Subaru announces shock rally withdrawal

The Australian rallying world is in a state of shock following today's announcement that Subaru will exit the local scene. In a statement issued today, Subaru announced it will withdrawal from the sport at the end of this year.

According to the statement, Subaru Australia will officially withdraw from the Australian Rally Championship from December 31, 2005. In addition, its sponsorships of the Rally of Canberra and the Subaru Safari Tasmania will cease at the end of their existing contracts. Vehicle supplier arrangements with Rally Australia and other ARC events will cease at the end of existing agreements and the Subaru Rally Challenge support class series will not continue.

"A decision of this magnitude is not taken lightly but earlier this year we conducted a wide-ranging review of our strategic direction and that included our commitment to rallying," said Subaru Managing Director, Nick Senior.

"In 1996 we entered the sport, knowing that the next decade would see an increasing number of Subaru performance vehicles introduced into this market. To establish our credentials as a performance brand and cement the link between the Subaru Impreza WRX and Subaru's world rally program, rallying was the chosen motor sport.

"For ten successive years Subaru, Possum Bourne, Cody Crocker, Pirelli tyres and Possum Bourne Motor Sport have been the best combination. In that sense we have achieved everything that we set out to," Senior said.

According to Senior today's withdrawal reflects the changing focus of Subaru's products.

"There is an increasing focus by our customers on the utilization of their Impreza WRXs, Impreza WRX STIs, Liberty GTs and Liberty 3.0R Spec-B models for tarmac events. And, as our volume continues to grow we have an increasing number of customers with interests outside rallying," he said

Thus the company which built its reputation on gravel will look to tarmac next year.

Senior: "We will explore some of the tarmac opportunities for Subaru, and Dean Herridge will be offered a contract to undertake this exploration.

"We feel that there is considerable opportunity for STI Australia to substantially grow their [sic] business by understanding and then responding to the growing interest in club and state racing, targa events and the like."

The final event for Subaru Rally Team Australia will be Telstra Rally Australia in Perth from 10-13 November.