News for Officials

MINI is making a comeback on the international rally circuit. From 2011, the brand will compete at selected rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and will go on to contest the entire season from 2012 onwards. This involvement is planned for several years.

The car charged with this task is the MINI Countryman WRC, which is being developed by Prodrive, in close cooperation with MINI, and is based on the production model. The powerful heart of the racing car is a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged engine from BMW Motorsport.

The car complies with the new Super2000 regulations put in place by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which stipulate the use of turbo engines with 1,600 cc displacement and four-wheel drive combined with an increased emphasis on road relevant technologies.

The result is a significant 25 per cent reduction in overall costs. The first test drive for the MINI Countryman WRC, which will also be available to customer teams, is planned for autumn 2010.

This decision sees MINI continue its success story in the world of rallying. In the 1960s, the MINI Cooper S caused a sensation with victories at the legendary Monte Carlo Rally.

The company also tasted success on many occasions in the European Rally Championship. Having already demonstrated the sporty character of its models in many countries in the MINI CHALLENGE, the brand is now taking its presence in motorsport to a new level with the commitment to the WRC.

Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Sales and Marketing, says: “I am delighted MINI will be represented on one of the most popular stages in international motorsport. The success enjoyed on the rally circuit has made a vital contribution to the image of the brand. MINI customers have always shown great interest in motorsport. I am convinced we will add a few more chapters to our success story in rallying. The MINI Countryman provides an excellent basis, from which to create a competitive racing car for the world championship. In Prodrive, we have a strong and experienced partner. We will work hard together over the coming months to ensure we get the project on track right from the word go.”

“This is a very exciting new motorsport programme,” said Prodrive Chairman, David Richards. “During the 1960s MINI captured the imagination of the world when the tiny car took on the might of V8 powered Fords and won what was then one of the toughest motorsport events, the 4000km Monte Carlo rally. I believe our new MINI will become a firm favourite of the latest generation of rally fans, just as it is adored by its millions of owners across the world. We already have a significant number of confirmed customer orders for the new MINI rally car with the first deliveries scheduled for the start of the 2011 season.”

Prodrive has been working on developing the MINI Countryman WRC since early 2009. The company was formed in 1984 by Richards, who won the World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen (FI) three years earlier. Based in Banbury (GB), Prodrive has developed into a leading independent company in the motorsport and automobile sector under Richards’ guidance, and today employs over 500 staff. Prodrive’s many successes currently include six overall victories in the World Rally Championship, five titles in the British Touring Car Championship and three class victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours (FR).

BMW was present when the World Rally Championship made its debut back in 1973. Achim Warmbold (DE) and Jean Todt (FR) tasted victory in their BMW 2002 at the Alpenfahrt Rally in Austria. However, MINI’s tradition in this discipline stretches back even further: Pat Moss (GB) clinched the first victory with the MINI 850 at the 1959 Mini Miglia National Rally. MINI ultimately enjoyed its finest hours at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967: the MINI Cooper S celebrated three overall victories at the most iconic rallying event in the world. Paddy Hopkirk (IR, 1964), Timo Mäkinen (FI, 1965) and Rauno Aaltonen (FI, 1967) joined the list of winners at this prestigious event.

In 1965, “Rally Professor” Aaltonen also won the European Rally Championship. Tony Ambrose (GB) and Mäkinen finished second and third to round off an excellent overall result for the MINI Cooper S. In addition, MINI drivers also enjoyed many individual wins at renowned rallies throughout Europe. The last BMW World Rally Championship victory was achieved in 1987 in Corsica by Bernard Béguin (FR) driving a BMW M3 which was built and run by Prodrive.

From 2011, over 40 years down the line, the MINI Countryman WRC will be charged with adding further chapters to this success story. It bridges the gap between the classic MINI concept and a contemporary Sports Activity Vehicle.

Following a fax vote by the members of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), the following calendar has been agreed for the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.

A 14th event could be added to the calendar. This would be approved by the WMSC on 23 June 2010 at the latest.

Rd 1. Sweden 13 February
Rd 2. Mexico 06 March
Rd 3. Portugal 27 March
Rd 4. Jordan 17 April
Rd 5. Italy 08 May
Rd 6. Argentina 29 May
Rd 7. Greece 19 June
Rd 8. Finland 31 July
Rd 9. Germany 21 August
Rd 10. Australia 11 September
Rd 11. France 02 October
Rd 12. Spain 23 October
Rd 13. Great Britain 13 November

Note: The dates given are the Sunday of rally weekend, but event formats are subject to final confirmation by organisers.

