Rally Australia returns again to the world rally championship, running for the third time in the last seven years, and based for the second time as in 2011 at Coffs Harbour. This is a coastal town in New South Wales 540km north of Sydney, and 390km south of Brisbane, a fast growing city with a university campus, claimed to have the “most liveable climate in Australia” and whose economy is based mainly on the farming of bananas and blueberries, tourism, fishing and manufacturing. Since the WRC event went there two years ago, there have been three major changes. Firstly there is a new Clerk of the Course for the rally. This is Adrian Stafford, who brings with him the practical experience of holding the same position for four years with Rally Australia in the old days in Perth. Then there is a new combined service park located within Coffs Harbour itself rather than out at the airfield. And a new superspecial stage located within the service park area, this time far away from Muttingbird Island, the area inhabited by the protected wedge-tailed shear waterbird species whose nocturnal breeding requirements disrupted the rally last time.
International interest centres on the chances of Sebastien Ogier to clinch the FIA World Drivers’ title in Australia, a brief explanation follows, and on Citroen’s driver strategy in dropping their regular driver and winner of the last round in Germany, Dani Sordo for this event. Fan interest at the event is enhanced by the amalgamation of various support events into the WRC event, notably by being a round of the Australia Rally Championship, which brings with it the chance to see a lot of types of car not normally present at WRC events – or even anywhere! There are 29 entries for the WRC event plus another 71 entries for the various support rally events. Sadly the top Australian drivers are missing from the WRC event, which means Chris Atkinson and Molly Taylor will not be present. Taylor was entered but the chance to consolidate her position in the ERC Ladies championship was more attractive to her European-based sponsors so she will be in Poland with a Citroen DS3 R3T instead of a Fiesta R2 at her home event. Another late entry change was made in the Motorsport Italia team, when Venezuelan drivers Jose Gelvez and Carlos Fessman agreed between themselves to swap cars. Gelvez now drives the second Mini and Fessman stays with an Evo X.
All the top competitors in the ARC national championship will be there, but competing in a support event. They will contest the whole route, while entries in the other support series like the Classic category will contest only certain stages. The ARC competitors all drive two-wheel-drive cars, and leaders in the series are the specially-built built Honda Jazz cars of championship leader Eli Evans and Mark Pedder, and the Mazda 2 of Brendan Reeves. This will be the penultimate appearance of the Hondas before they retire from ARC competition at the end of the year. Their main rival is Scott Pedder in a Renault Clio R3. Of maximum curiosity value for visitors will be the vehicles (won’t call them cars) in the SxS Rally Challenge class. The two different types of vehicle are the Polaris RZR XP200 and the Can Am Maverick 1000 RS, which are in effect small engined two-seater buggies. Don’t take these machines lightly. Four-times Asia-Pacific rally champion Cody Crocker and former WRC Hyundai team driver Michael Guest are among the list of their brave pilots. Neal Bates (four times national Australian rally driver champion over a fifteen year period) will be at the event at the wheel of a Toyota Celica RA40 in the Classic Rally Challenge category.
Detailed changes this year include Saturday’s Nambucca stage which is now 50km long and used twice that day. The whole competitive route is located within a 55km radius of Coffs Harbour, enabling a compact event in which the total distance is only 953km. The new superspecial is run using the slightly banked Velodrome course in Coffs Harbour. The rally’s headquarters is some 8km north of town and the epic centre is in Brelsford Park with the service park wrapped round the sides of the superspecial course. The stage sees cars run two at a time, starting from opposite sides of the track, on three different evenings, each time run twice for every car. The surface is broken tarmac, in an otherwise all gravel stage event. Spectators in the service park will be able to enjoy watching big screen live action streaming from the special stages as well as a wide variety of entertainment.
Hard compound tyres are de rigeur for the conditions, if as expected, it will be dry, although Michelin have changed their soft compound option tyres to try out the super-soft compound tyres which they plan to use at Rally GB. Four crews (Quinn’s and Gelvez’s Minis, and Fessman’s and Lombardo’s Mitsubishis - all Motorsport Italia cars) will run DMack. It was two years ago (in the final season of the single tyre contract with Pirelli in the WRC) that Sebastien Loeb crashed in Australia, blaming having to use hard compound tyres in unexpectedly wet conditions, which led ultimately to Michelin’s insistence that WRC rallying should offer prime and option compounds on every event.
