Letters: Readers have their say on the ARC

I have been following rallying in this country for about 10 years. I have an opinion on  the ARC and  the sport in general.

I have seen a slow decline in this sport and am very saddened to say that the current media provided by the respected television station is terrible. I have been to my share of ARC events and I enjoy the 4WD's banging through the forests,

But the moment a Datsun or a Holden come into ear shot, the spectators cheer like 10 year old kids in a lolly shop. I think we are getting away from our roots of the sport and need to have a change, but what?

I don't  know where we are to go with it. Maybe we should have a look our state level rallying  and club events to see what we can change and really see what rallying is on a serious budget. Many of these competitors would enjoy the chance to do an ARC event, but don’t have a  budget to do it.

I also believe that classic rally events are the best thing that could have happened to this country and  we all should support these kind of  events, whereever they are.

I hope we all have a safe year in the forests.

Scott,
Coffs Harbour
via email

Halleluiah - somebody with some common sense at last.

What the new proposals for the ARC are doing is renewing interest in compteting in the ARC.

I have some questions of certain points;

12 tyres in a two day event - this gives you 6 per day and 4 on the car at any one time. What happens if you get punctures? The limit allows for only one change. Is there a man with a tyre machine there to repair these? Can you use any left over tyres from a previous event?

Now I’m not saying we need more - I think 12 is sufficient. I just want clarification.

Pace notes; are these computer generated like in NZ, or does someone write them? But no recce is right on the money!

Best four rounds; yes this is great, it takes away the cost of turning up at every round without having to nominate. So one DNF and you haven’t lost the championship!

This is going a long way to getting things on the right track.

How about registration costs? Do the elite guys pay more? I think they should as they get the majority of the TV coverage, but some should go to the rest,  2WD included!

And enforce this, don’t leave it up to the TV people, tell them what is expected. Joe Public needs to see his car competing.

Does Group N (P) stiil exist? I hope that because TRD aren’t running these that this class disappears. It already looked like it was created for Neal Bates to compete at the top level when he didn’t have a car that fitted.

Now I’m not jumping on Neal, he did what was legal, so good on him. Just be careful CAMS, competitors don’t need any more reasons to chase other championships.

For my two cents, I think that it’s heading in the right direction.

Brett Maddren,
Via email

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