“I am delighted that Australia is once again confirmed for next years’ World Rally Championship and we are now well into our planning for the event. We look forward to working with the NSW Government, local councils and Events NSW to ensure the Rally is as good as last years,” said Rally Australia Chairman Alan Evans.

Mr Evans also confirmed that the Rally will take place in Northern NSW and plans will include expansion of some rally stages and include new areas.

The rumours are true and the organising committee of Speed on Tweed is now pleased to announce that the iconic Festival of Speed on Tweed will be returning to the streets of Murwillumbah in 2010.

Running from 10th-12th September this year, the non-profit community event will again be run by the Rotary Club of Murwillumbah in conjunction with Rally Australia who became shareholders of the renowned event after reviving the festival in 2009.

“We are thrilled that Speed on Tweed will be returning to the spotlight once more and are looking forward to turning on a festival similar to that which ran in 2008,” says event spokesperson Bill Larkin. “We have always had high numbers in attendance in the past and we are hoping that the many spectators that attended the event in previous years will return to see the spectacle that is Speed on Tweed. I’m sure nobody will leave dissatisfied after
seeing some of the most famous cars and drivers in Australia’s racing history in action and absorbing our unique festival atmosphere.”

The theme for this year’s event has been decided as ‘Australian Specials’ and it is hoped that this theme will assist in attracting a number of the country’s finest, classic all-Australian race cars to participate in the festival.

Although no schedule for the event has yet been released, plans are in full swing, the Friday and Saturday night events are back and competitors are already knocking on the doors of organisers as they wait with great anticipation for entries for the 2010 event to open.

For all enquiries please visit www.speedontweed.com.au or email the Speed on Tweed office at info@speedontweed.com.au

Independent television audience figures just released reveal that last September’s Rally Australia, held in the Northern Rivers of NSW attracted a total worldwide view audience of more than 53 million people. It was the second most popular round of the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship.

The rally was shown on 264 channels worldwide over 862 individual broadcasts. More than 53% of the broadcasts were of 30 minutes duration or more. Within Australia the event received five and a half hours of coverage on Network Ten, an additional five and a half hours of coverage on One HD, one hour on SBS and three 30 minute segments on Fox Sports.

Chairman of the Rally Australia Board, Mr Alan Evans, described the broadcast results as “very pleasing indeed”. Mr Evans stated “Considering this was our first event on the East Coast of Australia, and the first WRC round in Australia since 2006, to know that the rally and vision of the beautiful surroundings of Northern NSW were broadcast to more than 53 million people confirms our predictions that Repco Rally Australia is a great medium for promoting the region and NSW in general”.

“We are also delighted at the number of countries where the programmes were broadcast and especially the duration and the time slots achieved” he said. “The majority of programmes went to air in popular time slots and were of significant duration.

“Importantly” Mr Evans stated, “these figures do not include news programmes and sporting updates which are incorporated in normal network scheduling. No doubt there would be many more people who became aware of the event through these sources who were not viewers of the regular WRC programmes”.

Australia’s next round of the FIA World Rally Championship is scheduled to be conducted in Northern NSW in 2011.

To all of our wonderful officials, residents of the Tweed and Kyogle Shires, crews and supporters of Rally Australia we wish you and your families a safe and very happy holiday season.

With warm regards,
The Team at Rally Australia

By committing to reduce waste at Repco Rally Australia this month, the organisers helped to recover more than 15,000 litres or one tonne of recyclables in the Tweed
Shire.

The Rally organisers worked with the North East Waste Forums’ Waste Wise Events program to plan measures to avoid and reduce waste and implement recycling at the
first Northern Rivers round of the World Rally Championships, which took place from 3 to 6 September.

More than 250 bins were provided by Solo Resource Recovery to encourage the separation of waste from recycling at the Kingscliff Rally Service Park and the rally
spectator points in the Tweed Shire.

Karen Rudkin, Waste Wise Event Coordinator for the North East Waste Forum said “A waste audit revealed that the recyclables collected were predominately cardboard and paper, plastic drink bottles and aluminium drink cans and contamination levels were low enough to enable successful recovery and avoid disposal to landfill of these valuable resources”.

