams in the 2014 event.

For more information, go to http://www.shitboxrally.com.au/