Rally Australia future boosted by extra government funding
Australia’s bid to remain in the World Rally Championship has been boosted by the confirmation of government funding for three more years.
Last month’s meeting of the WRC Commission proposed a 2018 schedule of events which included Australia as the final round – but clerk of the course for the Coffs Harbour-based event, Wayne Kenny, admitted he doesn’t expect a repeat of the current three-year agreement (which concludes in November) the event enjoys with WRC Promoter.
“We’re on the calendar for 2018, and we expect that we’ll remain there,” said Kenny. “The 2018 event will be the only contract that we’ll get [this year]. We won’t get ’19 and ’20 straight up, because there are no three-year contracts going at the moment. There are numerous countries trying to come into the championship, but we’re in a solid position. We’re reasonably confident we won’t have a problem.”
Australia’s position was strengthened recently when New Zealand as good as ruled itself out of the race, with Rally NZ spokesman Peter Johnston saying: “There is still a small chance that we could be included on the 2018 calendar, but at this stage WRC Promoter has said the costs to venture to New Zealand are a major hurdle.”
While there’s talk of a return to Japan, there are no rallies realistically ready in the Asia-pacific region for a quick entry into the WRC.