“Introducing waste reduction and recycling initiatives helped to lower the rally’s environmental impact and the information gathered can be used in future event planning
to assist in further reducing waste to landfill,” she said.

The NEWF is a group of five councils on the North Coast of New South Wales including Tweed Shire, working together towards cost-effective waste management and resource recovery solutions.

For more information on how to run a Waste Wise Event go to: http://www.northeastwasteforum.org.au

Kyogle Council’s Mayor, Ross Brown advises that early feedback in relation to economic benefits from the Repco Rally Australia event held during the last week indicate significant economic benefits to local community groups and businesses.

Figures received to date from several local volunteer organisations show that profits in excess of $30,000 have been raised by these community groups through their activities during the rally. It is expected that this figure will grow as more information becomes available.

The presentation of the Abu Dhabi “Spirit Of The Rally” award to Kyogle and Tweed Councils recognises “a display of extraordinary local generosity and determined organisation “. Full credit goes to the volunteers and community groups that embraced the event despite no prior association or familiarity with the motorsport and made it such a success.

“The Kyogle Chamber of Commerce have advised Council that whist they do not have any firm figures at this stage, that all businesses spoken to have expressed that they were very excited about the weekend takings,” said the Mayor.

Comments received from business owners included:

• “Business takings were 1000% up on a normal week-ends trade. The event was really fabulous and it was great to talk with the visitors who had wonderful things to say about our town and how friendly Kyogle people are. Spectators were well behaved and well mannered.”

• “A really good week-end. Business was up, the weather was superb, it brought the community together and there is still a real buzz around. Even if you weren’t a car buff you couldn’t help getting involved. It was great interacting with the visitors. We had people in here from Ireland, Western Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and 98% of them had never been to Kyogle before.

Kyogle visitor information centre statistics indicate visitors over the weekend were the equivalent of six months of the usual visitations.

The Mayor also advises that “in relation to the social impact of the rally, through the growing Kyogle committee, we have engaged a consultant to conduct and independent review for our local government area. As there has been some opposition to the rally, this independent research should go a long way to convincing the community that the review process is transparent and above reproach.”

The research will involve:

• Analysis of Kyogle visitor and expenditure data
• Analysis of results from a business survey
• Design and implementation of random resident phone surveys
• Attendance at a post event forum and documenting views and ideas (via digital recording & research notes)
• Production of a final report which pulls together the above research and provides one document on the social costs and benefits of the event to the Kyogle local government area community

Re-live all the excitement of last weekend’s Repco Rally Australia in a special one-hour program tomorrow. See Mikko Hirvonen, Sebastien Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala, Dani Sordo and the other stars of the WRC plus Australia’s best in action on the magnificent rally roads of the New South Wales Northern Rivers.

The details -
• SBS One
• Sunday 13 September
• 2pm-3pm (check local guides)

Organisers of Repco Rally Australia have set out the circumstances that led to the cancellation of Special Stage 6 on the first day of the FIA World Rally Championship event last Friday.

The CTEK East I stage at Byrill Creek was stopped urgently and subsequently cancelled after rally officials received reports that large rocks or boulders had been placed on the road about to be driven by competitors and that rocks had been thrown at rally cars.

Rally Australia organising committee chairman Garry Connelly said there had been much debate about the incidents and it was necessary to set out the sequence that led to the stage being stopped.

He said that although the perpetrators had not been found yet, Rally Australia had never claimed they were representatives of the official No Rally group.

The organisers described the events on Friday 4 September on SS6 as follows -

The Course Information car went through the stage commencing around 9.38 am, finishing around 9.55 am. The course was clear at the time.

The 000 Car commenced the stage around 9.53 am and after proceeding a short distance came across a number of rocks and boulders placed around a corner in the middle of the road. It was the assessment of the crew of 000 that it would have been physically impossible for these rocks and boulders to have accidentally rolled on to the road.

The crew of 000 removed these rocks and boulders, the larger of which required two people to carry from the road. It was the assessment of the experienced crew that had a rally car hit these obstacles serious damage would have been caused and it might well have involved an accident which could have caused injury to either the crew or persons nearby.

Car 000 then continued on through the stage and approximately 500 metres later came across another set of rocks and boulders, which they removed from the roadway.

Car 00 then followed and had to stop at around the same location, due to a person coming on to the roadway and blocking it. This person proceeded to read what was apparently a prepared anti-rally message to the crew, who ultimately were able to move on and finish the stage.