Rally Australia returns again to the world rally championship, running for the third time in the last seven years, and based for the second time as in 2011 at Coffs Harbour. This is a coastal town in New South Wales 540km north of Sydney, and 390km south of Brisbane, a fast growing city with a university campus, claimed to have the “most liveable climate in Australia” and whose economy is based mainly on the farming of bananas and blueberries, tourism, fishing and manufacturing. Since the WRC event went there two years ago, there have been three major changes. Firstly there is a new Clerk of the Course for the rally. This is Adrian Stafford, who brings with him the practical experience of holding the same position for four years with Rally Australia in the old days in Perth. Then there is a new combined service park located within Coffs Harbour itself rather than out at the airfield. And a new superspecial stage located within the service park area, this time far away from Muttingbird Island, the area inhabited by the protected wedge-tailed shear waterbird species whose nocturnal breeding requirements disrupted the rally last time.
International interest centres on the chances of Sebastien Ogier to clinch the FIA World Drivers’ title in Australia, a brief explanation follows, and on Citroen’s driver strategy in dropping their regular driver and winner of the last round in Germany, Dani Sordo for this event. Fan interest at the event is enhanced by the amalgamation of various support events into the WRC event, notably by being a round of the Australia Rally Championship, which brings with it the chance to see a lot of types of car not normally present at WRC events – or even anywhere! There are 29 entries for the WRC event plus another 71 entries for the various support rally events. Sadly the top Australian drivers are missing from the WRC event, which means Chris Atkinson and Molly Taylor will not be present. Taylor was entered but the chance to consolidate her position in the ERC Ladies championship was more attractive to her European-based sponsors so she will be in Poland with a Citroen DS3 R3T instead of a Fiesta R2 at her home event. Another late entry change was made in the Motorsport Italia team, when Venezuelan drivers Jose Gelvez and Carlos Fessman agreed between themselves to swap cars. Gelvez now drives the second Mini and Fessman stays with an Evo X.
All the top competitors in the ARC national championship will be there, but competing in a support event. They will contest the whole route, while entries in the other support series like the Classic category will contest only certain stages. The ARC competitors all drive two-wheel-drive cars, and leaders in the series are the specially-built built Honda Jazz cars of championship leader Eli Evans and Mark Pedder, and the Mazda 2 of Brendan Reeves. This will be the penultimate appearance of the Hondas before they retire from ARC competition at the end of the year. Their main rival is Scott Pedder in a Renault Clio R3. Of maximum curiosity value for visitors will be the vehicles (won’t call them cars) in the SxS Rally Challenge class. The two different types of vehicle are the Polaris RZR XP200 and the Can Am Maverick 1000 RS, which are in effect small engined two-seater buggies. Don’t take these machines lightly. Four-times Asia-Pacific rally champion Cody Crocker and former WRC Hyundai team driver Michael Guest are among the list of their brave pilots. Neal Bates (four times national Australian rally driver champion over a fifteen year period) will be at the event at the wheel of a Toyota Celica RA40 in the Classic Rally Challenge category.
Detailed changes this year include Saturday’s Nambucca stage which is now 50km long and used twice that day. The whole competitive route is located within a 55km radius of Coffs Harbour, enabling a compact event in which the total distance is only 953km. The new superspecial is run using the slightly banked Velodrome course in Coffs Harbour. The rally’s headquarters is some 8km north of town and the epic centre is in Brelsford Park with the service park wrapped round the sides of the superspecial course. The stage sees cars run two at a time, starting from opposite sides of the track, on three different evenings, each time run twice for every car. The surface is broken tarmac, in an otherwise all gravel stage event. Spectators in the service park will be able to enjoy watching big screen live action streaming from the special stages as well as a wide variety of entertainment.
Hard compound tyres are de rigeur for the conditions, if as expected, it will be dry, although Michelin have changed their soft compound option tyres to try out the super-soft compound tyres which they plan to use at Rally GB. Four crews (Quinn’s and Gelvez’s Minis, and Fessman’s and Lombardo’s Mitsubishis - all Motorsport Italia cars) will run DMack. It was two years ago (in the final season of the single tyre contract with Pirelli in the WRC) that Sebastien Loeb crashed in Australia, blaming having to use hard compound tyres in unexpectedly wet conditions, which led ultimately to Michelin’s insistence that WRC rallying should offer prime and option compounds on every event.