Australia to feature extra divisions

The organisers of this week’s Rally Australia have been forced to run four individual events in an effort to bring more cars to Coffs Harbour.

The final round of this year’s World Rally Championship is expected to start with 26 cars, two down on last season. In addition to the WRC counter, Australia clerk of the course Wayne Kenny will run three different national-level events off the back of the main rally.

“It’s the only way we can make this event work,” he said. “We’ve got the Australian Rally Championship round, then we’ve got a couple of other [events] for what we’ve called the R6 cars and the Classics.

“We had interest from people running what are known as AP4+ cars, similar to the modified car Hayden Paddon is running in the New Zealand Championship, so we made a place for them in R6. And then CAMS [Australia’s governing body of motorsport] said the classic cars couldn’t run, so I made a deal with the guys who have these cars and they’re coming to do everything except the superspecials on Friday and Saturday.”

The ARC and R6 crews will run all 24 stages – with some of the regulars, including Eli Evans (Skoda Fabia R5) and Harry Bates (Toyota Yaris AP4), in the WRC class. Coffs Harbour local hero Nathan Quinn who clinched last year’s ARC title is missing from the entry list having spent this season competing in the NZ series.