Car 0 then entered the stage and reported that it had hit at high speed some fencing which had been dragged across the roadway, in the same location as 000 had encountered the rocks. A number of koala signs also were found to be missing from this area of road.

Around this time, between Car 0 starting the stage and the first competing car starting at 10.37 am, a security marshal near the area where the rocks had been discovered by the 000 Car was told by people who said they were against the rally that they intended to throw rocks at the competing cars. The security marshal moved to a location to report this to Rally HQ. However, the first and second cars had already started the stage. At this time an onlooker who did not appear to be associated with the anti-rally group advised the security marshal that people had been throwing rocks at rally cars in this same area.

This information was immediately relayed to Rally HQ just as the third car was starting the stage

In view of the prior confirmed actions, namely the placing of rocks and boulders on the road, the human obstruction of Car 00 and the fencing across the road encountered by Car 0, plus the rock-throwing intention advised to the security marshal, when the Clerk of Course received the report that rocks were actually being thrown, an immediate and urgent decision was required. The Clerk of Course had no choice but to cancel the stage as she was not prepared to put any person at risk.

It should be noted that on day 3, rock-throwing did occur and a car was damaged as a result.

Additionally, there was another attempt to block a stage during the rally which was foiled by the rapid action of one of the 0 Car crews. This attempt could also have resulted in serious injuries to crew members. Details of this attempt were provided to the police at the time. However, the organisers do not intend to make public the attempted method employed.

The organisers stress that they have no reason to believe that any of the above activities, some of which were dangerous and risked damage and injury, were carried out by the No Rally group and have never accused the No Rally group of involvement.

In all cases the police acted immediately in assisting the organisers.

The organisers of Repco Rally Australia have released preliminary information collected by an independent team of environmental scientists from Biolink Pty Ltd, led by respected scientist Dr Stephen Phillips, following the conclusion of the event last Sunday.

Dr Phillips explained the process put in place for the rally -

”Firstly, in the months prior to the rally we thoroughly inspected the entire competition route and noted all potential habitats for koalas, lyrebirds and any other threatened species. With the organisers we assembled a team of people and a plan to install various measures as outlined in our final reports of July 2009.

“On the morning of each day of the rally two teams each comprising three ecologists surveyed the entire competition course prior to the running of the first car.

“Accompanied by a team of hard-working volunteer officials we installed a total of more than seven kilometres of temporary animal fencing and placed almost 40 monitors in strategic locations along each stage, while pollution booms and sediment traps were also installed at all key water crossings and streams. Special guardians were also placed where koalas were located in trees alongside the road during our pre-rally survey.

“Following the passage of the last car in the rally, the environmental teams again inspected the stage and recorded any injured or killed animals that had not been present in the pre-event inspection.

“This was one of the most thorough operations that has been undertaken anywhere in the world.

“The most pleasing aspect was the results were far better than anyone would have expected. We only found a small number of killed animals which, quite frankly, is arguably less than you would normally expect to find on these roads. We put this down to the gradual build-up of rally activity over the morning of each day of the event.

“Importantly, there was no evidence of any animal having been killed in the small areas of National Park traversed by the rally.

“All-up for the 344 kms of rally activity we recorded a total of two lizards, four snakes, nine birds and a single mammal, which was much less than expected for this number of competing vehicles.

“Most importantly, no threatened fauna, including koalas, were killed or injured.

“Despite claims made to the contrary in the weeks leading up to the rally, the results validate the conclusions reached in our July reports that the rally would have no significant impact on threatened species.”

However, Dr Phillips said it was important to also look at the bigger picture.

“Increased levels of road kill will invariably be associated with any large spectator event where people are travelling to and from particular areas,” he said.

“That means there must also be a broader area of engagement by Local and State Government levels with this issue than that which might otherwise be singularly associated with a rally event.”

Dr Phillips has started to actively solicit information from interested community groups and individuals with a view to getting further information on road kill over the rally period.

“It will always be difficult to partition such data in terms of what may be directly attributable to increased vehicle movements and what might otherwise have occurred in due course, but we will be working towards a suite of recommendations that will have application to other similar spectator events throughout the region,” Dr Phillips said.

Reports on the road kill issue and the efficacy of ameliorative measures that were utilised for the rally will be forwarded to Federal and State Government conservation agencies and the Kyogle and Tweed Shire Councils over the next few weeks.